Page "Clement Attlee" Paragraph 29

However, with the rising threat from Nazi Germany, and the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations, this policy lost credibility.

By 1937, Labour had jettisoned its pacifist position and came to support rearmament and oppose Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement.

In 1938 Attlee opposed the Munich Agreement in which Chamberlain negotiated with Hitler to give Germany the German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland: We all feel relief that war has not come this time.

Every one of us has been passing through days of anxiety ; we cannot, however, feel that peace has been established, but that we have nothing but an armistice in a state of war.

We have been unable to go in for care-free rejoicing.

We have felt that we are in the midst of a tragedy.

We have felt humiliation.

This has not been a victory for reason and humanity.

It has been a victory for brute force.

At every stage of the proceedings there have been time limits laid down by the owner and ruler of armed force.

The terms have not been terms negotiated ; they have been terms laid down as ultimata.

We have seen to-day a gallant, civilised and democratic people betrayed and handed over to a ruthless despotism.

We have seen something more.

We have seen the cause of democracy, which is, in our view, the cause of civilisation and humanity, receive a terrible defeat ... The events of these last few days constitute one of the greatest diplomatic defeats that this country and France have ever sustained.

There can be no doubt that it is a tremendous victory for Herr Hitler.

Without firing a shot, by the mere display of military force, he has achieved a dominating position in Europe which Germany failed to win after four years of war.

He has overturned the balance of power in Europe.

He has destroyed the last fortress of democracy in Eastern Europe which stood in the way of his ambition.

He has opened his way to the food, the oil and the resources which he requires in order to consolidate his military power, and he has successfully defeated and reduced to impotence the forces that might have stood against the rule of violence.