Add MS 89693

Contains detailed descriptions of German, British, and Libyan society on the eve of World War I.

1. Account of a visit to Berlin, with her husband, for the 11th World Dairy Congress (the 'Milk Conference' as Radcliffe, one of the delegates, calls it), 22-28 Aug 1937. As a delegate Radcliffe is given a tour of Berlin and describes swastikas flying from every window, a 'school for mothers', a girls' labour camp at Werde (not yet compulsory), and a compulsory boys' labour camp housing 180-200 young men. While in Berlin, Radcliffe and her husband stayed with Charles Bewley, an Irish envoy in Berlin. She records Irish and Argentinian diplomats' views on the Nazi leadership and state. Typewritten and heavily corrected in manuscript.

2. "The Crisis 1938", a detailed narrative of the days leading up to the Munich Agreement and London's preparations for possible war, 26-30 Sep 1938. She records diplomatic manoeuvrings, rumours of air raids, the fitting of gas masks, Hitler's speech threatening Czechoslovakia over Sudetenland, air raid precautions being put in place, Prime Minister Chamberlain's radio broadcast setting out efforts to find a peaceful solution, and, ultimately, the agreement. Manuscript.

3. Account of a visit to Tripoli, with her husband, for the 8th International Congress of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture, 13-17 Mar 1939. Includes a description of Italo Balbo, Governor-General of Libya, at this time a colony of fascist Italy; discussion of rumours that Germany had invaded Czechoslovakia and whether that would lead to war; attempts to verify the rumours being stymied by British news bulletins being withheld at Italian ports; a senior Italian army officer's view that Germany was going too far; and Radcliffe's husband's negative views on the success of the conference. Typewritten and heavily corrected in manuscript. Includes redrafts of some text, some of it in duplicate.