Then for the \u00ef\u00ac\u0081rst time I spoke. I said I would have no communication with either of the Opposition parties until I had the King’s Commission to form a Government. On this the momentous conversation came to an end, and we reverted to our ordinary easy and familiar manners of men who had worked for years together and whose lives in and out of of\u00ef\u00ac\u0081ce had been spent in the friendliness of British politics. I then went back to the Admiralty, where, as may well he imagined, much awaited me.<\/p>\n
The Dutch Ministers were in my room. Haggard and worn, with horror in their eyes, they had just \u00ef\u00ac\u201aown over from Amsterdam. Their country had been attacked without the slightest pretext or warning. The avalanche of \u00ef\u00ac\u0081re and steel had rolled across the frontiers, and when resistance broke out and the Dutch frontier guards \u00ef\u00ac\u0081red an overwhelming onslaught was made from the air. The whole country was in a state of wild confusion.<\/p>\n