As a result of these fascist aggressions, the National Government changed its foreign policy. By the end of the month, Chamberlain announced in Parliament the first-ever British guarantee during peacetime: pledging to maintain the integrity of Poland. British foreign policy was "turned... upside down." [3]
Even so, Chamberlain's "new" foreign policy was attacked by Labour, which by mid-1939, completely distrusted him and his National Government. On April 13, Attlee questioned the Government's "new" foreign policy, saying:
- I see at the present moment no clear sign that the Government have really adopted a new policy. There seems to me still a hankering after the discredited policy of unilateral appeasement. [4]
He then laid out a realistic foreign policy saying that:
...If we [the British] are to prevent war, we must get a strong enough force that will deter the aggressor.
I am sorry to-day that we did not get a mention from the Prime Minister with regard to the position of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. If you want to build up a league of collective security you must get unity between Great Britain, France and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. I realise the difficulties there are... owing to past history and conflicting ideologies, but these things have had to be overcome in the past and in the face of grave dangers.
[5]
He ended his speech with a scathing criticism of the National Government, saying:
The Government still speak with two voices. I want a Government that will speak with one voice, that will speak for the moral principle, and be a Government to rally the world on the basis of standing firm against aggression and of standing for freedom, and of promoting that unity which is the only way in which we can prevent anohter war.... I have yet to learn of any long-term policy [from] this Government.
[6]
By mid-April the National Government had shifted course almost completely. In addition to issuing historic guarantees to Poland and to several other nations, it also reversed its long-standing opposition to conscription and brought a Bill before Parliament in April introducing the first peacetime military draft in British history. This action was strenuously opposed by the Labour Party.
