LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must be accompanied by the name and address of the author, which will be treated as confidential.—Ed. THE SPECTATOR]
SIR,—As a regular reader and, speaking generally, an admirer of The Spectator, I confess that the letters from correspondents published in your issue of October 7th have filled me with sadness, not unmixed with indignation, at the ingratitude of those who, a few days before, had been given at least the hope of peace in place of what then seemed the certainty of war.
The critics of Mr. Chamberlain and his policy are divided into two classes : (t) Those who appear to think that Czecho- slovakia could have been saved from dismemberment without war by calling what they term " Hitler's bluff," and (a) Those who hang their heads in shame at the way in which, they say, we have " let down " that country.
I cannot go into past history, for the present situation obviously has its origin in the Treaty of Versailles, and to argue how far its growth from that Treaty is due to the mistakes of this or that Government since 1919 simply leads to endless and unprofitable discussion. I will only therefore deal with these letters so far as they relate to the events of August and September last.
I select Mr. Hamilton Fyfe's letter as a sample of class 1.
He is one of those people who are quite satisfied that if Hitler's bluff had been called earlier, the Czechs could have been saved without war. He is, of course, speaking confidently about something which he cannot possibly know, and is making an assumption which appears to be directly in the teeth of the evidence which we have on the subject. But, even if he were right, it was not the action or inaction of the British Government that brought about the crisis, but the refusal of the Czech Government to meet the Sudeten demands adequately and while there was still time, though no one can say whether even this would have satisfied Hitler. I remind Mr. Fyfe of the solemn warnings which both Mr. Chamberlain and Sir John Simon had given to Germany as to the consequences of any attack upon Czechoslovakia.
Apart from that, does he think that any British statesman would have been justified in calling the bluff at the hazard of the lives of millions of men, women and children, the certain bankruptcy of Great Britain and the possible downfall of the British Empire ? People who talk of calling bluffs should remember the issues at stake.
Of Mr. Fyfe's depreciatory references to Mr. Chamberlain, who has rendered his country a service as great as has ever been rendered by a Prime Minister, it is sufficient to say that they show the spirit of partisanship at its worst.
Now I come to the second. class, and take as an example the letter from the two ladies who hang their heads in shame because we have " let down " Czechoslovakia.
I can assure them that there is no need for them to do so, for that statement is not only untrue—it is the very reverse of the truth ; for, by averting -war, Mr. Chamberlain has saved that country from a fate far more terrible than that to which they have now had to submit. If one thing is more certain than another it is that, had war broken out, millions of her people would have been killed and maimed, and their country would have been wiped off the map.
Have these ladies, in the quiet of their Dorset home, thought of the populations of our crowded cities with death and de- struction raining down upon them from the air, or asked them- selves whether our Government does not owe a duty to them far above any duty that they can owe to the Czechs ?
I know that in a crisis such as we have passed through passions, enhanced in this case by the brutal methods of the German dictatorship, are aroused and make it difficult for people to see things in their true perspective, but I am confident that, whatever the ultimate result of the Munich agreement may be, history will record a very different verdict upon Mr. Chamberlain's noble efforts for peace than that passed upon him by the majority of your correspondents.—Yours
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