Ambassador No. 1

A lady presented to the King curtsies. A gentleman presented to the King bows. Neither a lady nor a gentleman seizes the King's hand to shake it. Last week the greatest Court sensation since Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Maximovich Litvinoff was impudent about King Edward VIII* was created by Adolf Hitler's personal and official envoy to the Court of St. James, Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador.

New King George VI, handsomely bedight as Admiral of the Fleet, was standing in his splendid Throne Room at Buckingham Palace, receiving the diplomatic corps for the first time since His Majesty's accession. In strict order of precedence, each diplomat was presented by Lieut. General Sir Sidney Clive, a vigorous Court functionary with a clarion voice. In 1919 he was Military Governor at Cologne, cordially hated by its Germans, as were all the Allied "conquerors." Last week German Ambassador von Ribbentrop, instead of bowing to King George when presented by Sir Sidney, clicked his heels smartly together, gave the Nazi salute and cried, "Heil Hitler!" in ringing tones. Then, according to some of the astonished diplomats whose accounts somewhat differed afterward, he advanced toward King George, saluted a second time, again advanced and saluted a third time, as though trying by repeated example to get George VI to give the Nazi salute or at least some kind of salute in return. His Majesty remained unruffled, returned each von Ribbentrop salute with a formal British bow, and permitted his hand to be gripped and shaken when the German finished up by wanting to do that. By this time every member of the diplomatic corps was watching, fascinated, and agreement was general that "the King, while shaking hands with von Ribbentrop, smiled, although somewhat uneasily."

Much more uneasy were British Labor leaders during the week at the behavior of the German Ambassador.+-As though pomp-loving No. 2 Nazi Hermann Wilhelm Goering had decided to attend the Coronation next May, Ambassador von Ribbentrop announced that the Reich is spending -L-100,000 ($500,000) to enlarge its London Embassy by throwing three great houses into one. Last week this work was going at rush pace and in the House of Commons loud protests were made by Laborite M. P.'s because British workmen were not in on it. Over from Germany, the Baron had brought some 145 bronzed and healthy Nazi workmen. Not only did they fail to correspond to anti-Nazi descriptions of how in Nazi-land most people are painfully tightening their belts, but in London most comfortable Bloomsbury board with all expenses paid was provided for these Nazis by their Embassy and each man additionally received as "pocket money" about as much as the weekly wage of an average English carpenter.

When Ambassador von Ribbentrop announced that his new ballroom will be large enough to entertain 1,000 guests it was obvious that the German Embassy is going to lead all others in London during the Coronation season in splurges of superkolossal festivity. It was time last week to review the von Ribbentrops. she the heiress of a German champagne family, he an ex-salesman in England of not only rare German wines but also best Scotch whiskey. Intimate are the Hohenzollern grandsons of Wilhelm II with the von Ribbentrops; intimate too are many radical Nazi party members of the tough type who ordinarily do not get on with bemonocled German bourgeoisie and intimate are von Ribbentrop and Hitler. Last August, when von Ribbentrop's appointment as Ambassador was announced, he had been running for two years in Berlin an amazing personal suite of offices which was known as Das Bueo Ribbentrop. He then reputedly gave orders to Foreign Minister Baron Constantin von Neurath. It was said that von Ribbentrop in London would at last have to begin taking the Berlin orders of von Neurath.

Ambassador von Ribbentrop did net hurry in August to his new post. In early October he was still in Berlin and 17 visiting members of the French Chamber of Deputies cornered him at a tea with this question: "Can you assure us that the settlement of the World War is now final insofar as any German claims are concerned?" Flushing darkly, von Ribbentrop finished his tea at a gulp, stalked off to Das Buero Ribbentrop. His 15-year-old son, he presently announced, would go in England to swank Westminster School, although there is in London a special 100% Nazi school to which local Germans are urged by strongest Nazi pressure to send their sons. In late October, Ambassador von Ribbentrop, who nearly always travels by air, finally set out by train for London, arrived at Victoria Station wearing a Storm Trooper's brown shirt. To his official British welcomers he sounded off: "Der Fuehrer is convinced that the only real danger for Europe and the British Empire is the spread of Communism--that most terrible of all diseases--terrible because people only realize the real danger when it is too late! Closer collaboration between our two countries in this sense is not only important, but in my opinion a vital necessity!" To this, British Reds replied by chalking the street in front of the German Embassy in huge letters: "RIBBENTROP MUST GO!" He not only did not go but soon moved in the set of Mrs. Ernest Simpson and King Edward to an extent which started Mayfair wondering and whispering about whether His Majesty's lady could possibly be a "German agent." In the House of Commons excitable William Gallacher, then as now the sole Communist M. P. (see p. 23), stormed: "[The Ambassador] comes with his hands red with murder!" apropos the execution in Germany of a Communist named Andre. Next the leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition, Laborite Major Clement Attlee, signed with 40 other M. P.'s a sharp protest, and in Piccadilly Circus a crowd of British Reds & Pinks roared for hours:

"Down with Ribbentrop and the Murder Gang!"

