As the country was gripped by Chilcot fever once more, I happened to be reading the recently published diaries of Wallis Simpson from 1934 and came across this eerie passage. In it, Mrs Simpson recounts a conversation with Joachim von Ribbentrop (yes, that Ribbentrop):How utterly extraordinary. Hat tip Daisy Meyland-Smith.
Ribbentrop: “…if Germany is rearming it is only because we see other nations building weapons of massive destruction and so naturally we must prepare ourselves also.”
Wallis: “What sort of weapons?”
Ribbentrop: “Ah, of course I cannot tell you precisely, but Herr Goebbels has made a dossier of them. For instance, we know that you have very many chemical and biological weapons remaining from the English War, and Herr Goebbels says that in forty-five minutes the Englanders can be dropping them on Berlin.”
Wallis: “You know this for sure?”
Ribbentrop: “Yes, yes. At least, we know that they have the programs for making them.”
I wait patiently, with no urgency. I have been granted all the time there is. I do not try to make anything of what I see. I hold no expectation or assumption that I know anything at all.
At the same time I devoured the final chapters of 'Uncle Fred in the Springtime'. I suspect that I was the one who laughed most heartily !
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