them Axel Wenner-Gren, the fifty-eight-year-old millionaire
boss of the Swedish Electrolux corporation. Eric von Rosen had
introduced him to Göring at Nuremberg in September ;
during a friendly conversation the general had made a better
impression than the Swedish visitor expected, although Göring
expressed some resentment at the anti-Nazi temper of the
Swedish newspapers. On May , , Frederick Szarvasy, presi-
dent of the Anglo-Federal Banking Corporation in London, told
Wenner-Gren of recent remarks by Field Marshal Göring that
he had felt compelled to convey to Neville Chamberlain; the
banker had suggested that the Swede should visit Göring again
to ascertain if there could even now be a basis for agreement
between Britain and Germany.
Wenner-Gren had turned up at Carinhall on May .
Göring began their three-hour talk by boasting of Germany’s
advances since . The Swede responded, “What a pity that
such progress only seems to lead to war which might well end
in a new German catastrophe!”
“We don’t want war,” retorted Göring. “Only the war-
mongers in London are pushing toward that. If I could sit down
and talk matters over alone with Chamberlain, I feel sure a basis
could be found for an understanding.” Unlike Ribbentrop,
Goebbels, and Himmler, he added, he wanted peace with Brit-
ain; he spoke of a twenty-five-year peace treaty with Britain.
The snag was that he insisted that the world first satisfy Hitler’s
“final territorial demands.”
The Swede asked if he might tell all this to the British gov-
ernment.
Göring looked at him for a moment, then said, “Well, if I
were sure that the British Foreign Office was not to be involved,
it might be worthwhile for you to see Mr. Chamberlain.”
In London, Wenner-Gren spoke with top Conservative