Then came the Prime Minister's speech at Birmingham. Few public
statements can ever have done more to coalesce and galvanise the emotions of a nation. Within some thirty minutes bewilderment and anger were fused into resolution. The country recovered its will-power. There are those who still doubt this recovery. "Yes," they say, "a certain shock has been given to public opinion. For the moment the policy of appeasement has been discredited. But wait a day or two until the City and the isolationist Press have got busy. There will be a reaction against all this unselfishness. In a day or two people will avoid thinking about their liberties and will begin again to consider their stocks and shares. Hitler has only got to make another speech about 'peace for a long time' and the whole of our mercantile class (which is today the governing class) will be seeking for excuses. 'What do Bohemia or Rumania matter to us ? " It is the manifest destiny of Germany to expand towards the Black Sea.' The old influences will emerge again from the burrows into which they have momentarily bolted. Once again we shall be swayed by the unctuous escapism of The Times newspaper. Once again our courage and our faith will be submerged by wishful thinking."
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