On 4 March, all heads of diplomatic missions submitted their credentials to the new king, George VI.

King George VI, 1936–52. Strangely, Maisky does not relate much about the abdication crisis.

The procedure was simplified and carried out en masse. All the ambassadors and envoys were lined up in order of seniority in the Bow Room of Buckingham Palace. They were admitted one by one to the neighbouring room, where the king was expecting them, submitted their credentials to him, exchanged a few remarks as demanded by protocol, and left, giving way to those still waiting. The king devoted two or three minutes to each diplomat. Eden was present at the ceremony and gave some assistance, as the king is taciturn and easily embarrassed. He also stammers. The entire ceremony went smoothly. The only shock, which caused quite a stir in the press and in society, was Ribbentrop’s ‘Nazi salute’. When the German ambassador entered the room to meet the king, he raised his right hand in greeting, rather than making the usual bow. This ‘novelty’ offended the English deeply and triggered an adverse reaction in conservative circles. Ribbentrop was accused of tactlessness and was compared with me – a ‘good boy’ who greets the king properly, without raising a clenched fist above his head.

In Spanish Notebooks, p. 86, Maisky summed up his impression of Ribbentrop: ‘Since I sat for a whole year diagonally opposite the German Ambassador at the table of the Committee for “Non-intervention”, I had the opportunity of studying him at close quarters. And I must without mincing words say that this was a coarse, dull-witted maniac, with the outlook and manners of a Prussian NCO. It has always remained a mystery to me how Hitler could have made such a dolt his chief adviser on foreign affairs.’