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The Professional Diplomat and His Problems, 1919–1939
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2011
Extract
One of the recurring themes in those books on the diplomatic prehistory of the second World War which have come to us from the former enemy countries is the plight of the professional diplomat, whose training and knowledge convinced him that the policy of his government was leading straight to disaster but whose advice was seldom solicited and never followed. The memoirs of Erich Kordt, of Herbert von Dirksen, and of Rudolf Rahn, the books of Elisabetta Cerruti, Mario Donosti, and Filippo Anfuso include abundant and circumstantial evidence of the lack of influence exercised in matters of high policy by the permanent staffs of the Foreign Offices of Germany and Italy and by their agents in the field.
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- Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1952
References
1 Kordt, Erich, Nicht aus den Akten, Stuttgart, 1950Google Scholar; Dirksen, Herbert von, Moskau, Tokio, London: Erinnerungen und Betrachtungen zu 20 Jahre deutscher Aussenpolitik, 1919–1939, Stuttgart, 1949Google Scholar; Rahn, Rudolf, Ruheloses Leben, Düsseldorf, 1950Google Scholar; Cerruti, Elisabetta, Visti da vicino, Milan, 1951Google Scholar; Donosti, Mario, Mussolini e l'Europa: la politica estera fascista, Milan, 1945Google Scholar; Anfuso, Filippo, Roma Berlino Salò, Milan, 1950.Google Scholar
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10 If this seems an exaggeration, it should be remembered that, even in such an important matter as the treaty in which Great Britain and the United States guaranteed to come to France's aid in the event of future German aggression, the Foreign Secretary was not consulted. Only after the Treaty of Guarantee had been drafted in accordance with Lloyd George's personal instructions and been approved by Wilson and Clemenceau was Mr. Balfour informed of it.—Hardinge, Lord of Penshurst, , Old Diplomacy, London, 1947, p. 241.Google Scholar
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18 The word “realism,” with all its variants, was used with remarkable frequency by Chamberlain and by other British officials who associated themselves with his policy, often to differentiate their views and objectives from those of Eden, Vansittart, and others who had no faith in the policy of appeasement. The Germans and Italians were quick to realize that the word possessed persuasive, if not magic, qualities when introduced into conversations with the British, and they came to rely upon it heavily, as the diplomatic correspondence of the period shows. See, for instance, Documents on British Foreign Policy, third series, I, 22, 28, 49, 109, 257, 273, 307, 345, II, 133, 385; Documents on German Foreign Policy: From the Archives of the German Foreign Ministry, Washington, 1949, and continuing, series D, I, 221, 264. See also Chamberlain's letter of 16 January 1938 to Mrs. Morton Price in which he says: “As a realist, I must do what I can to make this country safe.”—Feiling, Keith, Life of Neville Chamberlain, London, 1946, p. 323.Google Scholar The German ambassador in Paris spoke in July 1938 of French anxiety over “the dreaded realism of the British.”—Documents on German Foreign Policy, series D, I, 1168.
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30 Commission d'Enquête parlementaire: Rapport, pp. 86–87.
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36 Parliamentary Debates: Commons, CIV (1918), 876.Google Scholar
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