11 AUGUST 1939, Page 3

Mr. Chamberlain, one imagines, reviews the session with contradictory emotions.

Controversy tends to centre on Munich, but in fact Munich was a logical step on the path of appeasement as a peace-policy. March r5th is the crucial date. When Hitler marched into Prague there was a debate the same day in the House. Mr. Chamberlain's speech dismayed even his most ardent supporters. He was forced to explain away the moral guarantees of Czecho- Slovakia's frontiers given by Sir Thomas Inskip, but what Mr. David Grenfell called "his remarkable state of detachment" confused and disturbed the House. His belief that nothing resembling what had taken place was contemplated by any of the Munich signatories at the time of signature and the jejune remark about " suffering checks and disappointments" and not being deflected from our policy seemed to reveal an attitude of mind quite at variance with the wishes of the House and the stern neces- sities of the moment. The winding-up speech of Sir John Simon that night, in which he produced argument after argument against the policy of the Peace Front, appeared to underline the Prime Minister's appreciation of the situation.