| Summary/Abstract |
On Tuesday 7 July 1936, a few weeks before the spectacular opening by Adolf Hitler of the Berlin Olympics, seven men sat around a large ornate table in a four-story building just opposite the entrance to Downing Street to discuss what was known of the growing military challenge that Germany posed for the British Empire. Six of the men were officers representing the intelligence staffs of the Royal Navy, Army, and Royal Air Force (RAF). The seventh was a shadowy civilian whose background was in an organization that had then no official existence, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). The building in which the meeting was taking place, No. 2 Whitehall Gardens, had previously made history when an earlier occupant, Benjamin Disraeli, had held meetings of his Cabinet there.
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