… The solution to the Czechoslovakian problem that has just been found is, in my opinion, only the prelude to a larger colony in which all Europe can find peace. This morning I had another meeting with the German Chancellor, Mr. Hitler, and this is the document that bears his name, as well as mine. Some of you may have already heard what it contains, but I`d just like to read it to you: ` … We consider the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German naval agreement as a symbol of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war again. [96] Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain delivers a speech before leaving Arras, France, after visiting the British Expeditionary Force on December 15, 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, two days after the German invasion of Poland. The guarantees that Britain and France have given to Poland marked the end of the policy of appeasement. The agreement was widely welcomed.
French Prime Minister Daladier did not believe, as one scholar put it, that a European war was justified “to keep three million Germans under Czech sovereignty.” But the same is true for Alsace-Lorraine, unlike the alliance between France and Czechoslovakia against German aggression. Gallup Polls, in Britain, France and the United States, said the majority of the population supported the agreement. In 1939, Czechoslovakian President Beneé was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. [52] On September 15, 1938, In the face of high tensions between the Germans and the Czechoslovakian government, the heirs secretly proposed giving 6,000 square kilometres to Czechoslovakia to Germany, in exchange for a German accession agreement of 1.5 to 2.0 million South German Germans that would expel Czechoslovakia. Hitler did not respond. [13] In the hope of avoiding war, appeasement was the name given to British politics in the 1930s to allow Hitler to freely expand German territory. More closely linked to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, it is now widely discredited as a policy of weakness. But at the time, it was a popular and seemingly pragmatic policy.
Czechoslovakia was informed by Great Britain and France that it could either oppose Nazi Germany or submit to the prescribed annexes. The Czechoslovakian government single-purposely acknowledged the desperation of the fight against the Nazis, reluctantly capitulated (30 September) and agreed to abide by the agreement. The colony gave Germany, from 10 October, the Sudetenland and de facto control of the rest of Czechoslovakia as long as Hitler promised not to go any further. On 30 September, after some time off, Chamberlain went to Hitler`s house and asked him to sign a peace treaty between the United Kingdom and Germany.