The Times, Norman Ebbut and the Nazis, 1927-37

Abstract

The existing studies of The Times and appeasement concentrate on the domestic causes of editorial policy and the relationship between The Times' editor, Geoffrey Dawson, and the British government.' These studies have never been seriously challenged, which is surprising as most were written by people closely involved with the newspaper. In them, the appeasers of The Times are charged with the systematic censorship of articles by Norman Ebbut, The Times' Berlin correspondent from 1927 to 1937 to suit the needs of British diplomacy.2 The main defence against these charges can be found in biographies of Geoffrey Dawson3 and Barrington-Ward, the deputy editor,4 and in the memoirs of journalists on The Times who claim that Ebbut's articles were cut but not censored or distorted, and all deny that the paper had an active policy of appeasement.5 What has been neglected is any serious attempt to examine the role of Norman Ebbut, whose articles and relationships with the appeasers lie at the heart of the whole controversy. Ebbut has been argued over but never examined in his own right. This is unfortunate, as he was one of a very select group of contemporary Englishmen with a close knowledge of the editorial team on The Times and the nazis. This article, by exploring Ebbut's relationship with The Times and the nazis, not only casts doubt on the validity of the existing studies of The Times and appeasement, but explores one of the complex set of Anglo-German relationships which produced the image presented of nazism in the British press, which, in its own small way, helped to prevent the brutal nature of nazism being viewed as a major barrier to solving German grievances by a policy of appeasement. The early career of Norman Ebbut can be quickly sketched. He arrived in Berlin as deputy correspondent in 1925 and became a chief correspondent in 1927. His wide knowledge of German affairs, his