‘Not all officials, I would hazard.’
The slight shake acknowledged that. ‘There are many who do not, but understand this: the policy of appeasement has one aim, and that is the maintenance of peace in Europe and the avoidance of another bloodbath. I must tell you that the aim of those who oppose the present policy is exactly the same.’
‘Though the method would not be.’
‘No, but I was present at the writing of the Treaty of Versailles, Mr Jardine, and I am of the opinion, as are many others, that Germany has grievances from that document that require to be addressed, as does Mr Chamberlain. Where we fundamentally disagree is that such changes should be considered while Hitler or anyone like him holds power and seeks redress by either bluster or force.’
‘Then you have two problems, the first that Hitler does not bluster, he gambles, the second being that Chamberlain is prime minister.’
‘Chamberlain gambles too.’
‘Dangerous when there can be only one winner.’
Cal had said that rather sharply; he felt he was being treated in too condescending a manner regarding matters that any thinking person could arrive at without a lecture. Not that such truly angered him; he was dealing with a man who marshalled his thoughts and opinions as a matter of course and spoke in the careful language of diplomacy and bureaucracy, which had to be measured to ensure he was completely understood.
‘The PM is a man not without a certain degree of vanity.’
‘Is there such a man?’
That made him laugh again and shake his head. ‘It is the level of that sinful quality which causes trouble.’
‘Are you saying Mr Chamberlain has an excess of it?’
‘He is convinced that his political genius can find a way out of what seems an intractable problem, and added to that he is as devious as a fox circling a hen coop, which, if you will forgive an extension of the metaphor, would serve to describe his Cabinet.’
‘Who could stand up to him if they wished?’
Vansittart shook his head. ‘Every person at the Cabinet table is there as a personal appointee of the PM and every one of them has striven all their political lives to get their feet under that table. Regardless of their private doubts the leaving of a cabinet position is too awful to contemplate for many, and for those seeking Chamberlain’s chair akin to political suicide.’
‘Anthony Eden too? He resigned.’
‘Do not think he surrendered the Foreign Secretary’s job with either good grace or easily. Anthony was always a thorn in the Chamberlain side, not least for his popularity with the public, quite apart from the fact that he was seen as a more fitting representative of the nation than the man above him.’
‘Not just as the Glamour Boy?’
‘He is lucky in his good looks, of course, but he has a fine mind. Given those qualities, his popularity with the public, the fact that he was appointed by Stanley Baldwin and does not agree with the PM’s policy of appeasement, while representing himself as a potential successor, Neville took great pleasure in engineering his resignation.’
‘Engineering?’
‘That is what you do with a rival for your office…’ He paused to smile. ‘With a civil servant like myself you kick them upstairs.’
‘I can’t say I feel sorry for the man. After Spain, and what has been allowed to happen there, Eden does not stand too high in my estimation either. I doubt the non-intervention policy would have been half as effective with his efforts, which virtually handed the nationalists all the aces in the pack. If there was a time to stand up to Italy and Germany it was there.’
‘It would be interesting to discuss the Iberian Peninsula with you, given Peter tells me you were active there, but not at this time, because matters in Central Europe are more pressing. So I will now tell you something that Peter could not. We have had emissaries from Germany, people of various standing, who have tried to pass on to the Government that there are many groups who are as worried as we are about the direction in which Hitler is heading.’
‘With good cause.’
‘Unfortunately the Government has paid no attention to them.’
‘What about the people you…’ Cal had to pause himself to find the right word, ‘coordinated?’
‘Naturally we took their views more seriously, but whatever we have in terms of ability to act does not include political power, nor is there the slightest prospect of that changing, given the PM commands a solid majority in the House of Commons.’
Tempted to mention what Frantisek Moravec had told him in Prague about Hitler’s generals, Cal reasoned it would add nothing to be told that Britain was not the only place such tales were being spread; besides, Vansittart probably knew.
‘Do you mean the Government or Chamberlain?’
‘In some senses they are the same thing. Each time some emissary arrives the PM listens politely to what he is telling us, then refers the information to our Berlin embassy for a view, and unfortunately we have, in our ambassador there, a man, if you will forgive the vulgarity, so enamoured of Hitler it would not surprise me to find him kissing his bared posterior.’
Cal grinned. ‘Maybe sometime we should discuss the meaning of the word “vulgarity”.’
‘Every time noises are made about opposition to Hitler, Sir Nevile Henderson insists we ignore them as having no basis and that to give them credence upsets the German Government. Given that is right in tune with the views of the prime minister, such dismissals are then used to persuade the Cabinet of their lack of value.’
‘Peter intimated to me that the present policy is to go to any lengths to avoid another war.’
‘Unwise of him to do so, perhaps, but tending towards accurate, I’m afraid, and in Chamberlain we have a man not averse to letting Hitler know this through non-official channels, such as the American press.’
‘Not the leaders in our own newspapers.’
‘Those too!’ Vansittart replied bitterly; clearly most of the British press did not find favour with him. ‘So what we need, Mr Jardine, is some kind of irrefutable proof that there does indeed exist enough opposition to Hitler to be meaningful or, if it can be produced, something that clearly demonstrates his addiction to acting in bad faith.’
‘Sir Robert, half the nation hates him and everything he stands for and I know that from my own time in Germany. But they are, like you and your friends, people without power, and I fear that even you do not understand the nature of the way that country is run.’
‘On the contrary, I do, Mr Jardine, for I too have been there. Even in an official capacity it is easy to see that, left unchecked, the Nazi ideology will poison the whole of Europe.’
Vansittart suddenly became more animated, though such was his self-control it was nothing rabid.
‘Hitler is using the threat of some great Bolshevik conspiracy to get his own way and he must be stopped. Not that I do not see Communism as an equal threat to our way of life and one that must one day be challenged and defeated.’
Taking a deep breath, Vansittart sought to regain his normal urbane manner.
‘What I am saying, Mr Jardine, is this. In what you are about to do you have our blessing — that is, those who oppose Government policy — as well as any resources we have which you might need to employ in your task. Bring to the Cabinet table irrefutable proof that Hitler can be stopped by his own people and then perhaps that purblind dolt who heads our government can be made to see reason, or perhaps be forced to do so by his colleagues.’
Sir Robert stood up as Cal was thinking that the tasks Peter Lanchester had talked about had just been extended and he was not sure he welcomed the idea. Tempted to mention it, he was not really given the chance.
‘Needless to say, this is a conversation that has never taken place and should it emerge that we have even spoken on such a subject I will deny it. You are going to take risks on our behalf and for that I thank you, but do not be in any doubt that people like myself are taking risks too, though not with our lives.’