African colonies that were now ruled by Britain. In response, Baron Ernst von Weizsäcker, the State Secretary of the Auswärtiges Amt, wrote back to Dirksen that the German media campaign hostile to British rearmament "was instigated on the direct orders of the Foreign Minister". Schorske noted that a "striking" aspect of the line of Anglo-German negotiations that Dirksen wanted to pursue in October 1938 was that reflected Chamberlain's priorities, such as disarmament and the possible return of the former German colonies in Africa, did not reflect Hitler's priorities, such as Czecho-Slovakia (the new name of Czechoslovakia since October 1938), the Memelland and Poland. In the last two weekends of October 1938, Dirksen made visits to the English countryside to meet Sir Samuel Hoare and Leslie Burgin for talks on an Anglo-German détente. Dirksen reported to the Wilhelmstrasse that both Hoare and Burgin wanted talks about an Anglo-German treaty to end the arms race; another treaty to "humanise" air war with bombing of cities and chemical weapons to be banned; a colonial settlement to return the former German colonies in Africa in exchanges for promises of no war in Europe and a British "guarantee" to protect Germany from the Soviet Union. The British historian D.C. Watt wrote: "This last is often cited by Soviet historians as proof of their thesis that the Cabinet was obsessed with the urge to provoke a German-Soviet war. Taken in its proper context, Hoare's ill-chosen remarks made it clear that the offer of a guarantee was intended to disarm any German arguments that Soviet strength in the air necessitated the maintenance of a large German Luftwaffe". Three weeks after the Munich Agreement, which Dirksen had predicted would allow an Anglo-German détente, Weizsäcker wrote to Dirksen, "Things here are moving rapidly, but not in the direction of Anglo-German rapprochement at present". In November 1938, Dirsken complained about the Kristallnacht solely under the grounds that it damaged Germany's image in Britain but made no moral condemnation of the pogrom at all. In early December 1938, Dirksen formally announced that his government planned to use the clauses in the Anglo-Naval Agreement to build a submarine fleet equal to Britain's and would upgrade two cruisers under construction from the 6-inch guns, which they were meant to have, to having instead 8-inch guns. In December 1938, Dirksen resumed his efforts for Anglo-German détente in the hope of negotiating a series of