The “high diplomacy” of the seating arrangements in Westminster Abbey during the coronation — with Spanish Loyalist next to German and Italian beside Russian — reminded a Daily Telegraph writer today of the time a Jewish Telegraphic Agency representative had to travel with a Nazi representative.
The writer, Peterborough, said German Ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop was placed next to the Spanish Ambassador, German War Minister Werner von Blomberg next to a Spanish Government representative, Ambassador Dino Grandi of Italy next to Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov and Countess Grandi next to Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maiski.
“I can call to mind the arrangements provided by the organizers of Il Duce’s recent tour in Libya,” the writer said. “They arranged the cars so that for a whole ten days the representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency sat next to the head of the Nazi press organization in Rome.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
