Neville Chamberlain Liveblogs the Nazi Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Neville Chamberlain's speech to the Birmingham Unionist Association, March 17, 1939:
An Attempt to Dominate the World by Force: I had intended tonight to talk to you upon a variety of subjects, upon trade and employment, upon social service, and upon finance. But the tremendous events which have been taking place this week in Europe have thrown everything else into the background, and I feel that what you, and those who are not in this hall but are listening to me, will want to hear is some indication of the views of His Majesty’s Government as to the nature and the implications of those events....
Last Wednesday... German troops entered Czechoslovakia....
I have never denied that the terms which I was able to secure at Munich were not those that I myself would have desired. But, as I explained then, I had to deal with no new problem.... I have no need to defend my visits to Germany last autumn, for what was the alternative? Nothing that we could have done, nothing that France could have done, or Russia could have done could possibly have saved Czechoslovakia from invasion and destruction....
Bohemia and Moravia have been annexed to the German Reich. Non-German inhabitants, who, of course, include the Czechs, are placed under the German Protector in the German Protectorate... subject to the political, military and economic needs of the Reich.... Perhaps most sinister of all, we hear again of the appearance of the Gestapo, the secret police, followed by the usual tale of wholesale arrests of prominent individuals, with consequences with which we are all familiar.
Every man and woman in this country who remembers the fate of the Jews and the political prisoners in Austria must be filled today with distress and foreboding. Who can fail to feel his heart go out in sympathy to the proud and brave people who have so suddenly been subjected to this invasion, whose liberties are curtailed, whose national independence has gone? What has become of this declaration of “No further territorial ambition”? What has become of the assurance “We don’t want Czechs in the Reich”? What regard had been paid here to that principle of self-determination on which Herr Hitler argued so vehemently with me at Berchtesgaden when he was asking for the severance of Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia and its inclusion in the German Reich?...
If it is so easy to discover good reasons for ignoring assurances so solemnly and so repeatedly given, what reliance can be placed upon any other assurances that come from the same source?... [T]he events which have taken place this week... must cause us all to be asking ourselves: “Is this the end of an old adventure, or is it the beginning of a new?” “Is this the last attack upon a small State, or is it to be followed by others? Is this, in fact, a step in the direction of an attempt to dominate the world by force?”...
I do not believe there is anyone who will question my sincerity when I say there is hardly anything I would not sacrifice for peace. But there is one thing that I must except, and that is the liberty that we have enjoyed for hundreds of years, and which we will never surrender. That I, of all men, should feel called upon to make such a declaration--that is the measure of the extent to which these events have shattered the confidence... which... might have made this year memorable for the return of all Europe to sanity and stability.
It is only six weeks ago that I... pointed out that any demand to dominate the world by force was one which the democracies must resist.... I added that I could not believe that such a challenge was intended, because no Government with the interests of its own people at heart could expose them for such a claim to the horrors of world war.
And, indeed, with the lessons of history for all to read, it seems incredible that we should see such a challenge....
[N]o greater mistake could be made than to suppose that, because it believes war to be a senseless and cruel thing, this nation... will not take part to the utmost of its power in resisting such a challenge.... I have not merely the support, the sympathy, the confidence of my fellow-countrymen and countrywomen, but... the approval of the whole British Empire and of all other nations who value peace, indeed, but who value freedom even more.
