Prague he could easily have afforded to leave alone now that he had neutralised Czechoslovakia; a sudden swoop on Danzig and there would then remain only Russia who would have had to fight a hopeless single-handed war. "Also some people open their mouths too wide. Had he been content to continue as he had started, with the same caution and astute sense of timing, quietly waiting until French and British vigilance dissipated, as it surely would without further provocation, it is highly probable that he would have succeeded. I am glad so many people think that sweet reasonableness has prevailed, but what actually did it accomplish? In a few years it will be one again. Hitler did not even have to send an ultimatum to Czechoslovakia. Later that day the National Council of Labour issued a statement saying that it viewed "with dismay the reported proposals of the British and French Governments for the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia under the brutal threat of armed force by Nazi Germany and without prior consultation with the Czechoslovak Government. He exclaimed furiously soon after the meeting with Chamberlain: "Gentlemen, this has been my first international conference and I can assure you that it will be my last". After the summit, the British prime minister Chamberlain returned to Great Britain where he declared that the Munich agreement meant "peace for our time". (72), Chamberlain and Daladier argued amongst themselves about who would tell the Czech government about the agreement. (For he keeps his threats, though not his promises.) Neville Chamberlain now appointed fellow appeaser, Lord Halifax, as his new foreign secretary. Its capital, Prague, was less than forty miles from the new frontier. The Manchester Guardian reported: "Politically, Czechoslovakia is rendered helpless with all that it means to the balance of forces in Eastern Europe, and Hitler will be able to advance again, when it chooses, with greatly increased force." If he failed to stand up to Hitler, he risked making Britain look "ridiculous as well as contemptible in the eyes of the world". Chamberlain did that for him. Chamberlain told his sister that "as for the House of Commons there can be no question that I have got the confidence of our people as Stanley Baldwin never had it." The last leader to visit the country was Benjamin Disraeli when he attended the Congress of Berlin in 1878. Neville Chamberlain claimed that he received over 20,000 letters and telegrams of praise and numerous gifts from people at home and abroad. (77). He thought that we were now in a more hopeful position, and that the contacts which had been established with the Dictator Powers opened up the possibility that we might be able to reach some agreement with them which would stop the armament race. How, he asked, could Chamberlain expect the Czechs "to commit such an act of folly and cowardice?" [5], Adolf Hitler greets British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on the steps of the Berghof, September 15, 1938, On 20 May, Hitler presented his Generals with an interim draft for an attack on Czechoslovakia codenamed Operation Green,[6] whereby he insisted that he would not "smash Czechoslovakia" militarily without "provocation", "a particularly favourable opportunity" or "adequate political justification". ", Adolf Hitler's Early Life (Answer Commentary), Adolf Hitler and the First World War (Answer Commentary), Adolf Hitler and the German Workers' Party (Answer Commentary), Adolf Hitler and the Beer Hall Putsch (Answer Commentary), Adolf Hitler the Orator (Answer Commentary), Who Set Fire to the Reichstag? I believe it is peace for our time." ", It was now time to change course and form an alliance with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany. (135). On the following day, Carpathian Ruthenia proclaimed independence as well, but after three days was completely occupied by Hungary. Already, say Reuter's correspondent, everyone seems to have an acquaintance who has disappeared. [3] The Czechoslovakian government responded by saying that it was willing to provide more minority rights to the German minority but it refused to grant them autonomy. By seizing Bohemia and Moravia the Third Reich gained all the skilled labour force and heavy industry placed there as well as all the weapons of the Czechoslovakian army. [18] Upon being told of this, Hitler responded "Does this mean that the Allies have agreed with Prague's approval to the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany? Czech refugees expelled from the Sudetenland at the Refugees Office October 1938. His policy is a policy of two left feet walking backward! He had been assured, reassured, and fortified in the opinion that in no case would Great Britain fight. A question that vitally affects all Europe should be discussed by Europe. And now let us go back to our own affairs. On the day that he returned to London, a crowd of over 10,000 people massed in Whitehall, shouting "Stand by the Czechs!" On 24 April, the SdP issued a series of demands upon the government of Czechoslovakia, that were known as the Carlsbad Program. The local Labour and Liberal parties decided that they would support the anti-appeasement candidate, A. D. Lindsay, who was the was vice-chancellor of Oxford University. I pointed out that the Chiefs of Staff had reported on the previous day that immediate mobilisation was of urgent and vital importance, and I suggested that we might one day have to explain why we had disregarded their advice. On September 30 after some rest, Chamberlain went to Hitler and asked him to sign a peace treaty between the United Kingdom and Germany. name from a sign in the disputed region. Another important figure was George Steward, Downing Street's chief press liaison officer who, MI5 discovered, had told an official at the German Embassy that Britain would "give Germany everything she asks for the next year". Chamberlain pointed out that he had already risked his entire political reputation to gain the Anglo-French plan and if he marched into the Sudetenland, his political career would be destroyed. It took place the day before the signing of the pact in Hitler’s Munich headquarters, the Führerbau. We have had to choose between making a desperate and hopeless defence, which would have meant the sacrifice of an entire generation of our adult men, as well as of our women and children, and accepting, without a struggle and under pressure, terms which are without parallel in history for the ruthlessness. We shall not surrender, we shall hold the land of our fathers." From beginning to end Hitler had not shown the slightest sign of yielding on a single point. "We, the German Führer and Chancellor and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for the two countries and for Europe. —UCLA Film and Television Archive (28), Samuel Hoare, the Home Secretary, was given the task of persuading the newspapers to support Chamberlain's plan. A new cabinet, under General Jan Syrový, was installed and on September 23 a decree of general mobilization was issued. On the contrary, they would increase their lead. In politics, as in physics, you come to a point where you cannot go on splitting things. After a brief interview with Chamberlain, he made his way to Buckingham Palace to hand in his seals of office. If we must have a victor, let us choose Chamberlain. Czechoslovakia also lost 70% of its iron/steel, 70% of its electrical power and 3.5 million citizens to Germany as a result of the settlement.[27]. Only two ministers supported Chamberlain, James Stanhope, the President of the Board of Education, and Kingsley Wood, the Secretary of State for Air, who argued that the prime minister's visits had "made a considerable impression in Germany and had probably done more to weaken Nazism than any other event in recent years." The partition of Czechoslovakia under Anglo-French pressure amounts to a complete surrender by the Western Democracies to the Nazi threat of force." (97), Winston Churchill now decided to break with the government over its appeasement policy and two days after Attlee's speech made his move. For example, The Times, the most consistent supporter of appeasement among in the national press, suggested that "German policy no longer seeks the protection of a moral case" and urged a policy of close co-operation with other nations to resist Hitler. But neither Chamberlain nor Daladier made a cheep of protest. Meanwhile the past is past, however shameful. Suicides have begun. I ventured to appeal to the Government to go a little further than the Prime Minister went, and to give a pledge that in conjunction with France and other Powers they would guarantee the security of Czechoslovakia while the Sudeten-Deutsch question was being examined either by a League of Nations Commission or some other impartial body, and I still believe that if that course had been followed events would not have fallen into this disastrous state.
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