BERLIN, Friday, March 1, 1940.
 
     At noon on the day of my arrival in Berlin I was escorted to the Foreign Office Building, 
 
adjacent to Bismarck's old Chancery in the Wilhelmstrasse, by the Chief of Protocol, Herr von 
 
Doernberg, to an interview with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Herr von Ribbentrop. Mr. Kirk, 
 
the American Charge- d'Affaires, who had never previously been received by Ribbentrop, 
 
accompanied me at my request to the interview.
          
     Every official of the Foreign Office was dressed in military uniform, and at the top of the
 
stairs, after passing the two sphinxes at the portal which date from Bismarck's time, there were
 
stationed storm-troopers in stained uniforms.
 
          After waiting in an anteroom for three minutes, I was shown into Herr von Ribbentrop's
 
office.
     
     The Minister received me at the door, glacially, and without the semblance of a smile or a
 
word of greeting. I expressed my pleasure at being afforded the opportunity of talking with him,
 
and spoke in English, since I knew that he spoke English fluently, having passed--as a wine
 
salesman--several years in England, and four years in the United States and Canada. The Minister
 
looked at me icily and barked at the famous Dr. Schmidt, the official interpreter, who stood
 
behind him, "Interpret".
 
          We then sat down. The Minister turned to me and asked in German whether I had had a
 
comfortable Journey. I turned to Dr. Schmidt, and saying in English that I had lost my facility in
 
speaking German, expressed my appreciation of the courtesy of the German Government in
 
sending a private car to the border and an official to meet me there.
 
          I then said that I believed it desirable at the outset to make quite clear the nature of my
 
mission. I was requested by the President to visit Italy, Germany, France