a total and unmitigated defeat
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''A Total and Unmitigated Defeat'' was a speech by
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
at
Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
on Wednesday, 5 October 1938, the third day of the
Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, Germany, the United Kingdom, French Third Republic, France, and Fa ...
debate. Signed five days earlier by Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...
, the agreement met the demands of
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
in respect of the
Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) **Fourth Czechoslovak Repub ...
region of
Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...
. Churchill spoke for 45 minutes to criticise the government for signing the agreement and, in general, for its policy of
appeasement Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governm ...
. The speech officially ended Churchill's support for the government's appeasement policy. Churchill had hoped for a reasonable settlement of the Sudetenland issue, but he was adamant that Britain must fight for the continued independence of Czechoslovakia. Among his criticisms of the government, Churchill said that the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
should have been invited to take part in the negotiations with
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
. Although it was one of Churchill's most famous speeches, the Commons voted 366 to 144 in support of a
motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and mea ...
in favour of the government's signing of the agreement. Despite their stated opposition to the agreement, Churchill and his Conservative Party supporters chose to
abstain Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with ...
, and did not vote against the motion.


Background


Churchill in 1938

In 1938,
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
was a backbench MP who had been out of government office since 1929. He was the Conservative member for
Epping Epping may refer to: Places Australia * Epping, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Epping railway station, Sydney * Electoral district of Epping, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly * Epping Forest, Kearns, a he ...
. From the mid-1930s, alarmed by developments in Germany, he had consistently emphasised the necessity of rearmament and the buildup of national defences, especially the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
. Churchill strongly opposed the
appeasement Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governm ...
of
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
, a policy by which the British government, led by Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...
, hoped to maintain peace in Europe.


Czechoslovakia and the Sudetenland

The
First Czechoslovak Republic The First Czechoslovak Republic ( cs, První československá republika, sk, Prvá česko-slovenská republika), often colloquially referred to as the First Republic ( cs, První republika, Slovak: ''Prvá republika''), was the first Czechoslov ...
was created in 1918 as an amalgam of territories that had belonged to
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
. Among its citizens were three million ethnic Germans, accounting for 22.95% of the total population. Most Germans lived in the
Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...
, a region that bordered Germany and Austria. Sudetenland was the most industrialised area of Czechoslovakia and relied heavily on exports for regional prosperity. The economy of the region was badly hit by the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
after the Wall Street Crash in October 1929. Unemployment escalated, especially among Sudeten Germans, and in 1933, inspired by Hitler's rise to power in Germany,
Konrad Henlein Konrad Ernst Eduard Henlein (6 May 1898 – 10 May 1945) was a leading Sudeten Germans, Sudeten German politician in Czechoslovakia. Upon the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German occupation in October 1938 he joined the Nazi Party as well ...
founded the Sudeten German Party (SdP), which publicly asked for regional autonomy but secretly sought the union of Sudetenland with Germany. Soon after the
Anschluß The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "Greater Germany") ...
, Germany's annexation of Austria in March 1938, Henlein met Hitler in Berlin and was instructed to present the so-called
Karlsbader Programm The Karlsbader Programm ( cs, Karlovarský program) was an eight-point series of demands presented by Konrad Henlein, the leader of the Sudeten German Party (SdP), to the government of the First Czechoslovak Republic on 24 April 1938 in Karlsbad ...
to the Czechoslovak government, led by President Edvard Beneš. The document amounted to a series of demands that Czechoslovakia could not accept, principally autonomy for all Germans living in the country. Hitler and
Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...
launched a propaganda campaign in support of the SdP. As Hitler had intended, tensions rose until by September, the outbreak of war seemed immininent. Czechoslovakia needed the support of other European powers, especially Britain and France. Writing in the ''
Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...
'' on 18 March, Churchill called upon Chamberlain to declare with France that both countries would aid Czechoslovakia if it was subject to an unprovoked attack. Chamberlain, however, had other ideas. He sympathised with the Sudeten Germans and, commenting on the French declaration, believed some arrangement should be made that "would prove more acceptable to Germany".


