CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN - Part One
Westminster Palace
London, England
March 25, 1939
11:00 a.m.
As Big Ben was tolling the eleven o’clock hour, King George VI came striding into one of the smaller conference rooms that had been built into the English Parliament building over the years. Surrounded by the beautifully aged English oak woodwork that framed the room, the King’s Privy Council rose respectfully from their seats, some of which had just received their occupants moments before the arrival of the King. Waving the men back to their seats, the King continued to the ornate throne like chair that sat at the head of the room that while somewhat uncomfortable tradition dictated was the only seat available for the English monarch, and now the sovereign of the British Empire. Stepping up to and then alighting upon the chair, the King squirmed as regally as possible in an attempt to become comfortable while asking,
“Right then. What is shattering enough on the world stage that has you convening the Council and pulling me from an oh-so exciting meeting with Parliamentary leaders, Anthony?”
Standing up and handing official briefing folders about to the King and the rest of the Council, the Foreign Secretary said gravely,
“Your Majesty, the Foreign Office was cabled from our embassies in Riga and Tirana with dire news. Of which would you like to hear first?”
Opening the folder that had been handed to him, King George scanned the cover sheet on the inside while instructing,
“Go ahead and tell me of the news from Riga.”
“Very well, Your Majesty,” Eden replied while pulling a few pages of notes from the folder laying on the table in front of him.
“Two hours ago, the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Juozas Urbšys met with the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop to officially sign a treaty of cession of Memel to Germany.”
Amid the scattered gasps of shock that came from the Council, Sir Anthony continued grimly,
“According to our ambassador, the Seimas* in Riga had been under pressure from Berlin for the last several weeks to hand over the territory around Memel, pressure that included threats to both individual members of the Seimas as well as to Lithuania as an entity. Due to Kārlis Ulmanis’s Latvia already being in bed with Hitler based upon a just discovered pact that was signed January of last year, and Poland attempting to stay on Berlin’s better side and keep Danzig, and in fear of encouraging unwanted attentions from Moscow, Lithuania had no support, and thus caved to the Nazi demands this morning. According to reports, German troops actually began marching into the territory even before Urbšys started to sign the treaty.”
“Besides the obvious impact to Lithuania,” King George asked as he scanned more of the details from the Foreign Office briefing folder in his lap,
“what ramifications are we going to see in the Baltic?”
“Diplomatically, Your Majesty,” Eden answered,
“this gives Hitler one more precedent for the reasonability of Poland returning the Danzig Corridor to Germany as well as will allow him, if he wishes, to cast his eyes further north to the rest of the Baltic Republics with their German minorities.”
“Your Majesty, from a military aspect,” General Montgomery-Massingbeard said heavily,
“the possession of Memel grants the Germans not only one more avenue of attack into Poland if the desire to make war on the Poles, it also provides them with a deeper springboard north into the other Baltic Republics or east into Communist Russia.”
“And we cannot forget or overlook the prize of the port of Klaipėda, Your Majesty,” First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Alfred E.M. Chatfield added.
“The Lithuanians have spent a tremendous amount of their capital funds modernizing the port facilities as well as the shipyards. Having that all go to the Kriegsmarine’s Generaladmiral Raeder will give Germany a significant advantage over the rest of the navies working in the Baltic.”
“What are our options, Winston,” the King asked with a dubious look on his face.
“We truly have no responsive option at this time, Your Majesty,” the Prime Minister replied with a heavy sigh.
“Domestically, there won’t be much support for a military expedition to the Baltic, especially since we facing the same situation as we faced during the Sudeten problem. From what Anthony and I have briefly mentioned to each before your arrival, internationally, no one in the West will agree to an intervention. Our Scandinavian allies could be counted on providing some support, but again, we are dealing with the return of a German region taken away by Versailles returning to Germany.”
“As I expected,” the British monarch said with a tinge of understanding and disgust.
“Fine, the British Empire will officially have no comment on the matter of Memel. Now, what news from Albania, Anthony?”
