IN the writing of this book I have been the fortunate recipient of much help and criticism from a number of friends to whom I would express my most sincere gratitude.

To my friends : Mr. James Joll of St. Antony's College ; Mr. Alan Bullock, the Censor of St. Catherine's Society ; Mr. James Passant, Mr. Brian Melland and the Hon. Margaret Lambert, all of whom have read the typescript of the book, I am immensely grateful for much stimulating and helpful, comment and advice, to which both I and my book owe much. It is also with warm gratitude that I acknowledge my debt to Professor Sir Lewis Namier, whose wisdom, criticism and counsel have ever been to me a source of pleasure and improvement.

I am also greatly in the debt of many, both in England and in Germany, who have assisted me in the compilation and checking of facts, or in other ways. I would mention, with particular gratitude : the Bishop of Chichester, Dr. George Bell ; the Warden of Wadham College, Sir Maurice Bowra ; the Warden of St. Antony's College, Mr. F. W. D. Deakin ; Dr. K. T. Parker, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum ; Sir George Ogilvie Forbes ; Sir Nevile Bland ; Major-General Sir Kenneth Strong ; Mr. Ian Colvin and others.

I must also gratefully acknowledge the very considerable obligation which I have incurred for the generous, kindly, efficient and indispensable aid which I have constantly received from Miss A. C. Johnston and her staff in the Documents Section of the Foreign Office Library, and from Dr. Alfred Wiener and his staff of the Wiener Library, 19 Manchester Square, W.I.

In the field of technical help, my most sincere thanks are due to Miss Elizabeth Wilson for the excellence of her translations, and to her and Mrs. P. E. Baker for their indefatigable and meticulous checking and correction of the proofs ; to my secretaries, Miss Juliet Heaton and Miss Dorothy Bonnaire, who between them have laboured through the typing of the whole MS. ; and to my wife for her invaluable assistance in the compilation of the bibliography.

J. W. W.-B.