Airminded» Post-blogging the Sudeten crisis

E-booking the Sudeten Crisis

Brett Holman — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:15:18 +0000

After knocking together The Scareship Age, I started working on turning my Sudeten crisis posts into an e-book version. I knew there'd be a fair amount of work, but I underestimated the value of 'fair'. Finding and cleaning up formatting errors is a very slow and tedious business, as is creating an index (though it helped to have done a PDF version already). Anyway, the EPUB and MOBI versions of Post-blogging the Sudeten Crisis: The British Press, August-October 1938 are now available from the downloads page.

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Sudeten crisis of August-October 1938. See here for an introduction to the series, and here for a conclusion. The entire series can be downloaded in EPUB, MOBI or PDF format.

PDFing the Sudeten crisis

Brett Holman — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:40:07 +0000

I've put the series of posts I did a couple of years ago on the Sudeten crisis into one big PDF file called, rather grandiosely, Post-blogging the Sudeten Crisis: The British Press, August-October 1938 (147 pages, 5.6 Mb). It's freely available for download under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. It's very bloggy in style, but I've also added a basic index and put in internal links between the chapters (posts). My Sudeten posts are probably the best thing I've done with this blog, and they've been linked to from a few educational sites as well as Wikipedia. So by putting them into this format I hope they'll be made accessible to a wider audience. (I've been inspired in this by the work Evangeline Holland has been doing over at Edwardian Promenade.)

The conversion was done using a nifty tool called WPTEX. This is some PHP which hooks into WordPress's functions and reads out and formats your posts into LaTeX format. It didn't quite do what I wanted but with some PHP and LaTeX hackery I think it turned out pretty nice in the end.

Post-blogging the Sudeten crisis: thoughts and conclusions

Brett Holman — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:10:48 +0000

So the Sudeten crisis experiment has ended. How useful has it been?

I think it's been a very different view of the crisis. It's small-scale, not big-picture; confused, not lucid; bottom-up, not top-down (well, sorta: it could be more bottom-up). Most accounts that I've read are from the diplomatic-political-military point of view: Chamberlain's decision to fly to Berchtesgaden, Churchill's denunciations of the Munich agreement, the lack of readiness of the RAF to defend London. Some of these things are not apparent from the day-to-day press accounts, while others are, but take on a different complexion. For example, Plan Z -- Chamberlain's flight -- was not the sudden, impulsive act that it appeared to be from the press accounts which appeared on 15 September. He had in fact conceived of the idea days earlier -- he announced it to Cabinet on 12 September, and had discussed the idea with Halifax even earlier. Churchill does appear in the press record from time to time, but his voice was only one among many, even among appeasement's critics, and not the loudest. His years in the wilderness seem much more significant in retrospect: 1938 was not 1940. And the RAF is practically nowhere to be seen. Nobody's questioning whether it's ready for war or not, whether it can defend London or bomb Berlin -- with very few exceptions, it's just ignored, as being of no account.

The things which stand out for me are fourfold, corresponding to the evolution of the crisis itself. Firstly, there are the events on the ground in Czechoslovakia and the Sudetenland itself. The accounts publish in the British press likely were not fully accurate -- rarely were British correspondents there in person, and some reports came from the Nazi-influenced German press, which definitely can't be taken at face value. But it's clear that there was real tension and some violence between Sudetens and Czechs, and this seems to have convinced people that there was a real problem that wasn't going to go away.

The next phase, which started shortly after Chamberlain's first flight (and the subsequent visit to London by Daladier) is marked by the Anglo-French plan to cede the Sudetenland to Germany. It was generally assumed that this would solve the problem, because it gave Hitler what he said he wanted. But it was this plan that caused deep cleavages in British public opinion -- at least as expressed in the letters columns. Some applauded Chamberlain's work in preserving peace in Europe, other his caving to threats of force by a dictatorship. On balance, I'd guess that the latter group were composed of people already opposed to Chamberlain and appeasement -- mainly the left -- whereas the former had more moderates as well as conservatives.