Handing out another set of folders to the Council, the British Foreign Secretary continued in the same voice used when he announced Lithuanian loss.
“A little over one hour ago, Your Majesty, Ambassador Wallis cabled to alert that an hour previously the Italian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Albania had delivered a “request” that Albania allow itself to become part of the Kingdom of Italy by way of annexation.”
“Well, we know what Mussolini has been planning since King Zog kicked out the Italians at the beginning of the month,” Churchill quipped sourly.
“What was Zog’s response this time, Anthony?”
“Wallis actually quoted a bit of His Majesty’s verbal response,” Eden replied with some bleak humor,
“however in the interest of time and refuge from base profanity, I’ll say that in some quite colourful terms His Majesty King Zog refused flatly. At which point the Ambassador from Rome delivered a formal declaration of war upon Albania by Italy.”
“If the Dagos were that prepared, Your Majesty,” the IGS Chief, General Montgomery-Massingbeard, said darkly,
“then Albania will very shortly be added to Mussolini’s trophy room.”
Grimacing slightly at the general’s derogatory, the King glanced at the Fleet’s First Sea Lord.
“Can Admiral Cunningham and the Mediterranean Fleet do anything, Sir Alfred?”
Without looking at his civilian superior, First Lord Bolton Monsell, Admiral Chatfield leaned forward and answered his King as sailor to sailor.
“Your Majesty, Sir Andrew can take the Fleet into the Adriatic, and he can pretty well bloody the noses of the Regia Marina* if not completely knock it out action for some time, but the distances between our support ports in Malta and Alexandria would make it impossible for us to prevent the Italians from getting troops over to Tirana. I would not be surprised if their invasion fleet has been steaming from Taranto since midnight.”
“Winston, do we have the public and political support to call Mussolini on the carpet for this,” the King queried.
“It is possible, Your Majesty,” Churchill replied while he rubbed his chin while making mental calculations,
“but your subjects would be hard to convince without quite a bit of beating of the war drums, and even then it would be dicey.”
“Also Your Majesty,” the War Minister for the British Empire added quickly,
“there is the military equation to factor in.”
“Meaning what, Duff,” King George asked with a slightly shocked look on his face.
“Your Majesty,” Cooper replied somewhat ashamedly,
“the Army and RAF have the same problem as the Royal Navy when it comes to operating in the Mediterranean and in North Africa. Vast distances to cover between supply depots. Also we have to take into consideration what troops to take from the defense of Egypt and East Africa and use in Albania and or Italy.”
“Wait,” the King growled with a dark look clouding his face as he broke into the Royal Plural.
“Are you telling Us that despite everything We’ve accomplished with the expansion of the armed forces, the Our War Minister is telling Us that We cannot conduct any military operations because Our Army, Navy and Air Force has insufficient forces?”
Knowing that his response could possible cost him his position as War Minister, Cooper took his job in his hands and knowing that he would have few supporters looked his sovereign in the eye and as respectfully as possible replied,
"Your Majesty, what has been accomplished with the Empire’s armed forces build up to date has simply brought the Empire to a position where it can adequately defend itself if attacked. Without the support of at least one of our allies, I would be remiss in my duties as your Minister of War if I did not caution Your Majesty against authorizing offensive operations at this time.”
“So what you are saying, Duff,” King George said as he visibly calmed himself and used his War Minister’s nickname to assure him that the Royal ire was not personal,
“is that my military is currently defensive but will eventually be offensive in nature.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Cooper replied with a silent sigh of thanks.
“Very well, then we will toss that option out. So what does that leave us?”
“Not to muddy the waters, so to speak, Your Majesty,” the Foreign Secretary said after taking a note from an aide that had just entered the room.
“However, Ambassador Wallis has sent a second cable to state that King Zog has formally requested asylum within the Empire.”
* -
Regia Marina – Italian for Royal Navy, official title of the Italian Navy
* - the
Seimas - the Lithuanian Parliament
Up next: What do we do for/with King Zog?