‘Why indiscreet? I’m 55. And you?’

‘Oh, I’m significantly older than you… I’m 57.’

‘You surprise me! What does a two-year difference mean for men of our age?’

Horace Wilson (for it was he) shrugged his shoulders and said: ‘Perhaps you are right. But that’s not the point. The point is that you belong to the same generation as I and must remember the time when only one event happened at any given moment, not a hundred, when one could live, breathe, move without haste, make plans for the future and, most important, ponder. Are you familiar with this English word?’

‘Yes, I am.’

‘Well, I like to ponder on life, people and events. But now I have absolutely no opportunity do so. Events are unfolding at such a frenzied, unstoppable pace that one barely has time to breathe. So what chance does one have of controlling events? You can count yourself lucky just to flow with the current and avoid the most overpowering blows coming from right and left.’

I gazed at this unprepossessing, skinny man with his calm, somewhat feline movements, a face both intelligent and sly, the man into whose hands capricious fate had placed the future of the British Empire, and found myself wondering: ‘Is this true or not? Is he speaking sincerely or playing some premeditated role?’

We sat down to table and moved on to other topics. The war, of course, immediately became the focus of our attention. I asked Wilson what he thought about the prospects for peace. Once again Wilson shrugged his shoulders and began ‘thinking aloud’, as he likes to do. He reasoned in approximately the following way: ‘In theory, the question of peace can still be raised. For war has not yet begun in earnest. Bombs are not yet falling on London and Berlin. The warring passions of the masses are still dormant; they have not yet reached boiling point. The people are still able to think calmly and to reason. In six or twelve months’ time this is likely to be far more difficult. However, when you approach the problem of peace from a practical point of view, you immediately see that it is almost impossible to resolve.’

Wilson took a sip of soda water (he firmly declined the offer of wine) and continued: ‘Where can peace come from? There is no chance of us taking the first step, especially after Ribbentrop’s speech. That speech, among other things, suggests that Hitler also has no intention of offering the hand of peace. The neutrals are silent and evidently have no wish to interfere. So where can peace come from?’

‘But what if one of the neutrals did interfere? Roosevelt, say, or Mussolini? How would Britain respond?’

‘Roosevelt will not interfere,’ Wilson replied. ‘We know that for certain. As for Mussolini… We feel a certain amount of distrust towards Mussolini. Even if he invited us to Milan or Turin tomorrow to meet Hitler, we would of course decline the invitation. We would first need to know why we were being invited and on what basis. And we would need to know what the chances were of reaching an agreement. Otherwise, arranging conferences is senseless. A conference requires careful preparatory work, but there are no signs whatsoever of such work being done. Add to this the fact that we would have to talk with Hitler! We don’t believe a single word from this man’s mouth!’

‘Does it mean,’ I asked, ‘that the precondition for any talks about peace is the disappearance of Hitler? And even, perhaps, of all his closest associates?’

‘Yes, we would like to deal with a different government in Germany,’ Wilson answered. ‘The disappearance of Hitler alone would be sufficient. I have, as you know, had dealings with Hitler. I looked at him for hours, observed him, weighed him up, and this is my impression: Hitler stands so much taller than his associates and dominates them all to such an extent – just like a mountain over a valley – that if he were to go, the rest would cut each other’s throats (they are already at daggers drawn) and would stop disturbing the peace in Europe. Let the “National Socialist Party” remain, if the Germans so wish, so long as its current leadership disappears. We’ll manage to come to terms with everyone else.’

When Wilson spoke of Hitler, I discerned personal hostility, almost hatred, in his tone of voice and in his eyes. Clearly, he is unable to forget how Hitler ‘let him down’ with such contempt and cruelty. I’ve heard that Chamberlain now bears the same personal malice and hatred towards Hitler.

‘But since the disappearance of Hitler and others is politically unrealistic at present, then it follows that you consider peace impossible in the next few weeks or even months. Isn’t that so?’

‘That’s probably true,’ answered Wilson. ‘Besides, I think that the Germans, the German people, must be given a “lesson” in order for them to start thinking and feeling differently. So far they have not had such a “lesson”. This is evident from the stories we hear from prisoners of war in our custody. Many of them did not even know right up to the last moment that Britain and France had declared war on Germany. We can give the Germans the “lesson” they need. I am fully confident of our eventual victory.’

Referring to Halifax’s pious image, Bernard Shaw condoned the Russians’ peace offensive. He wrote to Maisky: ‘The British Empire is the Vicar of God Almighty for the punishment without trial of all foreign sinners.’ Together with Beatrice Webb, he buoyed up Maisky, even when his close friends abandoned him following the Soviet invasion of Finland; RAN f.1702 op.4 d.1687 l.71 & d.1184 l.17, 9 Nov. & 7 Dec. 1939; Passfield papers, II/4/l, 49a, Agnes Maisky to Beatrice Webb, 8 Dec. 1939.

I objected that the Germans had already been given a ‘lesson’ at Versailles, but this failed to secure a lasting peace in Europe. Where is the guarantee that the new peace treaty with which this war, sooner or later, must end, will be better than Versailles? It is far more likely to be even worse, and several times worse at that.

The conversation then turned to the question of how the current war should end. Wilson again began thinking aloud, and his thoughts were most curious.

The future Germany which will emerge from the war should cease to be a unified, centralized Germany, but should turn into a ‘free federation’ of German states, as was the case in the past. Austria, Bavaria, Württemberg, etc. should become half-independent states within the framework of the federation. Czechoslovakia could also become a member of the German federation, with similar rights to the British dominions. Poland should be restored as an independent state on its ethnographic foundation, without Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia. The German federation might be allowed to establish a condominium with Britain and France in the former German colonies. Disarmament, or at least arms limitation, should then follow. In general, peace and order should be established in Europe, and Germany should be placed in conditions that would prevent her from violating this order.

‘We would like,’ Wilson concluded, ‘for calm to reign at last. For it to be possible to live without mobilization every six months. For these perpetual crises to come to an end. For us to be able to think again about our own affairs, our pleasures, and our holidays.’

The true philosophy of old, rich imperialism, with its surfeit of everything!

Wilson ‘complained’ that the French were taking a more radical stand than the British, refusing to differentiate between Hitler’s regime and the German nation (as the British always do) and cherishing the idea of breaking Germany up into small independent states, disarmed and helpless. These French sentiments exert an inevitable influence on the English. But they are dangerous and could have grave consequences.

I listened to Wilson’s ‘complaints’ and smiled to myself. Was his project of a ‘free German federation’ so very different from the French idea of partitioning? And won’t Wilson – at a certain historical turning point, especially in the heated atmosphere of a real war – change his mind and agree to that very partitioning in the name of solidarity with a ‘brave ally’ and the greater glory of the policy of ‘compromise’ which he so loves?

Of course he’ll agree to it. It’s obvious from the tenor of everything he told me today that in reality he does not visualize any other way of maintaining the present position of British imperialism. He will have to bless partition… provided the Soviet Union allows it.