return to Germany and criticizing Chamberlain for the "guarantee" of Poland, which Dirksen thought was proof that British public opinion was changing. Dirksen also wrote that "a surprise initiative on the part of Chamberlain is within the bounds of probability and it is quite possible that rumor current here, that he will approach Germany with new proposals after the completion of the negotiations with the Russians will materialize into fact in one form or another". In Dirksen's view, the proposed alliance with the Soviet Union that would form the eastern anchor of the "peace front" was merely a negotiating tactic for a Munich-type deal to resolve the Danzig Crisis, rather than to deter Germany from invading Poland. In early July 1939, Dirksen reported to the Wilhelmstrasse that British public opinion would come to understand the "justice" of the German demand for the Free City of Danzig to be allowed to return to Germany. Dirksen wrote: "The wave of excitement will ebb as soon as it rose, as soon as the proper conditions exist. The most important condition is a quieter atmosphere in England which will permit a more unprejudiced examination of the German viewpoint. The germs of this already exist. Within the Cabinet and a small, but influential group of politicians, a desire is manifested to pass from the negativity of the encirclement front to a more constructive policy towards Germany. And however strong the counter-forces trying to stifle this tender plant may be-Chamberlain's personality is a certain guarantee that a British policy will not be placed in the hands of unscrupulous adventurers (i.e Churchill, Eden, etc)". On the British efforts to build a "peace front", Dirksen explained it to Berlin as a result of a "dual policy" by the Chamberlain government. Dirksen reported: "England wants by means of armament and the acquisition of allies to make herself strong and equal to the Axis, but at the same time she wants by means of negotiation to seek an adjustment with Germany and is prepared to make sacrifices for it: on the question of colonies, raw materials supplies, Lebensraum, and spheres of economic influence". In private, Dirksen complained that Ribbentrop's relentless Anglophobia unnecessarily inflamed Anglo-German relations by making Ribbentrop persist in presenting to Hitler every move in British foreign policy in the worse possible light. Dirksen told the Foreign Office in an "off-the-record" meeting that a high-level Englishman who was fluent