Alliance by Jonathan Fenby

Author:Jonathan Fenby [Fenby, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Stalin then reiterated his fear of Germany. The country had recovered very quickly after Versailles, and there was every possibility of this happening again. ‘We must therefore establish a strong body to prevent Germany starting a new war,’ he added.

How soon did he think Germany might provoke a fresh war? Churchill asked.

‘Within fifteen to twenty years.’

‘We would have betrayed our soldiers if the world was made safe for only such a short period,’ Churchill observed.

The Germans were able, industrious and cultured, Stalin said. Their manufacturing capacity should be restrained. At which, Churchill proposed forbidding Germany to have any planes, and outlawing its military General Staff system.

‘Would you also forbid the existence of watchmakers and furniture factories for making parts of shells?’ Stalin asked. ‘The Germans produced toy rifles which were used for teaching hundreds of thousands of men how to shoot.’

‘Nothing is final,’ Churchill replied. ‘The world rolls on. We have learned something. Our duty is to make the world safe for at least fifty years.’ That could be achieved by disarmament, preventing re-armament, supervision of German factories, forbidding all aviation and through far-reaching changes.

‘There was control after the last war, but it failed,’ Stalin remarked.

‘We were inexperienced then,’ Churchill responded. ‘The last war was not to the same extent a national war, and Russia was not a party at the peace conference. It will be different this time.’ Prussia should be dealt with more severely. Bavaria, Austria and Hungary might form ‘a broad, peaceful cow-like confederation’.

‘All very good, but insufficient,’ Stalin said.

Churchill noted that Russia would have its army, Britain and America their air forces and navies – none of the three powers should disarm. ‘We are the trustees for the peace of the world. If we fail, there will be perhaps a hundred years of chaos,’ he added.

The conversation moved to Poland, for which Britain had declared war in 1939. Nothing was more important than the security of Russia’s frontier with its western neighbour, Churchill said. He wanted a heart-to-heart discussion on this. Stalin said he did not feel the need to ask himself how to act.

If Poland was given territory which ‘trod on some German toes’ to compensate for losing land to the USSR, that could not be helped, Churchill went on. ‘Are we to try to draw frontier lines?’ he asked.

‘Yes.’

The Prime Minister pointed out that he had no power from Parliament to define borders – nor, he believed, did Roosevelt. He made no reference to the Atlantic Charter or to past Anglo-American agreements not to discuss territorial arrangements. Rather, according to the British record, he suggested that the three of them might see if they ‘could form some sort of policy which might be pressed on the Poles, and advise them to accept.’ (In his memoirs, Churchill uses the word ‘recommend’ rather than ‘pressed’.)

Stalin asked if the British thought he was going to swallow Poland. Eden, who had joined the conversation, replied that he did not know how much the Russians were going to eat.

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