After that came Hitler's shocking demand for the Czechs to cede the Sudetenland by 1 October. No more talking, no more diplomacy: the territory was to be handed over or else taken by force. This ultimatum upped the ante so ridiculously, given the generosity to Germany of the Anglo-French plan, that it began to look like it was war that Hitler wanted, or at least the destruction of Czechoslovakia, rather than gathering ethnic Germans to the Fatherland. No matter how earnest Chamberlain's diplomacy, he might not be able to prevent war. And it was now that the possibility, in fact the probability of war sank in to the British public. Schools closed to become distribution centres for gas masks (ARP Sunday). Parks in cities around the country were ripped up to provide trenches for air raid shelters. Reservists were called up. Schoolchildren began to be evacuated to the country. People worried about what to do about their pets in the event of a gas attack. Anxiety and fear were clearly widespread. The knock-out blow seemed imminent.

Which explains the intense relief at the sudden resolution of the crisis at Munich. Chamberlain was cheered on his return, thanks were given in church, a hospital bed was donated in his name. And why not? That weekend might otherwise have seen tens of thousands of civilians be killed or maimed in London alone -- or so it was feared. But that doesn't mean Chamberlain got a free pass. He was criticised in Parliament and in the letter columns. Britain was not united either during the crisis or after it. There was a section of the public which was prepared to face the risks of aerial bombardment and go to war, not so much for the sake of a far-away country of which they knew nothing but to stop Hitler from running rampant through Europe. But there was another, probably larger group, which did not see why there should be war with Germany over the Sudeten issue.

From that point of view, my reading of this exercise is that it supports the idea that appeasement was necessary, among other reasons, in order to convince the British people that everything possible -- within reason -- had been done to accommodate Hitler's demands. And this was supposedly the last of them: according to Hitler himself, his last territorial demand in Europe. In March 1939 he proved that to be a lie when Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. There was then no question that Hitler could be appeased, and when another crisis built over the summer of 1939, this time over Poland, there was no question of appeasing anybody. Well, that's not strictly true, of course, but there seem to have been fewer divisions of opinion than there were during the Sudeten crisis.

As far as an experiment in blogging goes, I think the series has been a success. It was a lot of work, that's for sure, something like 30,000 words in total. And I even wrote a chapter of my thesis in the same period, and put in a few extra hours at work too! But the series didn't quite pan out as planned. I had initially hoped to talk about radio and even television coverage of the crisis, but there was far too much material to cover just from the dailies so I had to drop that idea, and the same happened with the weeklies as the crisis heated up. I also couldn't cover all the issues that cropped up, even sporadically; for example, in its letters pages The Times hosted an interesting debate about moral rearmament, which I didn't mention at all. So, inevitably, I had to make choices about what to include and what to leave out, framing the material within my own narrative choices. So readers weren't experiencing an unmediated recreation of the Sudeten crisis, but my own version of it. But that's history for you.

I wonder how these posts will be used in future. They were designed to be read sequentially, day-by-day, and some of you have done so; but in future I expect people will more commonly surf in randomly from search engines, maybe read a few entries and surf out again. The context built up by following the development of the crisis will be lost. Also, as far as search engines go, my pedantic insistence on "Sudeten crisis" over "Munich crisis" may be a hindrance; on Google I come in at 4th place for the former term but only 49th for the latter, and even then that was for my earlier post on terminology.

At this point, I'd be very interested to hear what (if anything!) you, the readers, took from this exercise, either as history or as blogging or both!

Saturday, 8 October 1938

Brett Holman — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:45:37 +0000

As The Times reports today (p. 12), the Berlin Commission of Ambassadors which is implementing the Munich agreement has finished demarcating the major zones to be transferred to Germany, and has adjourned until Monday. But there's still much to do. For example, there's still the question of what to about Sudeten Germans outside the transfer zones. Originally their fate was to be decided by plebiscite, but it seems an exchange of populations is now preferred by the Commission. This might mean that the volunteers of the British Legion, who are to police the plebiscite areas, won't be going after all (Manchester Guardian, p. 17). The British Legion Volunteer Police are nearly ready to go, however, if called upon: they paraded in their uniforms ('blue serge suit with special constable's peaked cap') at Olympia yesterday and will do so again today (The Times, p. 9). The President of the Legion's North-Eastern Area, Brigadier-General E. P. A. Riddell, sent the following letter to the contingent from his section:

You are going to a foreign country as Great Britain's representatives of peace and order. On your personal conduct, tact, and understanding depends the success of your mission. The prestige of England and the British Legion is in your keeping. One false step on your part might have disastrous results for your country and your great organization. Watch your step. I wish I were physically fit to go with you. God bless you and guide you.

