Yesterday Sir Edward Grigg

Edward Grigg (1st Baron Altrincham), director of Reuters, 1923–25; Conservative MP, 1933–45; parliamentary secretary to the minister of information, 1939–40; joint parliamentary undersecretary of state for war, 1940–42.

and General Spears

Sir Edward Louis Spears (1st Baronet Spears), Conservative MP, 1922–24 and 1931–45; Churchill’s personal representative to French prime minister, May–June 1940, and to General de Gaulle, June 1940; British minister to Syria and Lebanon, 1942–44.

came to lunch, where they cursed and swore (insofar as this is possible in English and at the table of the ambassador of a great power) in the direction of Baldwin and the government. The Cabinet lacks spine, is unable to take decisions on serious matters, and has no policies, especially foreign policies. It has lost its way in broad daylight and is rapidly driving the country to disaster and Europe to war. But when I tried to discover my guests’ political line, embarrassment followed: they, too, were confused and unable to make any definite statements. In Grigg’s words, the masses at large are all right: they sense the growing danger from Germany and are ready to act, but they need the government’s guidance. There is none. For this reason, if Hitler attacks Czechoslovakia, ‘England will be unable to do anything – unless perhaps the USSR will help her?’ (Grigg). Grigg would not mind Germany swallowing Czechoslovakia – he reckons that it would set off a salutary reaction in Great Britain which would seriously mobilize British public opinion against the threat from Berlin. Spears, who is the London director of the well-known Czechoslovak shoemaking company Bat’a, was not so casually inclined to sacrifice Czechoslovakia. Both guests asked me to arrange a showing of the film, The Struggle for Kiev, in the parliament building. Spears also wanted me to deliver a report on foreign policy (as I did last year) for his group of MPs…