THE writer P.G. Wodehouse, creator of Bertie Wooster and his butler, Jeeves, was regarded as a vain and stupid man by British government officials and the secret services, secret papers revealed yesterday.
The papers say the author failed to realise that a series of wartime radio broadcasts he made after being interned in Germany turned him into an ogre figure as great as William Joyce, Lord Haw Haw.
Believing there was insufficient evidence, officials were more interested in Wodehouse and his wife, Ethel, staying out of the country than proceeding with treason charges, documents disclosed at the Public Record Office in Kew yesterday show.
Wodehouse was living in his villa in Le Touquet, northern France, as the Germans advanced after Dunkirk. The papers show he had believed the British consul would telephone him if the Germans got too near.
Instead, he found German troops in his front garden and was arrested and later interned in Germany.
While he was in Berlin he agreed to make a series of broadcasts which were identical to some he made on American radio before the war.
One document shows that the radio talks were not part of a deal to have himself freed from internment camps, and another says: "I agree with the view that P.G. Wodehouse is a person without political sense, only interested in creating humorous characters and incidents to please himself and his book buying public." It continues: "He was a silly ass and a selfish ass to broadcast, but there seems no point in trying to charge such an ass with treason."
Following his release from the camp the author was allowed to live in the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, where he was joined by Ethel. The broadcasts led to a storm of criticism. He was attacked in newspapers and Southport Council removed his books from libraries.
His wife immediately alerted him to the effect the broadcasts were having in England, and Wodehouse said: "I realised what a hideous mistake I had made and I have been longing for an opportunity to put myself right."
Wodehouse afterwards made his home in the US and always said he had been deeply hurt by his treatment in his native land. He died in February 1975, aged 93.