On the other hand, the National Council of Labour (representing the Labour Party, parliamentary and national executive, and the Trades Union Congress) is going to send observers to Prague:

[...] so that it may receive direct information of the consequences of the carrying out of the Munich Agreement and, in particular, learn the position of the minority of German democrats, Jews, and Czechs in the ceded territories.

This group is estimated to number about a million people; there are many refugees and reports, already, of concentration camps being set up the occupying Germans. The Council will need to secure Foreign Office approval first, but Attlee and Arthur Greenwood have been to see Halifax already so perhaps that's a formality.

Herbert Morrison, leader of the London County Council, has asked for 35000 ARP volunteers, men and women, in particular for fire and ambulance services (Daily Mail, p. 5). Men aged between 18 and 25 are not eligible. The Daily Mail understands (p. 11) that all major cities are to get balloon barrages (London's is going into operation today for the first time). And the Air Ministry has announced that officers and men of Auxiliary Air Force fighter and balloon squadrons, called up on 26 September, are to be released from service.

The head boys of Bembridge School on the Isle of Wight sent this letter to Chamberlain (The Times, p. 7):

To the Right Hon. Neville Chamberlain.

Dear Prime Minister, -- At the unanimous wish of the boys of the school we desire to express our gratitude for your supreme achievement in preventing war. Many of those on whose behalf we are addressing to you this letter would have been amongst the first victims of the threatened war, for, although we are not yet old enough to vote and have no influence on public policy, we should have been called upon almost immediately to sacrifice perhaps our lives. We are thus representative of many millions of the youth of the world.

We thank you for your courage, patience, and wisdom and for the further steps of justice and conciliation which you have outlined for the appeasement of Europe.

We are, dear Prime Minister, very respectfully and sincerely yours,
(Signed by head boys).

Late-breaking news on the flight of the Mercury: flares have been set up at Table Bay (near Capetown) to guide it in (Daily Mail, p. 11).

Well, that's the last of my post-blogs on the Sudeten crisis! In the next day or so, I'll put up one more post as some sort of summary.

Friday, 7 October 1938

Brett Holman — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:52:12 +0000

After four days of debate, the House of Commons has voted on the government's policy during the Sudeten crisis in general, and on the Munich agreement in particular (The Times, p. 14). The vote was won by 366 to 144, a majority of 222. The Times calls this 'a conclusive vindication of the Prime Minister', who was afterwards cheered by MPs. The majority is well above normal, despite abstentions from some Conservative MPs; even the terms of Labour's dissent showed 'unusual mildness' according to the leading article in The Times (p. 15). On the other hand, the equivalent article in the Manchester Guardian says (p. 10) that the speeches in the debate 'reflected all the bewilderment of the people' and 'the voting is not to be taken as any indication of how that feeling runs' (meaning the 'national feeling'). The ovation for the prime minister was not given by 'a confident majority', and 'there was no real happiness about the process by which peace has been preserved'. So who's right?

In response to a question, Chamberlain reaffirmed a previous pledge not to introduce conscription during peacetime (Manchester Guardian, p. 5), and rejected the idea of a snap election. He also said that 'Peace for our time [...] was a hope, not a pledge', and so did not contradict the pressing need for increasing Britain's military strength (The Times, p. 14). War was now a very different thing than in 1914:

When war starts to-day, in the very first hour, before any professional soldier or sailor or airman has been touched, it will strike the workman, the clerk, the man in the street or in the bus, his wife and children in their homes [...] People running underground, trying to escape from poison gas, knowing that at any hour of the day or night death or mutilation was ready to come upon them [...]

He felt that he could not put the British people in this position over a cause which did not 'transcend ordinary human values', and the Sudetenland was not such a cause (Daily Mail, p. 8).

An international commission has met in Berlin to flesh out the Munich agreement. The Czechoslovakian government has protested its decision on the borders of the next area to be ceded to Germany, which includes many areas which have almost entirely Czech populations. Some 800,000 ethnic Czechs will come under German rule on Monday; but the Czech government has decided there is nothing that it can do about it, aside from protesting (Manchester Guardian, p. 6). Slovakia has been given a far-reaching autonomy, but one which falls short of independence (which seemed likely earlier in the week). The Hungarian ultimatum expired yesterday, but the Czechs say they can't respond to it due to the change in foreign ministers. However:

There was quite serious fighting yesterday between Hungarian troops and the Czechs.

