[Statement about Sir Frank Roberts]

Summary

This one-page English-language extract, headed “For Memoirs,” presents Sir Frank Roberts’s warning to Germans at Königswinter not to be misled by what he calls Britain’s tendency toward self-denigration. Roberts supports his appeal with a sequence of historical quotations expressing British pessimism: William Pitt in 1806, Lord Shaftesbury in 1848, Disraeli in 1849, and the Duke of Wellington in 1842.

Key points

• Sir Frank Roberts is identified as a former British ambassador to Bonn and as connected with the European activities of Unilever and Dunlop.
• Roberts appeals to Germans at Königswinter not to be deceived by British self-denigration.
• The extract argues that recurring British pessimism has a long historical pedigree.
• William Pitt, Lord Shaftesbury, Disraeli, and the Duke of Wellington are quoted as examples of earlier gloomy assessments of Britain.
• The historical quotations concern national ruin, industrial and agricultural decline, and fears of impending disaster.
• The sheet reproduces material from The Economist dated April 3, 1971, under the title “Germany and Britain: Well-heeled doubts.”