The first part of the letter referred to matters unrelated to
foreign policy.

The only other matter which I should perhaps mention just before
leaving London is that last week I went to Berlin. My principal
impressions can be stated in a few paragraphs:

(1) Both Chamberlain [1] and Halifax [2] enjoy a very high
reputation in the official and semi-official quarters in which I
moved.

(2) The Ambassador, Sir Nevile Henderson, is an extremely clear-
headed and sensible fellow with a frank and even breezy method of
putting the British view to the Germans.

(3) All around the German Foreign Office I found them optimistic
about an amicable settlement of the Polish Corridor affair but
rather depressed about the Czechoslovakian position. Runciman's
appointment [3] was very well received but there appears to be a
gloomy feeling in the German mind that Benes [4], egged on by
France, will refuse to do the fair thing and that trouble may
ensue.

(4) I came to the conclusion that the actual absorption of the
Sudeten into the German Reich is not in the immediate programme
and that Germany may quite possibly be satisfied, for some time,
at least, with a loose Federal system in Czechoslovakia, based on
substantially autonomous national communities.

(5) I am more than ever impressed with the view that this problem
requires a very firm hand at Prague, otherwise Benes will continue
to bluff at the expense of much more important nations, including
our own. (6) The Germans are enormously impressed by British
rearmament.

(7) Paradoxically enough, the Royal visit to France was well
received in Berlin, the idea being that this dramatic affirmation
of the Entente Cordiale should make the French much less nervous
and therefore much less liable to do silly things.

I am looking forward very much to getting back home again. As you
know, the pleasures of these overseas visits can be grossly
exaggerated.

ROBERT G. MENZIES