Germany
would not raise the question of the return of the colonies for six
years. Within that period England estimated that Hitler would have
expanded, strengthened his war machine and fought the Soviet Union to
a victorious conclusion.

Late in January 1938, Lord and Lady Astor invited some guests for a
week-end at Cliveden. The Prime Minister of England came and so did
Lord Halifax, Lord Lothian, Tom Jones and J.L. Garvin, editor of the
Astor-controlled London _Observer_. When Chamberlain returned to
London, he asked Eden to open negotiations with Italy to secure a
promise to stop killing British sailors and sinking British merchant
vessels in the Mediterranean. During this time the British Foreign
Office was issuing statements that Mussolini was "cooperating" in the
hunt for the "unidentified" pirates.

British opinion, roused by the sinking of English ships, might hamper
deals with the fascist leaders if such attacks were not ended. In
return for the cessation of the piratical attacks, Chamberlain was
ready to offer recognition of Abyssinia and even loans to Italy to
develop her captured territory. It was paying tribute to a pirate
chieftain, but Chamberlain was ready to do it to quiet opposition at
home to the sinking of British vessels and to give him time in which
to develop his policy.

Eden, who had fought for sanctions against the aggressor when
Abyssinia was invaded, obeyed orders but insisted that Italy must
first get her soldiers out of Spain. He did not want Mussolini to get
a stranglehold upon Gibraltar, one of the strategic life lines of the
British Empire. Mussolini refused and told the British Ambassador in
Rome that he and Great Britain would never to able to get together
because Eden insisted on the withdrawal of Italian troops from Spain,
and that it might help if a different Foreign Secretary were
appointed. Hitler, working closely with Mussolini in the Rome-Berlin
axis, also began to press for a different Foreign Secretary but went
Mussolini one better. Von Ribbentrop informed Chamberlain that Der
Fuehrer was displeased with the English press attacks upon him, Nazis
and Nazi aggressions. Der Fuehrer wanted that stopped.

The Foreign Office of the once proud and still biggest empire in the
world promptly sent notes to the newspapers in Fleet Street
requesting that stories about Nazis and Hitler be toned down "to aid
the government," and most of the once proud and independent British
newspape