- £1 was demanded at the pistol's point. When that was given, £2 was demanded at the pistol's point. Finally, the dictator consented to take £1, 17s. 6d. [1] and the rest in promises of good will for the future. [2]
Churchill's remarks were unusual in that most members of his Party [the Conservatives] enthusiastically supported Munich. It was left largely to the Opposition to speak in opposition to Munich. On October 3rd, after Duff Cooper, the First Lord of the Admiralty, gave a resignation speech [he was the only member of the Government to resign over Munich], and after Chamberlain gave a reply defending Munich, Clement Attlee replied for the Labour Party saying:
We all feel relief that war has not come this time. Every one of us has been passing through days of anxiety; we cannot, however, feel that peace has been established, but that we have nothing but an armistice in a state of war.... This has not been a victory for reason and humanity. It has been a victory for brute force.... We have seen to-day a gallant, civilised and democratic people betrayed and handed over to a ruthless despotism. We have seen the cause of democracy, which is, in our view, the cause of civilisation and humanity; receive a terrible defeat
. [emphasis mine][3]
In the speech he also issued a stark warning, saying:
...Herr Hitler has successfully asserted the law of the jungle. He has claimed to do what he will by force and in doing so has struck at the roots of the life of civlised peoples. In doing this to one nation he threatens all, and if he does this, and he has with impunity, there is no longer any peace in the world even though there may be a pause in actual warfare. The whole of Europe is now under the constant menace of armed force.
[4]
He ended with a strong indictment against the National Government.
- ...Seven years of National Government have brought us to a day of humiliation, to a more dangerous position and a more humiliating position since the days of Charles II. The moral of this is that the day when our policy changed, when we left the path of collective security in the League of Nations, when we abandoned the attempt to make peace through the League and under collective security, that day we took a step toward war. [5]