On 28 September, the height of the crisis, the Post Office's Central Telegraph Office handled 403,831 telegrams, well over double the normal number (Manchester Guardian, p. 5).

The Short-Mayo composite aircraft has finally taken off on its non-stop flight from Dundee to Capetown, after many delays due to weather and the crisis (Manchester Guardian, p. 11). The composite took off from the Tay at 1pm yesterday, and the upper component, Mercury, separated from the lower, Maia, 20 minutes later. At last report it was near the border between Algeria and Tunis. It is hoped that it will break the non-stop distance record, currently held by the Soviet Union (6305 miles, Moscow to California).

Thursday, 6 October 1938

Brett Holman — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:17:17 +0000

The main headlines in today's Daily Mail report (p. 11) on a battle raging in Palestine between 'Arab terrorists' and British aircraft and troops. Reinforcements are en route, and the High Commissioner has flown back to London for consultations. Hang on: this isn't about Czechoslovakia at all! For the first time since (at least) 29 August, one of the three major papers in my sample has decided to lead with something other than the Sudeten crisis or a related issue. It's starting to lose its hold on the public's attention.

It's still the major story in the other newspapers, however. The Manchester Guardian leads (p. 9) with Churchill's strong attack on the Munich agreement in the House of Commons, yesterday. He spoke of 'The sense of our country falling into the power orbit and influence of Nazi Germany':

The utmost the Prime Minister has been able to secure has been to secure that the German dictator instead of snatching his victuals from the table has been content to have them served to him course by course.

(Though I think Lady Gladstone has a more striking soundbite: in speaking to a meeting of women Liberals in Bury she called the Munich agreement 'vivisection without anaesthetic'. Manchester Guardian, p. 10.) He has called for a secret session of Parliament on defence. In Paris, Daladier has also been having a hot time of it, but he has finally managed to get Parliament to agree to give him plenary powers in response to the recent crisis -- I'm not sure exactly what these entail, but there's talk of making the working week longer (to increase armaments production?) and revaluing the franc. The debate was contentious, and broke the Popular Front. Can France rely on having any allies? If not, it will need 'three more Maginot Lines (wherever the money may come from) and buy three thousand bombers' (Manchester Guardian, p. 12). Nobody knows what's going to happen. The leading article in the Manchester Guardian today (p. 8) mulls over the strategic balance: Britain and France need to improve their defences greatly. A German official has boasted that the Luftwaffe has as many aircraft as both of them plus Czechoslovakia, and if Italy fights alongside then the dictatorships will certainly have a preponderance. The 'reactionary demand for military conscription' must be resisted, but a 'national register' of some form is a good idea, and:

It will also necessarily involve "industrial mobilisation" on a large scale and the organisation of all that is covered by the "home front". These things are repugnant to most of us, but if they can be approached in the spirit of common concern, if a democratic basis is preserved, they can be made to work even under a Government whose policy we do not trust.

In Czechoslovakia, President Beneš has resigned. Presumably this is in response to the pressure from Germany mentioned in yesterday's papers. But in his own words, 'In order not to jeopardize the life of our State in the new circumstances I think that as President I should no longer stand in the way'. That is, because he himself is an irritant to good relations with Germany he has stepped down (The Times, p. 12). He might get a consolation prize though -- Whately Carrington has written to the Manchester Guardian to endorse a previous suggestion that Beneš be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, in 'appreciation of the unexampled act of sacrifice made by his great people in the cause of peace' (p. 18). Hitler, however, speaking at the Berlin Sports Palace, has thanked Mussolini (by name) and Chamberlain and Daladier for their assistance in finding a 'just solution' to the Sudeten problem.

I'll end with a couple of items from The Times (p. 15). One is from an article entitled '"Back to normal"', purporting to be 'The afterthoughts of Mrs. Miniver'. She recalls the height of the crisis just past:

And when things grew really serious -- when Clem had gone off with his Anti-Aircraft Battery, and Vin had been sent up to Quern, and the children's day school had been evacuated to the west country, and the maids had gone down to Starlings to prepare it for refugees, and she herself, staying at her sister's flat, had signed on as an ambulance driver -- during all the rather grim little bouts of staff-work which these arrangements entailed, she had been haunted day and night by the next two lines of the same poem:--

Look thy last on all things lovely
Every hour....

