Dead of Night

His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Viscount Halifax, once Viceroy of India, regaled the House of Lords last week with this:

"I was brought to the telephone one morning by a private and patriotic person who told me that Germany, Italy and Japan were on the point of making a joint declaration of war against this country, that several parts of the dominions were to be distributed according to plan, and that this was not a question of weeks, but of immediate days. It required some resolution on my part to assure my caller that this war would not start before the next morning and he might, therefore, retire to bed."

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