Derek Pennington: The German Peace

Before the war this same man had constantly rejected the warnings of Winston Churchill, that any compromise with Nazi Germany was impossible. Kennedy had been a firm supporter of the policy of appeasement.

Halifax had no great liking for this high ranking diplomat. Nevertheless he greeted him with a show of warmth. “Good afternoon, Mr Ambassador, this is an unexpected pleasure.”

After the usual courtesies and platitudes, Kennedy got down to business. It was a simple message he conveyed. His instructions came from the top, the President of the United States.

Mr Roosevelt wished to urge upon the British Government that they treat the German peace feelers with all seriousness. The position of the American Government was that the Germans were sincere, they would not try to impose any outrageous conditions, and it would be unutterably foolish for the British not to pursue this. Halifax detected a hint that future American aid to Britain could be conditional on Britain at least being prepared to negotiate.

He agreed that he would indeed present this interesting development to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet immediately. After all, it suited his own philosophy perfectly.

They ended their conversation.

Now Halifax was planning his strategy. This would shake Winston! A meeting of the war cabinet was scheduled to be held in one hour. Halifax started to scribble furiously. He had barely started writing when his phone rang again. Irritated, he picked it up to tell his assistant he wanted no interruptions but immediately changed his mind when told is was the Head of MI6, Britain’s military intelligence unit, which was accountable to the Foreign secretary.

He put the phone down five minutes later. Another revelation! What a day this had been.

He carried on working.

The meeting of the War Cabinet started fifteen minutes late.

Churchill opened as usual with “Right, Gentlemen.” Before he could say another word, Halifax, ignoring the usual conventions, made a statement.

“Prime Minister, I beg your indulgence. An extremely important and urgent matter was brought before me only an hour or two ago. It is my opinion that it is of such vital importance that it should take precedence over all other matters.”

Churchill looked at him, somewhat taken aback, but reluctantly thought he had better let him have his way. “Go ahead Lord Halifax,” he said, ponderously.

Halifax had everybody’s attention.

“Less than two hours ago I received three diplomatic notes. One each from the United States, Swiss and Portuguese Ambassadors.” Now he had their interest!

“The notes all relay a request from the new German Foreign Affairs Minister, Baron von Altendorf, for an urgent meeting to resolve our current difficulties. In other words — peace talks.”

Even Churchill seemed at a loss for words.

Halifax carried on. “The meeting is requested for three days from now. The Portuguese Government has arranged a secret venue near Lisbon and guarantees the safety of all attendees.

As a sign of good faith, if we signal our agreement to attend such a meeting, the German Navy will immediately suspend all offensive submarine operations, and the Luftwaffe will halt all air activity over Britain, for the period before the talks, and for an indefinite period after conclusion of the talks, if, in the opinion of the German Foreign Minister, serious progress has been made towards a successful conclusion.

The ambassdors in each case also added their own strongest recommendation that we treat this matter seriously.”

Churchill opened his mouth to say something but Halifax forestalled him.

“There’s more.”

The Prime Minister closed his mouth.

“Ten minutes after reading these notes I had a telephone call from Ambassador Kennedy. He intimated his instructions came directly from the President. Basically he said that the United States believes the German peace offer is a genuine one, and that it would be in our best interests to respond positively and at least assess what is on offer. I also detected a hint that if we don’t do this, the United States would have a rethink on the matter of aid to Britain. In other words they are pushing us to talk with the Germans.”

He continued. “Included with the ambassador’s diplomatic notes was a draft copy of the Armistice agreement that is to be presented to France by Germany in the next day or so. We can come back to that in a few minutes, but it looks to me like the Germans could impose much harsher terms than those they are actually proposing.

Finally, to cap these extraordinary developments, I had a call from the Chief of MI6 an hour ago. It has in the past been a subject of discussion here, around this table, that the Chief of the Abwehr, German Military Intelligence, Admiral Canaris, is considered to be secretly anti-Nazi. Somehow Canaris, through his agents, and God knows who else, has managed to pass a message to MI6, saying this peace offer is genuine.”

Halifax leaned back in his chair and surveyed the consternation around him with great satisfaction, although he maintained a neutral look on his face. This was one of those special moments he would never forget for the rest of his life.

His colleagues looked at each other for a few moments, absorbing what they had just heard. The first question came. “What are the salient details of the French armistice agreement?”

Halifax consulted his notes. “In a nutshell, Germany will occupy the northern half of France. The new French government — apparently led by Marshall Petain — will be based in a town called Vichy in southern France, and will rule the southern half of the country as an independent but neutral state. They keep their colonial empire.

France must pay for the German occupation costs of Northern France, but the Germans undertake to reduce their forces to a maximum of a quarter of a million men within six months, with the aim of further reductions as and when appropriate.

Nominal French armed forces will be permitted in the South. The French navy must be disarmed but does not need to be surrendered. The air force is to be reduced to fifteen percent of the size it was on 1 May this year.

All current French prisoners of war will remain as such until cessation of hostilities with Britain. French soldiers currently still on active duty in France shall be demobilised immediately, except those to be retained in the new, reduced, armed forces.

The Maginot Line of defensive works along the Franco German border is to be demolished under German supervision.

This Armistice treaty will last until a final peace treaty can be negotiated at the earliest opportunity.

Halifax paused for a moment, then finished. “As I previously mentioned, the terms imposed on an utterly defeated nation could have been much, much worse.”

Everybody seemed to be in deep thought. Halifax was sure that his news was being carefully evaluated by all around the table.

Churchill now spoke for the first time. “Hmmm, interesting”. A slight pause, then “What is this about a new German Foreign Minister? Do we know anything about him? And what the hell has happened to that rogue von Ribbentrop?”

“We picked up a broadcast on German Radio about an hour ago that the former Minister for Foreign Affairs has resigned from office. No reasons were given.

The new Minister, Baron von Altendorf, is from a distinguished German family. He was in the Imperial Navy in the First World War and fought at Jutland. Since then his career has been in the German civil service, more particularly their foreign affairs department for 10 years before retiring last year. He is believed to be anti-Nazi. Now it seems like he has been brought out of retirement.” Halifax realised a lot depended on Churchill being prepared to trust the man.