(Mrs. Miniver was later portrayed by Greer Garson for Hollywood in the 1942 film of that name, where she had to go through all this again, this time for 'real'.)

And here's an advertisement for one of the British-Israel World Federation lectures mentioned a few days ago:

According to Wikipedia, David Davidson predicted successive dates for the end of the world based on measures of the Great Pyramid, starting with 1954. So that may shed some light on the 'Light on the crisis'.

Wednesday, 5 October 1938

Brett Holman — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:40:05 +0000

The Sudeten crisis, or rather its aftermath, still dominates the headlines. But the headlines themselves are getting smaller -- these ones from the Daily Mail (p. 11) are only a couple of columns wide, where even a couple of days ago they were nearly the whole page across. The news today is serious enough: Inskip, the Minister for the Coordination of Defence, told the House of Commons yesterday that the crisis revealed gaps in Britain's defences which need to be filled -- though it seems he didn't give actual details of any gaps. Commanders have been named as part of an expansion of anti-aircraft defences: three new AA divisions are to be raised for the Territorial Army (The Times, p. 8). W. J. Fawkner writes to the Daily Mail to suggest (p. 10) that service in the Territorials should be compulsory for all men aged 18 to 24 -- 'Surely this is not asking too much?' It is for J. Fuller, though, who declares that 'compulsory national service is something completely at variance with the British spirit'. So that's that then.

Inskip also defended Chamberlain's handling of the crisis: 'H. M. Government had not broken a single pledge' (The Times, p. 7). A. V. Alexander, Labour MP for Sheffield Hillsborough, has a different view, referring to 'the complete betrayal of Czechoslovakia'. Probably the biggest speech in Parliament yesterday, though, was in the Lords: the maiden speech there of Chamberlain's predecessor, Stanley Baldwin, or Earl Baldwin of Bewdley as he now known (Daily Mail, p. 6). He paid Chamberlain glowing tribute, saying that he thanks God that Chamberlain was able to take the decision to fly to Berchtesgaden to meet with Hitler, and that 'I know I could not have done it':

Had there been war there would have been tens of thousands of mangled women and children civilians before a single soldier gave his life for his country. That is a very awful thought.

What right had a man to condemn to a terrible death hosts of civilians unless he knew that all that could be done had been done?

The leading article in The Times agrees (p. 15), and adds that:

On the most pessimistic estimate of the future we have gained a respite in which to make up a backwardness in armaments that is now recognized even by those who most bitterly opposed all attempts to put it right.

The leader in the Manchester Guardian (p. 8), on the other hand, wonders whether it is possible for the democracies to negotiate with the dictatorships on any basis other than 'the new version of give-and-take -- that we shall continue to give and they will continue to take?' Where will it all end?

Of course, by 'we' we should read Czechoslovakia, which is paying the greatest price for the peace. Sudetens who apposed the union with Germany are fleeing from the Sudetenland: readers of the Manchester Guardian are sending in funds to be given to the refugees (pp. 9, 12). Hungary is demanding more territory, and German radio is demanding that President Beneš resign. Meanwhile Hitler has triumphantly visited Carlsbad, after the peaceful withdrawal of Czech troops (The Times, p. 13). Graffiti has begun appearing on shops throughout the town informing passers-by of the presence of a 'Talmud Jew' or a 'Racial shamer'. 1200 men of the British Legion are gathering in London in order to go to police those areas of Czechoslovakia which will have their ultimate fate decided by plebiscite (The Times, p. 11).

Another group who fears they may pay a price for Munich: Ulster unionists. At least two independent MPs in the Northern Ireland House of Commons objected to a motion congratulating Chamberlain's peacemaking. As T. Henderson said: 'If Mr. Chamberlain sold the Czechs he will sell Ulster if it suits him in the event of war'. I wonder if de Valera is taking notes?

