Neville Chamberlain Becomes Prime Minister of England (1937)

Chamberlain served as prime minister of the UK from 1937 to 1940. His political legacy is defined by his controversial policy of "appeasement" toward Adolf Hitler, exemplified by the Munich Pact that allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland in 1938. Once Hitler annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia and invaded Poland in 1939, Chamberlain led Britain to war. However, he was forced to resign eight months later, following the failed British campaign in Norway. How much longer did Chamberlain live? More...

Concessions never pay.

I don't know all the ins and outs, but I do feel for the guy. He gets painted as this dupe who let Hitler get away with it, but what was the alternative? Britain declares war on Germany over Czechoslovakia? Not a nice option at the time. Or now, in terms of what his reputation would be as the aggressor who did not negotiate with Hitler, and let the Germans 'take a small part of German-speaking Sudetenland' as they had promised.

Even the Soviets, happy in a pact with the Nazis, later underestimated how desperate he was to keep invading new land.

" It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and

to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was

frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart --

the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour."


-- from Winston Churchill's euglogy of Neville Chamberlain, which ended with these words:

"Members of all parties, without a single exception, feel that we do ourselves and our country honour in saluting the memory of one whom Disraeli would have called an 'English worthy.' "

*****

English learners and native speakers will find his eulogy (google it) the embodiment of the majesty of the English language.

Churchill's speeches were so memorable and stirring.

Neville Chamberlain is best known for his policy of "appeasement" toward Adolf Hitler's Germany. He signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, relinquishing a region of Czechoslovakia to the Nazis. In 1939, Britain declared war on Germany. Chamberlain, who had lost political support, resigned in 1940 and died a few weeks later.