OUT-OF-SIGHT MEETING

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LXI, Issue 15, 23 February 1940, Page 4

OUT-OF-SIGHT MEETING

STRANGE ANGLO-GERMAN CONFERENCE

DELEGATES KEPT IN SEPARATE ROOMS

(From The Guardian's London

Correspondent)

LONDON, January 20

When Mr P. L. Mills, of Cobham, Surrey, iwe'nt to Rotterdam recently as a member of a British deputation to confer with German shipowners on the subject of cargoes in neutral ports, he expected to meet an old German friend. But Hitler did hot let them meet.

Their discussions were carried on from different rooms in the same building with a Dutchman running up and downstairs as intermediary. However, Mr Wills made a surreptitious 'phone call to his old friend. And excitedly the German said his wife had, just had a baby. Mr Wills wished him luck. "Give your wife my heartiest congratulations," he said.

It was one of the strangest conferences ever held—the silent, out-of-sight "meeting" of four Britons and three directors of German shipping companies. The other members of the British deputation representing banking interests, shipping agents, and the London Chamber of Commerce, also knew the Germah delegates. But the German Foreign Office said "No" to a face-to-face meeting.

The delegates Stayed at different hotels, and sat in different rooms at the Shipping Federation offices. They were carefully watched. A German official saw that they did not even exchange a smile or handshake in the corridor.

Mr Wills said this week: "We nearly decided to leave immediately when we heard that we could not meet the Germans. But then we saw the funny side of it. I was sorry for the Germans. I am sure that they must have felt very embarrassed."