Tuesday, 4 October 1938

Brett Holman — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 06:49:51 +0000

A few days ago, Chamberlain said Munich was 'peace for our time'. Now he, in his speech in Parliament yesterday, he is saying that there can be no let-up in the pace of rearmament (Manchester Guardian, p. 11). In particular there is to be a 'big increase' in the RAF, especially for 'the defence of London' (Daily Mail, p. 11). Hoare, the Home Secretary, said in his speech that 'on the whole the machinery of A.R.P. had worked well', and it was mainly a matter of filling the gaps revealed by the crisis (Manchester Guardian, p. 6). Labour MPs were vocal in response to Chamberlain's speech: the Daily Mail's parliamentary correspondent says (p. 10) they 'wrecked his great hour' and turned the occasion into 'a shabby party fight', and the leading article (p. 10) contrasts 'The Government's calm statement of the facts' with 'the frothy diatribes of the Socialists'. Duff Cooper's resignation speech accused the Cabinet of being too timid to give a strong warning to Hitler, who he believed was more open to 'the language of the mailed fist' rather than Chamberlain's approach of 'sweet reasonableness' (Daily Mail, p. 5).

Yet Labour did not get the numbers for a censure motion. They themselves are divided between pacifist and anti-fascists, as well as those who don't want to give Chamberlain an excuse to call an election which he would presumably win, given the country's mood (Manchester Guardian, p. 11). Anyway, there are only about 20 potential rebels on the government side of the House, the Churchillians and Harold Nicolson (National Labour), not enough to make any dent in Chamberlain's majority. He has decided against going to the country for now; instead there will be a parliamentary vote tomorrow on Munich (Daily Mail, p. 11).

Reservists continue to be released back into civilian life -- all naval reservists will be allowed to go back home, unless they are already at sea, although they'll remain on the books for the time being (Daily Mail, p. 4). The Army will allow men who enlisted last week the option of being discharged, with a week's pay and a gratuity. The few schoolchildren evacuated from London during the crisis are also returning home. A columnist in the Manchester Guardian (p. 8) writes of 'The first waking moments that break a nightmare':

Was it only a matter of hours ago that we saw a store counter labelled "A.R.P. Department" besieged by men and women? Had we actually seen young women there handling and comparing various gas masks as normally as they would examine new hats?

The Daily Mail has been out on the streets asking punters what they think of the idea of a bank holiday in honour of Chamberlain and peace, perhaps to be called Peace Day (p. 3). Unsurprisingly, everyone's in favour of the idea! Irene Porter, a typist from Upton Park, would call it Chamberlain Day 'as a mark of honour to the great man who prevented war'. But she'd rather it was between Christmas and Easter, rather than on 30 September when the Munich agreement was signed, 'so that we could get a taste of spring'.

The letters columns are filled with reactions to Munich. Just to sample a few of the correspondents with the Manchester Guardian (p. 20): Gilbert Murray thinks the agreement unjust, comparing it with Versailles. But he hopes that the worldwide revulsion against war which motivated it can be used to secure a lasting peace. According to Francis Hirst, the former editor of the Economist, most Liberal voters would be grateful to Chamberlain for preventing 'another ghastly Armageddon which would have brought ruin and desolation on countless homes'. But Tavistock implies that only a Conservative prime minister could have negotiated with Hitler; the Liberal and Labour leaders would have 'involved millions of innocent people in destruction' in misguided pursuit of collective security or simply because they hated him.

A cheerful ad from The Times (p. 19):

And an ominous story from the Manchester Guardian (p. 6)?

POLAND'S FEAR OF GERMANY
"Now More Than Ever Sheer Brute Force Will Dominate" -- General's Speech
NO RELYING ON OUTSIDE HELP

Monday, 3 October 1938

Brett Holman — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:53:03 +0000

So, after all those weeks of mounting tension over the fate of the Sudetens, it's finally being resolved: German troops have begun occupying the Sudetenland (Daily Mail, p. 13). Polish troops have also moved into Teschen, and the Czech government has agreed to let a mixed commission decide the fate of the territory claimed by Hungary. The dismemberment of Czechoslovakia has begun.

But at least it's being done peacefully. The British are still celebrating their escape from war, in their different ways. The King has thanked his people for their steadfastness and his prime minister for his peacemaking. The churches were packed with thanksgivers yesterday, 'Peace Sunday'. A headline in the Daily Mail (p. 3) promises 'Fairer Days, Fatter Purses, Full Speed Ahead!' and claims that 'with the crisis over and peace in our thoughts it will be the biggest and brightest October ever known'. A man was arrested in Croydon on Saturday night for driving under the influence (Manchester Guardian, p. 2). He and his passenger had been to a dance to celebrate the end of the crisis, and the passenger's excuse was that 'I was glad that I had not been called up'. The judge was not impressed and fined him 10s. for being 'drunk and incapable'.