Escalation of crisis

Germany mobilised on 2 September, and the crisis came to a head on the 12th, when Hitler made a speech at
Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
in which he condemned the Czechoslovak government and accused it of atrocities and of denying rights of self-determination to the Sudeten Germans. On the 13th, Chamberlain decided to act and requested a meeting with Hitler to try to avert the possibility of war. Chamberlain met Hitler at
Berchtesgaden Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps, south of Berchtesgaden; the ...
on the 15th, but there was no conclusion. However, Hitler demanded for the Sudetenland to be ceded to Germany but claimed that he had no designs on the remainder of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain met French Prime Minister
Édouard Daladier Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, and the Prime Minister of France who signed the Munich Agreement before the outbreak of World War II. Daladier was born in Carpentr ...
in London next day. They agreed that Czechoslovakia should cede to Germany all territories in which over 50% of the population were ethnic Germans. In exchange, Britain and France would guarantee the independence of Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovaks rejected the proposal and the same day issued a warrant for Henlein's arrest. Chamberlain met Hitler again from 22 to 24 September in
Bad Godesberg Bad Godesberg ( ksh, Bad Jodesbersch) is a borough ('' Stadtbezirk'') of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 to 1999, while Bonn was the capital of West Germany, most foreign embassies were in Bad Godesberg. Some buildings ar ...
. Hitler increased his demands, but Chamberlain objected. Hitler stated that Germany would occupy the Sudetenland on 1 October, but that had been planned as early as May, when Fall Grün was drafted. The French and the Czechoslovaks rejected Hitler's demands at Bad Godesberg. Chamberlain, now anticipating the outbreak of war, said on 27 September 1938 in a radio address to the British people, "How incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing".


Munich Conference

On 28 September, Chamberlain sent a further appeal to Hitler and began a speech in the British House of Commons to try to explain the seriousness of the crisis. During his speech, he was handed a message from Hitler that invited him to Munich with Daladier and
Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
. On the 29th, Mussolini officially proposed what became the
Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, Germany, the United Kingdom, French Third Republic, France, and Fa ...
. The Czechoslovak representatives were excluded from the conference on Hitler's insistence and had to rely on Chamberlain and Daladier for information. The four leaders reached agreement on the 29th and signed the treaty at 01:30 the next day. Czechoslovakia reluctantly accepted the agreement as a ''fait accompli''. It ceded the Sudetenland to Germany on 10 October, and Hitler agreed to take no action against the rest of the country. Later that day, Hitler met Chamberlain privately. They signed the Anglo-German Agreement, which included a statement that both nations considered the Munich Agreement was "symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war again". Hitler afterwards dismissed the paper as insignificant, but Chamberlain made political capital out of it, returned to England and declared that it was "peace for our time".


"Lost the courage"

A debate on Munich began in the British House of Commons on 3 October. That day, a Conservative minister,
Duff Cooper Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, (22 February 1890 – 1 January 1954), known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician and diplomat who was also a military and political historian. First elected to Parliament in 192 ...
resigned in protest from his post as First Lord of the Admiralty. In his resignation speech on 3 October, Cooper said that Britain had "lost the courage to see things as they are" and that the country had been "drifting, day by day, nearer into war with Germany, and we have never said, until the last moment, and then in most uncertain terms, that we were prepared to fight". On 4 October, the ''
Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' printed a letter from F. L. Lucas, a professor of literature at the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
who had been a wounded veteran of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and would later work at
Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. His letter was headed "The Funeral of British Honour" and stated:


Simon's motion

When the debate recommenced on 5 October, Chancellor of the Exchequer
Sir John Simon John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, (28 February 1873 – 11 January 1954), was a British politician who held senior Cabinet posts from the beginning of the First World War to the end of the Second World War. He is one of only three peop ...
raised a motion: "That this House approves the policy of His Majesty's Government by which war was averted in the recent crisis and supports their efforts to secure a lasting peace". A vote in favour of the motion would confirm the Commons' approval of the Munich Agreement, which ceded the
Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...
from Czechoslovakia to Germany. In broader terms, support for Simon's motion would signal approval of the government's policy of appeasement in its dealings with Hitler. After Simon's opening address, the Labour Party's deputy leader, Arthur Greenwood, replied for the
Opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * ''The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Comed ...
. He pointed out that "the eleventh-hour concessions made at Munich went far beyond the Anglo-French Memorandum and represented a further retreat by Britain and France from the admittedly outrageous demands already made upon Czechoslovakia". Greenwood challenged the right of the "Four-Power Pact", which operated at Munich, to make binding decisions on world affairs within which, he reminded, the Soviet Union and the United States were powerful factors. Greenwood completed his speech and was followed by Churchill.


