two mirrors for vestibule... elk-hide for chairs and
writing desk... consider tapestry in Reichstag as
curtain in front of movie screen, or for reception hall... locations and proper sequence for my letters of
esteem (check library layout)... Have silver lamp
made as per sample for writing desk... Look for big
standard lamp for library... bust of self and bust of
Carin...
To Göring the actor, such stage-setting was essential for his
diplomatic tours de force. Against this lavish, egocentric setting
he spoke with often startling frankness to foreign industrialists,
visiting aristocrats, and hunting partners. While solemnly
promising the Poles, as he assured Marshal Rydz-Smigly while
visiting Warsaw on February , , that Germany had no de-
signs on the Corridor, and uttering similar guarantees to Mus-
solini about Austria, he made no bones in his conversations with
the British about Hitler’s ultimate goals. He had warned Vansit-
tart in August that Germany would eventually give up her
wooing of the British, and in October he had laid bare his “ex-
pansionist” strategies in conversation with Lady Maureen Stan-
ley, who was visiting Berlin with Lord Londonderry. “You
know, of course, what we are going to do,” he had told her la-
dyship, with eyes twinkling. “First we shall overrun Czechoslo-
vakia and then Danzig. And then we shall fight the Russians.
What I can’t understand is why you British should object?” In
conversation with Mussolini in January , the record shows,
Göring grumbled about Britain’s posture as “governess of the
entire world,” and he drew attention to Berlin’s attempts to es-
tablish ties with Britain’s conservative elements “In which
context it has to be borne in mind that the present British gov-
ernment [of Stanley Baldwin] is not conservative at all, but fun-