Chamberlain is still 'The Man of the Hour' (the name of a Pathé newsreel brought out about his life as well as his handling of the crisis: The Times, p. 10). The new Westminster Hospital has been endowed with £1,000 for a bed, to be named 'The Neville Chamberlain Bed', 'in perpetual remembrance of great efforts made by the Prime Minister in the cause of European peace' (The Times, p. 9). Lucio, in the Manchester Guardian (p. 6) quotes some of the more fulsome paeans of praise from the press, for example this one from James Douglas in Saturday's Daily Express:

God has raised up in Neville Chamberlain a deliverer. Are we going to waste him? Are we as great as he is? Are we as noble? Are we as pure in heart? Beware of the old evil that is lurking within us, thirsting to destroy us.

More prosaically, there is speculation (in Manchester Guardian, p. 9) that if the House of Commons is hostile to Chamberlain's report on Munich today, then he may take the country to a general election to capitalise on his popularity among the people. (An election isn't due until 1940.) Chamberlain has already lost one minister over Munich, Duff Cooper, the First Lord of the Admiralty. His resignation speech, if fiery enough, could spark a revolt among those backbenchers who think too high a price has been paid for peace. Certainly Labour will be critical: one prominent Labour MP, Harold Nicolson, spoke in Manchester on Saturday and said (Manchester Guardian, p. 11):

We have betrayed a valiant little country and a great democratic idea. There are many people who feel that in so doing we have achieved peace for a generation. They are wholly mistaken. We have not achieved peace for a generation: we have achieved it only for eight months.

And the 'Peace Pact' which Chamberlain signed with Hitler was 'not worth the paper it is written on'.

The preparations for war are winding down. There's much less ARP news in the papers today, and much of what there is is of a minor nature (such as a warning not to test gas masks in gas ovens! Manchester Guardian, p. 10). Sydney King-Farlow, in a letter to the editor of The Times (p. 14), describes the disaster which has been averted:

Had war come upon us, and it was hanging on a hair, it would have begun with repeated attacks by fleets of aircraft which speedily would have converted the capital cities of Europe into heaps of smoking rubble. The noblest works of man which belong not only to particular countries but to the whole world would have disappeared for ever and the destruction of human life would have been appalling.

He asks if this is not an opportune moment to try to reach an international agreement to prohibit the bombing of architectural and historical treasures in the great cities? (King-Farlow was a former chief justice in places like Gibraltar and Cyprus, so perhaps it's not surprising that he turned to the law.) Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury, expressed similar sentiments in his BBC broadcast last night, but was rather more ambitious (Daily Mail, p. 13):

Surely it is required of nations who have seen the horrors of modern warfare staring them in the face that they should, as a sign of recovered sanity, determine that once for all the use of bombing aircraft shall cease.

The leading article in The Times (p. 13) looks forward to:

an era when the race in armaments will be seen for the madness that it is and will be abandoned because it has ceased even to be profitable.

Whereas the Daily Mail (p. 12) calls for the government to fill the gaps in Britain's defences, noting particularly that:

The Air Force, both by the production of machines and the training of personnel, must be made, at top speed, second to none.

Members of the Royal Observer Corps have been released back into civilian life, albeit subject to a recall at only two hours' notice (Manchester Guardian, p. 13). The Air Ministry has been swamped with offers of service of various kinds and regrets that it may take some time to respond to them all. And the Admiralty has announced that those reservists who have been called up but have not yet actually taken up a post can stay at home or return there.

The London Brick Company is clearly proud of the part it played in the crisis.

Saturday, 1 October 1938

Brett Holman — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:51:15 +0000

'IT IS PEACE FOR OUR TIME' (Daily Mail, p. 11). Chamberlain has returned from Munich, completing his third round-trip to Germany by air in as many weeks. He has been greeted by ecstatic crowds at Heston aerodrome, at 10 Downing Street (as seen above) and at Buckingham Palace, where he appeared on the balcony -- the first Prime Minister in history to be accorded this honour. His colleagues also registered their pleasure:

Our Cabinet Ministers -- on the doorstep, too, became schoolboys again. They clambered about on the window sills [at No. 10], whooped wildly, and threw hats in the air.

