word, Goebbels ordered the Germans newspapers not to mention Rothermere's visit to the Berghof, which thus passed unnoticed at the time. In an article in February 1937, Rothermere called Czechoslovakia "a sham" and wrote that the Czechs "were a crafty race" who would soon "rue their evil-doings" now that Hitler ruled Germany. In an article in May 1937, Rothermere called for Britain, France, Belgium and South Africa to return the former German African colonies, writing this was the best way to prevent another world war. In regard to the Sino-Japanese war, Rothermere used the Daily Mail to attack the British policy of supporting China and urged that the British government should make a deal accepting China as being in the Japanese sphere of influence in exchange for a promise from Japan to not to seize any of the British colonies in Asia. In the Sudetenland crisis of 1938, Rothermere used The Daily Mail to attack Beneš, whom Rothermere noted disapprovingly in a leader in July 1938 had signed an alliance with the Soviet Union in 1935, leading him to accuse Beneš of turning "Czechoslovakia into a corridor for Russia against Germany". Rothermere concluded his leader: "If Czechoslovakia becomes involved in a war, the British nation will say to the Prime Minister with one voice: 'Keep out of it!'" On another occasion, on 1 October 1938, Rothermere sent Hitler a telegram in support of Germany's occupation of the Sudetenland, and expressed the hope that "Adolf the Great" would become a popular figure in Britain. In November 1938, Rothermere went to Hungary to attend the celebrations that followed the annexation of Czechoslovakia following the First Vienna Award. Numerous secret British MI5 papers relating to the war years were declassified and released in 2005. They show that Rothermere wrote to Adolf Hitler in 1939 congratulating him for the annexation of Czechoslovakia, and encouraging him to invade Romania. He described Hitler's work as "great and superhuman". Despite the way that Hitler had just violated the Munich Agreement by turning the Czech part of Czechoslovakia into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Rotheremere warmly supported the annexation and reflecting his pro-Hungarian views urged a German invasion of Romania, which he reminded Hitler was rich in oil. The British journalist John Simpson noted that Rothermere was somewhat unusual in supporting the German violation of the Munich Agreement, which turned many of the other British 'enthusiasts' for