They say that the Ukrainian war is returning us to the 1930s. So here is a flash from that past. Behold, gorgeous in full-fig diplomatic uniform with his cocked hat under his arm, the British ambassador to Berlin as he mounts the steps to the foreign ministry in the Wilhelmstrasse. He is carrying a document, Britain’s ultimatum. Confirm Germany’s cessation of hostilities against Poland before 11am or a state of war will exist between us. But it’s only nine in the morning. Nobody much is about. So Sir Nevile Henderson stands on a carpet in the hall by himself and slowly reads the ultimatum aloud. Then he leaves. It’s 3 September 1939.
Does Vladimir Putin’s aggression really mean that we must relive those times, when the League of Nations fumbled with endless European crises over minorities and plebiscites and frontiers and land-grabbing invasions? True, states today don’t bother with declarations of war. Hitler and Stalin showed Putin how to dispense with that rubbish and replace it with rubbish proclamations dripping with lies, hypocritical victimology and fake history. But some of those old riddles survive to plague us. One is the difference – if there is one – between “independence” and “territorial integrity”.