The Sunday Dispatch is trying to cash in on all the Chamberlain-mania by telling 'the unique life story of the man the world applauds', in tomorrow's edition (Daily Mail, pp. 9, 13):

Politicians and newspapers from around the Empire are also lauding Chamberlain's statesmanship, though perhaps not as fulsomely as one might expect (the Sydney Sun, which I've never heard of, calls him the 'old man who has saved his country from war over matters of procedure', Manchester Guardian, p. 7). The leading article in The Times (p. 13) pays him high praise indeed:

Had the Government of the United Kingdom been in less resolute hands [than Chamberlain's] it is as certain as can be that war, incalculable in its range, would have broken out against the wishes of every people concerned.

The Munich agreement is certainly a massive relief. Crowds of people which might otherwise have been running in panic for shelter as the Luftwaffe rained bombs down on London have been out shopping instead (Daily Mail, p. 9). London's biggest department stores are looking forward to 'months of prosperity' -- although many customers are trying unsuccessfully to return the hoards of food and other perishable goods that they had bought up when they thought war was coming, only days ago. Many West End shows are standing room only, taking £20,000 last night alone; cinemas are also doing a roaring trade. The nation's churches and chapels will be holding special services tomorrow, and charitable organisations are hoping that they will benefit from people wanting to express their relief in their good fortune -- for example, the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals:

The Daily Mail has called its leading article 'WITH HONOUR' (p. 10). On the same page is published 'A Mother's Thanks':

SIR -- Thank you (how inadequate those two words seem!) for your untiring efforts in the cause of Peace and for your sincere support of Mr. Chamberlain.

Throughout the dark days of crisis I -- in common with thousands of mothers -- could not concentrate on my children or my home duties.

I prayed with hope and fear in my heart. The news that brought a message of hope -- and the solace of those glorious prayers of peace published in the Daily Mail. If only you knew how they have helped. I took that page to my room and felt that hope must be justified when a great paper thus showed its readers the way.

Now the sun has come through. Our prayers have been answered and we look forward to peace with indescribable relief.

May God bless you and guide you in your work for the people.

Bristol. (Mrs) G. M.

The Lord Mayor of Cardiff, O. C. Purnell, has ordered the German flag (i.e. the swastika) to fly over the city hall, along with those of Britain, France and Italy, as 'a gesture of jubilation' (Manchester Guardian, p. 14).

It might seem churlish to express any doubts about the Munich agreement, given this tremendous outpouring of gratitude and relief. But doubts there are. Of course, having accepted, under enormous pressure, the terms of an agreement dismembering their country that they were not party to, the Czechs are none too happy about it: there have been massive protests in the streets of Prague. (The authorities had to blackout the streets in order to get them to disperse; Daily Mail, pp. 11-2.) In Britain, Sir Norman Angell calls the agreement a 'disgraceful sacrifice of innocent third parties' (Manchester Guardian, p. 14), and Robert Boothby, Conservative MP, calls it a victory for force. Sinclair, leader of the Liberals, says that 'if war has been averted, peace has not yet been established'. For Leo Amery, the respite from war might be only brief, and should be used to bring in national service at once. The leader-writer of the Manchester Guardian admits (p. 12) that even if a war had been fought, there was no way that Czechoslovakia's borders could remain as they were. But it remains to be seen whether Hitler is sincere in his desire for peaceful territorial revisions. And nobody who reads the terms carefully 'can feel other than unhappy', so harsh are they. The London correspondent (on the same page) says that 'At first it seemed like Armistice Day [...] The resemblance soon passed, but it is peace, however high the price and whoever has had to pay it'. The ARP and defence measures already taken are to remain in place, but nothing further will be done for now. Boxes for gas masks are to be procured and distributed, however! (Daily Mail, p. 7.) And Poland still wants Teschen, and it seems Czechoslovakia is unwilling to give it up. (Manchester Guardian, p. 13.)

Finally, I'll note this advertisement from The Times (p. 10), one of a series from the British-Israel World Federation, a curious group which believed that Britain was in fact the Israel of the Bible (or at least its heir) and so is destined to rule the world (or something). Their 'commentary' only obliquely refers to the crisis ('rumours of war' which were foretold etc'), but they are holding a series of lectures in London next week which will deal 'with the underlying forces of the present world upheaval', with titles like 'The Rome-Berlin Axis'. I've suggested before that it might be interesting to examine the influence of, shall we say, unconventional thinkers on public opinion about defence and foreign affairs; the British-Israel World Federation might be another place to look.