a pact with Russia, in spite of – or rather, just because of – the dispatch of a military mission is regarded here with skepticism. This is borne out by the composition of the British military mission: the admiral, until now the Commandant of Portsmouth, is practically in retirement, and was never on the staff of the Admiralty; the general is likewise purely a combat officer; the air general is an outstanding aviator and air instructor, but not a strategist. This indicates the value of the military mission is more to ascertain the fighting value of the Soviet Army rather than to make operational arrangements.... The Wehrmacht attachés are agreed in observing a surprising skepticism in British military circles about the forthcoming talks with the Soviet armed forces".Shirer, William The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, New York: Viking, 1960 page 503. Dirksen also noted the British military mission to the Soviet Union, which was headed by Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, was taking a ship, the City of Exeter, which not noted for its speed, which Dirksen used to argue that the British were not really serious about having the Soviet Union join the "peace front". Dirksen believed that the report would win Hitler to a plan that would "chemically dissolve the Danzig problem" and not seek war, but instead, Ribbentrop used Dirksen's report to argue to Hitler that the British were cowards who were unwilling to go war for Poland, as was proven by Dirksen's statement that the British were not really interested in having the Soviet Union join the "peace front". On 3 August 1939, Dirksen had his final meeting with Wilson. The accounts left by Dirksen and Wilson of the meeting are so different that they are impossible to reconcile. Wilson's account has him insisting that Germany had to take the initiative to end the Danzig crisis and with Wilson pressing Dirksen on why Hitler was not acting on the back channel that he opened to try to end the crisis. Dirksen, by contrast, portrayed Wilson as being desperate for any sort of concession and reproduced Wilson's warnings of war as an expression of British fear of German might. The Canadian historian Michael Jabara Carley summarised the differences between the German and British accounts of the Wilson-Dirksen meeting: "According to Wilson, Dirksen proposed an agenda of items that would interest Hitler, according to Dirksen,