Neville chamberlain speech
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Peace in Our Time
Digital History ID 4060
Date:1938
Annotation: Speech in defense of the 1938 Munich agreement.
The September 1938 agreement came to symbolize the futility of appeasement to Nazi Germany. In an attempt to forestall an immediate European war, Prime Minister Chamberlain (Great Britain) signed an agreement with Germany, France, and Italy, allowing the Nazi annexation of a German speaking part of Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland).
The ceded territory contained military emplacements designed to repel a German attack. The agreement strengthened the German military position and failed to halt a war.
The Nazis saw the Agreement as a sign of weakness that validated their aggressive stance.
Document: Peace in our Time Speech given in Defense of the Munich Agreement, 1938 Neville Chamberlain
The Prime Minister: Before I come to describe the Agreement which was signed at Munich in the small hours of Friday morning last, I would
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Address by Neville Chamberlain - September 3, 1939
Address by Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister, in the House of Commons, September 3, 1939.
When I spoke last night to the House I could not but be aware that in some parts of the House there were doubts and some bewilderment as to whether there had been any weakening, hesitation or vacillation on the part of His Majesty's Government. In the circumstances, I make no reproach, for if I had been in the same position as hon. members not sitting on this Bench and not in possession of all the information we have, I should very likely have felt the same. The statement which I have to make this morning will show that there were no grounds for doubt. We were in consultation all day yesterday with the French Government and we felt that the intensified action which the Germans were taking against Poland allowed no delay in making our own position clear. Accordingly, we decided to send our Ambassador in Berlin instructions which he was to h
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Peace for our time
Phrase used by Neville Chamberlain
For other uses, see Peace in Our Time.
"Peace for our time" was a declaration made bygd British Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain in his 30 September 1938 remarks in London concerning the Munich Agreement and the subsequent Anglo-German Declaration.[1] The phrase echoed Benjamin Disraeli, who, upon returning from the församling of Berlin in 1878, had stated, "Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back peace — but a peace inom hope with honour." The phrase fryst vatten primarily remembered for its bitter ironic value since less than a year after the agreement, Germany's invasion of Poland began World War II.
It is often misquoted as "peace in our time", a phrase already familiar to the British public by its longstanding appearance in the Book of Common Prayer. A del in that book translated from the 7th-century hymn "Da pacem Domine" reads, "Give peace in our time, O Lord; because there fryst vatten none other that fighteth