resolved issues with Poland. Ever since January, Hitler had been
putting out feelers to Moscow. Göring probably knew of this,
because he spoke to Beppo Schmid at San Remo in March of re-
storing Germany’s trading relations with the Soviet Union, he
had discussed the merits of such a deal when visiting Mussolini
in April, and he had then begun dropping dark hints to the
British and French embassies in May. “Germany and Russia,” he
had somewhat ominously observed to Henderson in June, “will
not always remain on unfriendly terms.” He had issued further
such warnings that summer of : “It is still open for us to ne-
gotiate with Russia,” he told Dahlerus and the English business-
men on August . “We still have many friends in Russia.”
Even so, his heart was not in this kind of political blackmail.
At Carinhall five days later he commented to Lord Runciman’s
son Leslie on the undignified spectacle, as all the Great Powers
were now pandering to Russia. He threw himself back in his
chair and exclaimed, “Oh, if only my English were really good. I
would come across [to Britain] and make them see these things!
If there were war between us now, the real victor would be Sta-
lin.”
Stalin played into their hands. London’s ponderous nego-
tiations for their own pact with Moscow stalled, and on August
he agreed to receive a German negotiator. Thus encouraged,
two days later Hitler briefed Göring and the other two com-
manders in chief that he had decided to attack Poland in less
than two weeks’ time. Britain, he assured them, would not inter-
vene. The next day, on August , he started the White time
clock ticking, denoting the twenty-fifth as zero hour. Göring
told his generals. “At eleven o’clock,” noted Milch, summoned
to the Obersalzberg, “G. informs us of the intention. G. is nervös
[on edge].”
Encouraged by Göring, Ribbentrop had called Stalin,