I was unable to meet Eden, who flew to France at four o’clock, so I spoke with his deputy Cranborne.

Robert Arthur Gascoyne-Cecil (Viscount Cranborne, later 5th marquess of Salisbury), parliamentary undersecretary of state for foreign affairs, 1935–38; secretary of state for dominion affairs, 1940–42 and 1943–45; secretary of state for the colonies, 1942; lord privy seal, 1942–43 and 1951–52.

The mood of the English? They are in the mood to negotiate, of course. It is clearly a national English disease: negotiations, negotiations, negotiations… Therefore, the British government is prepared to begin exploration (what a lovely word!) on the topic of whether Hitler’s ‘7 Points’ provide a suitable basis for negotiations. Cranborne’s words indicate that the British government hopes to restore Locarno minus the Rhine zone. Everything else is of far less interest to them.