Three weeks later Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who rarely receives foreign envoys, conferred at No. 10 Downing Street for 40 minutes with the German Ambassador, who then rushed to Croydon and flew to Berlin, seemingly on some secret mission. To the surprise of all Europe next day the German-Japanese anti-Communist and antiWorld Revolution Pact (TIME, Dec. 7) was signed publicly for Germany, not by Foreign Minister von Neurath but by Ambassador-to-Britain von Ribbentrop--a flouting of all diplomatic custom as startling as last week's "Heil Hitler!" in Buckingham Palace. To seal the bargain Adolf Hitler tendered a banquet to the Japanese plenipotentiaries at which the life of the party was definitely Joachim von Ribbentrop.

In December the von Ribbentrops were back in London, reputedly having just broken off their membership in the German Protestant Church, became "orthodox Nazi unbelievers." With the fading out of Mrs. Simpson & the Duke of Windsor, London seemed to lose all interest for the German Ambassador. He took Abdication as his cue to fly back to Berlin, stayed there until last week, toiling at Das Euero Ribbentrop. Presumably last week Joachim von Ribbentrop was highly nervous as to how he will get on with the new King, made a typically German psychological mistake of thinking it would be smart to see if he could get His Majesty to return the Nazi salute. That did not escape polite George VI. Few days later as Ambassador von Ribbentrop appeared at St. James Palace for the reign's first court levee and briskly saluted again, the monarch remained impassive. That Dictator Hitler's envoy may be today in a fair way to score his greatest triumph since he negotiated the Anglo-German Naval Treaty before he became Ambassador (TIME, June 24, 1935) was the startling possibility explored last week by the New York Herald Tribune's, London Correspondent Jack Beall. Cabled he: "Two Cabinet meetings were held today at the same time as the return to London of Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador, with a supposed 'request' for the return of Germany's former colonies. The two events are related. . . .

"From a source close to Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, it can be said with certitude that Britain is anxious for some definite diplomatic approach to be made by Germany about colonies, because that is the only way, it is recognized now, that Germany can ever be enticed into making a general settlement of the European muddle. Further than this, the British Government would not be averse to alienating African territory now under British mandate, although the outcry here would be terrific, if it were not part of a general European settlement. . . .

"It has been asserted previously many times that it would be worth any [British] Government's official life to alienate one foot of British soil. But in spite of that view the long-headed policy of the Foreign Office and of No. 10 Downing Street has kept the door open for just this sort of supposedly suicidal move. . . .

"It is worth a gamble to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's government, which considers that if it can show definite tangible gains for Britain in lessened risk of war, in lessened taxes for keeping up the arms race, in getting Germany into a Western air pact and in inducing her to abandon her own ruinous war economy, the British voters would not turn it out of office.

. . . "If in the preliminary conversations with Ribbentrop it appears that Hitler considers that Europe owes him colonies out of the goodness of its heart or from fear of the consequences, Der Fuehrer will get an answer from Britain which will approximate 'no tickee, no shirtee.' "

*After a private audience with the King, the Comrade said of Edward VIII: "He asked me why we had to have a revolution in Russia, and I explained. He then asked why we had to execute the Tsar and I explained why. He impressed me as a mediocre young Englishman who reads one newspaper a day."

+-Twenty-four hours after the Nazi salute in Buckingham Palace, jittery Fleet Street was bandying completely groundless rumors that the Italian Ambassador had given King George the Fascist salute, the Soviet Ambassador had raised a clenched fist at His Majesty in the orthodox Communist salute. London's Laborite Daily Herald went haywire with a speedily disproved scare story that Ambassador von Ribbentrop was in course of installing at his Embassy the most powerful radio broadcasting station next to those of the British Government. All that had happened was that the German Embassy recently put up an impressive looking aerial the better to receive Der Fuehrer's latest broadcast.

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