The royal palace was pleased to announce that an invitation had been extended to the German Chancellor, Field Marshall Walther von Brauchitsch, to attend a ceremony in October at Buckingham Palace. He was to be invested with Britain’s highest Order of Chivalry, The most Noble Order of the Garter.
Traditionally, this day, 23 April, St Georges day, was the day such honours were announced.
This Order had instituted by Edward III in 1348, and was awarded by the British sovereign as his or her personal gift. In this particular case, a special Statute had to be passed, to enable the Chancellor to receive the award as a foreign Head of State. Prior to this, the only foreign nationals to whom it could be awarded, were foreign monarchs.
It was a singular honour for von Brauchitsch and it recognised his courage and commitment in, firstly, eliminating the scourge of Nazism in Germany, then later his leading role in creating a peaceful, prosperous, and strong Europe. This included the German success with arms limitation. All this was suitably described in diplomatic language.
What could not be mentioned, for obvious reasons, was the virtual elimination of communism in Europe, other than the Soviet Union. The current easing of tension between the Soviet Union and the western world was also attributed to von Brauchitsch, but again could not be officially recognised.
The British general election had seen Winston Churchill’s Conservative party returned to power with a greater majority. The five years since the last election had been good ones for Britain. Churchill unashamedly took the credit for this. The British people had never had it so good!
During his Premiership, it had given him a certain amount of secret pleasure to say no to the invitation by the US President Truman for Britain to join his ramshackle United Nations organisation. Truman was too liberal for his liking. He was also too often openly hostile to the existence of the British Empire.
Churchill personally might have felt that Britain was morally obliged to join the UN if the rest of the world had, but the firm rejection of the concept by Germany and the rest of Europe gave him the excuse he needed to say ‘NO’. Britain’s decision had been copied by other countries in the Empire, notably Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Only Canada had succumbed to pressure from its southern neighbour.
As he celebrated in private with a whisky, he thought that he might retire before the next election. He had been in politics a long time. ‘Another three or four years and I will become a full-time painter’, he promised himself.
It gave von Altendorf great pleasure to report to the Council that he had received a letter from Khrushchev. The Supreme Soviet Council had ordered a fifty percent reduction in arms production throughout the Soviet Union, commencing 1 June that year. This would last for a period of six months to give Germany and Europe, together with — hopefully — China, Japan, and possibly the United States, sufficient time to agree a permanent arms limitation treaty with the Soviet Union.
The need for inspectors to verify matters was accepted. It was suggested that initially Germany and the Soviet Union work out an acceptable system between themselves, and this could then be put to all the other countries involved, for their consideration.
“Like everything with the Soviets, we cannot take for granted that we have a deal here. I am optimistic, but I am sure that somewhere along the way we will find obstacles before us. In the meantime, let us regard this as real progress.”
He also advised that an invitation had been received from Great Britain for the Chancellor to make a State visit to that country in October. This would coincide with the Chancellor’s investiture of the British honour being conferred on him by King George.
Chancellor Von Brauchitsch didn’t show it but he had felt deeply honoured by this award from the British King. He considered it one of the greatest moments in his life.
It was even possible it wouldn’t be raining in England in that month!
Von Altendorf mentioned that during a debate the previous week, the Dutch Government had concluded that, with the exception of the Caribbean territories, their colonies were becoming a liability. There had been signs of increasing nationalism, usually involving terrorism, and the individual colonial economies were suffering.
The Dutch wanted to shed them next year, before they became a drain on the home country.
One more item of interest was the fact that the Balkan republics appeared to be settling down. Reported incidents of political unrest or violence were at their lowest since Yugoslavia had split asunder two years earlier. Early days yet, but a positive sign.
The long awaited maiden test flight of the Komet would take place in mid-July, the Aviation Minister announced. His British counterpart would be there, together with Rolls Royce executives. Many representatives from various world airlines were expected. This would be an important day for the Anglo-German aircraft industry.
The Defence Minister announced that General Sieckenius’ munitions deal with Argentina seemed to have started something of an arms race on the South American continent. His Ministry, through General Sieckenius’ department, had authorised sales of equipment to Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. All cash sales!
A request from Paraguay had been declined due to the repressive nature of the regime of President Stroessner. Stroessner’s father had been German, and his government was firmly anti-communist and pro-German, but this was insufficient to persuade von Mannstein of the desirability of supplying their regime with arms. Too many similarities with Hitler and the Nazis!
He also advised that India had obviously looked at the significant improvements taking place in the Bangladesh military, a potential enemy of theirs, and had requested a meeting with the German Defence Minister at his earliest convenience. Pakistan must have got wind of this and they too had requested a meeting. Could be a minefield!
Albert Speer delivered a glowing update on Germany’s armaments industry, which was now the biggest in the world. The need for selling munitions on credit had also diminished considerably. This appeared to be due to no small extent, to the activities of an American bank in which Deutsche bank had an interest.
The Mercantile Bank of California had created a market in securities issued by smaller countries to raise cash specifically to purchase German armaments. Speer mentioned that the idea for this had apparently originated from the brother of Baron von Altendorf’s son in law. A man who had already rendered great service to Germany through his innovative financing of a great number of German built aircraft.
He ended his report by saying that in the event of future arms limitations in Europe, this particular industry should be unaffected to a significant degree due to the great demand in South America, Asia, and soon, he believed, Africa.
“There will always be countries that want strong armed forces. As soon as they take steps towards this, their neighbours, feeling threatened, have no choice but to follow the same course of action.”
Speer also reported that the Anglo-German Atomic Energy Corporation expected its experimental nuclear reactor to produce the world’s first electricity from this source within the next twelve months. He stressed that this was only experimental, with probably only enough power produced to run a light bulb! The first commercial generation of electricity was planned for 1953 at the earliest.