Confidential report from William Warnock to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)¹
(43/33) (Copy)

I was notified this morning by the Foreign Office at 6 a.m. that the German Government wished neutral ships and aircraft to keep away from Danzig territory and Poland, as it was expected that hostilities would have commenced by the time of receipt of this notice². No doubt you received my telegrams.

I was asked by telephone to attend a meeting of the Reichstag at 10 a.m. I presume that you have seen the text of the Chancellor's speech in the newspapers. The Chancellor, as might be expected, looked very worn and worried, and the speech was not so brilliant as usual. He was obviously speaking with great emotion. The British Ambassador did not attend, but he was represented by Sir George Ogilvie-Forbes, the Counsellor of the Embassy. We were informed that direct action had already been taken against Poland. Herr Hitler enumerated all his efforts since he has come to power to obtain a peaceful settlement of Germany's claims, and endeavoured to show that it was only after repeated refusals of other powers to negotiate on a fair basis that he had been driven to assert Germany's rights by other means. He emphasised in a very moving passage that Germany could not regard the Treaty of Versailles as a law by which she was bound. At the end of his speech the Chancellor said that his whole political life had been given to the work of restoring Germany to its rightful place in the world and that now the testing time seemed to have come. In closing he made a call for service and discipline, and said that he demanded no more from anybody than that which he would give himself.

After the speech it still remained uncertain whether or not a general war would break out, but the general opinion amongst my colleagues was that there seemed to be no alternative for Great Britain and France but to come in on Poland's side.

The Japanese Ambassador remained rather aloof, but I cannot say whether any particular significance may be attached to this.

Communication between the legation and Ireland will be extremely difficult if war breaks out. I am anxiously awaiting news from you as to how correspondence will be maintained. I have telegraphed to you concerning the codes at present in use. It seems to me that we shall have to devise a distinctive code of our own in that other codes will be no longer available.

A serious problem is that of currency and finance. I received an imprest from you this morning, and that will, I anticipate, suffice for at least a month. I take it that we shall have to deal in the currency of some neutral State.

So far as I am aware, all Irish who were here as tourists have succeeded in leaving the country. Since Friday, 25th August, I had advised Irish visitors to leave Germany. There are still some Irish people in the country, but with one exception, they have been living here for some years. The one exception is Mr. J.D.B. O'Toole, who is studying German engineering methods with Messrs. Siemens. Mr. O'Toole is a recent graduate of the engineering faculty in University College, Dublin. He is in constant communication with his parents, who have an address at Leinster Road, Rathmines, Dublin.