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4 August

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By Liakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)

The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 2

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4 August

Azcárate arrived from Paris. The Republicans are slowly being transferred to Mexico. One ship, with some two thousand émigrés, has just embarked for Chile, where the Popular Front government is presently in power (will it last long?).

The French government’s attitude to Spanish refugees has improved significantly. The horrors of the ‘Spanish camps’ are in the past. Some Spaniards are engaged in military construction work, some have been recruited by the French army, and still others are settling down in rural areas near the Italian border. But many thousands, it seems clear, will be repatriated to Spain. According to the agreement between Franco and the French government, which stipulates the return of Spanish gold (about 8 million francs, Franco will also receive up to 50,000 Spanish refugees. The French government has not forced anyone to return home as yet, but what will it do in the future? Nobody knows. The settling of refugees in Scandinavia, and especially in Sweden, is fraught with difficulties. At the beginning of the year, Sandler agreed to accept…100 refugees. But now he refuses to fulfil even that promise. That’s typical of him, if one recalls his conduct in Geneva in connection with Beneš’s telegram.

There is internal strife and division among the Spanish émigrés in Paris. Upon returning from Mexico, Prieto

Indalecio Prieto (Tuero), minister of national defence of the Spanish Republic, 1937–38; chairman of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, 1937–62.

challenged Negrín as leader of the Spanish émigrés. Resorting to various ploys, he pushed through a decision unfavourable for Negrín in the so-called ‘Cortes delegation’, a mythical body of 21 men which seeks to arrogate to itself the right to speak on behalf of the former Spanish parliament. But most of the real émigré organizations, such as the party executive committees, the Evacuation Committee, and others, support Negrín.

Well, fights and squabbles among émigrés are almost an iron law of existence.

Azcárate spoke at length about the profound internal disintegration of the French Socialist Party. He did not conceal that he sides with the communists.

Page 593

The members of the military mission to Moscow – Admiral Drax

Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, admiral, commander-in-chief at Plymouth, 1935–38.

(head), Air Marshal Burnett

Charles Stuart Burnett, air officer commanding Iraq Command, 1933–35; Training Command, 1936–39; inspector-general of the RAF, 1939–40.

and Major General Heywood

Thomas George Gordon Heywood, major general, Royal Air Force, Aldershot Command, 1936–39.

– came for lunch. The guests were highly reserved in conversation and preferred to discuss such innocuous topics as partridge hunting, the season for which they will clearly have to spend in Moscow.

When Drax asked Halifax whether he should attend the luncheon, Halifax replied: ‘if you can bear it …’ Quoted in Carley, 1939, p. 186.

During lunch, however, I did learn one thing which seriously alarmed me. When I asked Drax, who was sitting on my right, why the delegation was not flying to Moscow by plane to save time, Drax drew in his lips and said: ‘You see, there are nearly 20 of us and a lot of luggage… It would be uncomfortable in the plane…’

I can hardly say that I found his response convincing. I continued: ‘In that case, why not travel by warship… On a fast cruiser, for example… It would look impressive and it would hasten your arrival in Leningrad.’

Drax sucked his lips again and said, deep in thought: ‘But that would mean kicking 20 officers out of their cabins… That would be awkward…’

I couldn’t believe my ears. Such tender feelings and such tactful manners!

The admiral hastened to gladden me, though, with the news that the military delegation had chartered a special vessel, The City of Exeter, which would take them and the French mission to Leningrad. At this point Korzh intervened in the conversation, remarking pointedly that he had heard from the owner of this ship earlier today that her maximum speed was 13 knots an hour. I cast a look of surprise at Drax and exclaimed: ‘Is that possible?’

Drax was embarrassed and mumbled: ‘The Board of Trade chartered the ship. I don’t know the particulars.’

So, the English and the French military missions are travelling to Moscow by freight steamer! It must be a freighter, to judge by its speed! And this comes at a time in Europe when the ground is beginning to burn beneath our feet! Incredible! Does the British government really want an agreement? I’m becoming more and more convinced that Chamberlain is pursuing his own game regardless: it’s not a tripartite pact that he needs, but talks about a pact, as a trump card for cutting a deal with Hitler.

The following information has been obtained from official sources:

Admiral the Hon. Sir Reginald Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, KCB, DSO, was, until very recently, commander-in-chief at Plymouth. He is said to be a first-class fellow. He is still on the Active List, but at the moment holds no official position.

Page 594

Air Marshal Sir Charles Burnett, KCB, DSO, is at present inspector-general of the Royal Air Force.

Major General T.G.G. Heywood. In the Army List he is shown as brigadier in charge of the Royal Artillery at Aldershot. He has recently received promotion to major general and now commands the 7th Anti-Aircraft Division.

[Bar the occasional lapse, right up until the very day the Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact was concluded, Maisky maintained that an agreement with the Western powers was inevitable. In his apologetic memoirs, he puts a misleading gloss on the narrative, whereby Halifax’s refusal to proceed to Moscow and the bizarre episode of the military mission startled and convinced him that an agreement was doomed. This narrative, meticulously constructed and widely disseminated by Maisky, through Boothby, to justify the pact, was later also adopted by Stalin, who told Beaverbrook in October 1941 that ‘Chamberlain and the Conservative Party … fundamentally disliked and distrusted the Russians.’ Halifax’s refusal to travel to Moscow and the arrival of the forlorn military mission in Moscow had supposedly left him with no choice but to conclude the Pact. This narrative laid the foundations for the Soviet ‘falsifiers of history’ mainstream historiography. When Boothby interjected, accusing the Russians of treachery, Maisky replied ‘somewhat uneasily’ that everyone was ‘now playing a cold game of power politics and that it was merely a question of technique’.

See Dalton papers, II, 5/2, letter from Boothby, 15 Sep. 1939, and R. Boothby, Recollections of a Rebel (London, 1978), pp. 188–93. Stalin’s resort to the narrative is in Beaverbrook papers, Balfour diary, 1 Oct. 1941.

Maisky’s narrative is refuted by the following diary entry – a rare but telling exposition of his inner thoughts at the time. Moreover, visiting the Webbs at their cottage two days later, he nonchalantly dismissed the decision to send the military mission by cargo boat as ‘an amusing instance of Chamberlain’s subconscious desire to delay and hamper these negotiations – a rather far-fetched indication of his sinister sub-consciousness!’ Manifestly ‘in good spirits’ and ‘enjoying [his] sudden popularity with the newspaper world and the public’, he was certain that ‘Great Britain will be forced to come into alliance’ with the Soviet Union.

Webb, diary, 7 Aug. 1939, pp. 6698–700 (emphasis in original).

]

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Document Details

Document Title4 August

AuthorLiakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)

RecipientN/A

RepositoryN/A

ID #N/A

DescriptionN/A

Date1939 Aug 4

AOC VolumeThe Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 2

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