How the Fuhrer knew Lloyd George

A HOME movie of the controversial and warm meeting between Adolf Hitler and the former Liberal Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, in 1936 was shown yesterday at an emotional screening for members of his family.

Among the audience at the Lloyd George Museum, Llanystumdwy, were descendants of his private secretary, A J Sylvester, who shot the 17- minute film, which has been painstakingly restored by experts in Wales and Germany.

It shows Lloyd George greeting Hitler at his Bavarian retreat and drinking wine. He called the Fuhrer 'a great and wonderful leader . . . the saviour of Germany.' Sylvester said: 'Looking back there was a deliberate purpose behind the elaborate hospitality for LLoyd George and his party.'

Lloyd George's biographer, John Grigg, said he had been impressed by Hitler's unemployment policies, and thought he was basically rational. He added: 'Lloyd George wasn't free from vanity. Hitler was nice to him.'

(Photograph omitted)