was possible to reach an Anglo-German deal with Göring, who was much more pragmatic than Ribbentrop. Dirksen found his room to maneuver had been greatly reduced by the Hudson affair hitting the press and that it was difficult to contact Wohlthat after he returned to Germany, on 21 July 1939. It was not until late August that Dirksen finally saw the report that Wohlthat had given to Göring on his return to Berlin in late July. Dirksen had supported the Wilson-Wohlthat meetings but had managed to hide his role enough to make it appear as only a minor player to protect himself from Ribbentrop, who he knew he would disapprove of them. On 31 July 1939, Ribbentrop's message to Dirksen attacked him severely for allowing the Wilson-Wohlthat talks even to take place, said that the British had no business in talking to one of Göring's men and demanded any negotiations conducted by the British to pass by him. Dirksen managed to save himself from worse trouble only by presenting Wilson as the one who had initiated the talks, which he portrayed to Ribbentrop to be a sign of British weakness. Ribbentrop had no interest in any sort of talks to resolve the German-Polish dispute, as he wanted a war in 1939, the Danzig dispute being a mere pretext. Count Hans-Adolf von Moltke, the German ambassador to Poland, had been ordered by Ribbentrop not to conduct talks with the Poles, as it always Ribbentrop's great fear in 1939 that the Poles might actually allow the Free City of Danzig to return to Germany, and for the same reason, Ribbentrop always refused to see Józef Lipski, the Polish ambassador to Germany. Only nine hours after Ribbentrop had attacked Dirksen for allowing the Wilson-Wohlthat talks to occur and ordered Dirksen to sabotage the talks, Weizsäcker sent Dirksen a cable asking if the British were prepared to sever their commitments to Poland and how serious the British were about having the Soviet Union join the "peace front". Dirksen, in response, sent Weizsäcker a cable stating "leading personages" in London were willing to abandon Poland if Germany promised not to take Danzig by force, and the entire strategy of the "peace front" would be disregarded if Germany was willing to take up the offers made by Wilson to Wohlthat. As for the Soviet Union joining the "peace front", Dirksen reported: "The continuation of negotiations for