Anglo-German economic agreements as the starting point. In December 1938, Chamberlain gave a speech at a formal dinner of the correspondents of the German News Agency in London, with Dirksen present. When Chamberlain spoke of the "futility of ambition, if ambition leads to the desire for domination", Dirksen, who interpreted that remark as an implied criticism of Hitler, led all of the assembled German journalists to walk out in protest. In January 1939, Dirksen opened up talks with the Foreign Office for an Anglo-German coal agreement. Hitler had authorised Anglo-German economic talks in January 1939 as a smokescreen for the anti-British turn in his foreign policy. He approved the five-year Plan Z on 27 January 1939 for a gigantic fleet that was meant to crush the Royal Navy by 1944. The Z Plan called for six H-class battleships with 20-inch guns that would have been the largest battleships ever built if they had actually been constructed by dwarfing even Japan's Yamato class battleships, which were actually the largest battleships ever built, with their 18-inch guns. Building such truly colossal battleships took time and money and so required a period of Anglo-German peace. A notable contradiction existed in Hitler's strategic planning in 1939 between embarking on an anti-British foreign policy, whose major instruments were a vastly-expanded Kriegsmarine and a Luftwaffe capable of a strategic bombing offensive, which would take several years to build, and engaging in reckless short-term actions, such as attacking Poland, which were likely to cause a general war.Messerschmidt, Manfred "Foreign Policy and Preparation for War" from Germany and the Second World War Clarendon Press: Oxford, United Kingdom, 1990 pages 688–690. Ribbentrop, because of his status as the expert on Britain, resolved Hitler's dilemma by supporting the anti-British line and by repeatedly advising Hitler that Britain would not go to war for Poland in 1939. In February 1939, Dirksen invited Sir Oliver Stanley, the president of the Board of Trade, to visit Germany for economic talks in Berlin, which was taken as a sign in London that Germany wanted better relations. Dirksen also tried to have Economics Minister Walther Funk visit London for economics talks, but it was vetoed by Ribbentrop as a threat to his turf. Dirksen told British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax not to take the anti-British campaign personally in the German media that had been launched in November 1938 and said that it was only a