Speech

Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lab ...
stated that Churchill delivered "a speech of power and intransigence". Having shortly disclaimed any personal animosity towards Chamberlain, Churchill declared: Having dealt with an interruption by Nancy Astor, who accused him of talking "nonsense", Churchill focused on Chamberlain and said: He summarized the positions reached at Berchtesgaden, Bad Godesberg and Munich metaphorically: Churchill then argued that the Czechoslovak government, left to itself and knowing that it would get no help from the Western Powers, would have made better terms. Later in the speech, Churchill predicted accurately that the rest of Czechoslovakia would be "engulfed in the Nazi regime". He went on to say that in his view, "the maintenance of peace depends upon the accumulation of deterrents against the aggressor, coupled with a sincere effort to redress grievances". He argued that that course had not been taken because Britain and France did not involve "other powers", which could have guaranteed the security of Czechoslovakia while the Sudetenland issue was being examined by an international body. The other power that he had in mind was the Soviet Union, and Churchill soon remonstrated that close contact with it should have been made during the summer months, while the crisis unfolded. Churchill maintained that Hitler would not have followed his course if the Soviets had been involved in the summit meetings. Churchill indicted the British government for the neglect of its responsibilities in the past five years since Hitler had come to power: "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting". He compared the Chamberlain regime with the court of Ethelred the Unready and reminded how England, having held a position of real strength under
Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...
, later "fell very swiftly into chaos". Churchill concluded with a dire warning that foreshadowed the outbreak of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
eleven months later: Although the speech is regarded as one of Churchill's finest, it was spoken when he was still a minority politician and, as Jenkins noted, unable to win many friends on the Conservative benches. On 6 October, the Commons concluded the debate and voted 366 to 144 in support of Simon's motion to approve Chamberlain's signing of the Munich Agreement. No Conservative Party member voted against the motion, and even Churchill and his supporters only abstained.


Aftermath

Churchill's speech had little immediate effect on British public opinion. He himself faced retribution from Conservatives in his constituency and needed a vote of confidence to retain his seat at a meeting of his constituents on 4 November. He won with 100 votes to 44, largely thanks to the support of Sir James Hawkey, who was the chairman of the Epping Conservative Association. Most people clung to the hope of a lasting peace as promised by Chamberlain. It was not until the '' Kristallnacht'', the anti-Jewish violence of 9–10 November 1938, that they began to think otherwise. It became increasingly difficult for Chamberlain to portray Hitler as a partner in peace. The British government then embarked on a programme of rearmament that was unprecedented in peacetime. The French did likewise. On 15 March 1939, Germany and Hungary overran the rest of Czechoslovakia, just as Churchill had predicted five months earlier. The Slovak part of the country became nominally independent as the First Slovak Republic but was only a German puppet state. The Czech lands became a puppet state incorporated into Greater Germany as the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; cs, Protektorát Čechy a Morava; its territory was called by the Nazis ("the rest of Czechia"). was a partially annexed territory of Nazi Germany established on 16 March 1939 following the German oc ...
. After Chamberlain had declared war against Germany on 3 September 1939, one of his first actions was to restore Churchill to government office. Churchill was reappointed First Lord of the Admiralty, the office that he held in 1914 at the beginning of the First World War. On 10 May 1940, he succeeded Chamberlain, who had resigned as Prime Minister.


References


Bibliography


Speech

* This page provides the full text o
Churchill's speech
as recorded in ''Hansard''.


Books

* * * * * * {{Authority control 1938 in politics 1938 in the United Kingdom 1938 speeches October 1938 events Speeches by Winston Churchill Speeches in the Parliament of the United Kingdom