The Wilmington morning star., 1943-08-10
Moscow Dateline


paradox grows all the greater.
For the country which paid the
most, Germany, had without doubt
the best of the experts.
The German embassy at Mos
COW was as fine collection OF
diplomats, observers, and students
as has ever teen assembled in a
single mission. 1t was headed by
Graf Won der schulenburg, a dip
lomat IF the cid school, tall, gray
haired, distinguished in appear
ance, dignified and a1oof in bear
ing, subtle yet firm in his dealings.
He devoted a long career to Rus
sa, starting as consul in Tlflis,
ending as dean of the diplomatic
corps in Moscow. To all who knew
him he was the ideal ambassador
and his staff was the ideal staff.
The military side of that en-
bassy was equally imposing. It
was headed by General Ernest
koestriag, the highest ranking of
the military attaches, the dean of
them all, just as Schulenburg was
the dean of the diplomats. He.
too, had been born in Russia, Of
German parents. had passed much
of his career here and should have
known the country. He, too, had
large staff of intelligent trained
observers.
What happened to the dispatches
.x,L;,b ,,o,,ef Il ,r,o 6nev f,1r,eI -
by this brilliant constellation of
experts? The truth is hidden in
the archives OF the Wilhelmstrasse.
and may never be known. There
are two possible explanations for
why Grmany was so wrong in
her estimate of the Soviet Union.
These experts must have had some
inkling of the enormous might Of
tie state the7 had lived in for so
long and studied so intently. But
their dispatches might have been
colored by what they knew their
Fuehrer wanted to hear, an ac-
count of misery, weakness, and
o'sorganization under Communism.
And what they did dare say might
have been dtsregarded by superb
crs who hypnotized themselves by
their own anti-Comirtern propa-
gdnda.
The other side of the Axis, Italy,
also had a capable embassy. It
vas headed by Augusta Rosso, an
ether career diplomat of the old
school, but tre complete antithe-
sis of Schulenburg, small in stat
IRE, friendly in manner, and
gentle in his dealings. He had
served brilliantly in Washington,
cut here his day was passed.
The expert of the Italian en-
bassy was Guido Relli, whose
rank was that of attache, b u t
whose knowledge of Russia was
assumed to be enormous.
The Allies, too, had their ex-
rerts. The most industrious were
the members of the coffee club
Known as the GETS. the initials
standing for Greek, English, Turk
'Sh. and Serb. the principals being
Christophe Diamantopoulos, minis
ter of Greece, Sir Stafford Cripps,
ambassador ot Great Britain, Hal
dar Aktay, ambassador of Turkey,
and Milan Gavrilovich, minister
Of Yugoslavia. They gathered each
morning. usually in the unlit sit
ting room of Sir Stafford, at the
back of the British embassy, once
the home of tte Haritonenko fam
lily of sugar merchants, across the
river from the Kremlin. They sat
over their coffee, looking through
the tall windows. facing Sir Stat
ford's garden and tennis court, de-
hated The problems, information,
and Interpretation of the day.
The GETS big trouble was that
they were not on the inside In
the days when the Soviet Union
vas trying to keep out of trouble
with Germany it was a rare oc-
easion when one of their number
could get into the Kremlin. When
he did, it was usually only to see
a second-rate figure. They had ac-
cess to little information beyond