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Overview
Legendary politician and military strategist Winston S. Churchill was a master not only of the battlefield, but of the page and the podium. Over the course of forty books and countless speeches, broadcasts, news items and more, he addressed a country at war and at peace, thrilling with victory but uneasy with its shifting role on the global stage. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for “his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.” During his lifetime, he enthralled readers and brought crowds roaring to their feet; in the years since his death, his skilled writing has inspired generations of eager history buffs.
This thrilling collection brings together Churchill’s reporting for the Daily Telegraph and the Evening Standard from 1936 to 1939—tracing Hitler’s rise to power, the Nazi invasion of the Rhineland, and the looming specter of war.
In the first few years of Nazi ascendance, many European intellectuals and leaders advocated negotiating with Hitler, reluctant to take steps towards outright war. Churchill is one of the few who understood the scope of the Nazi threat and advocated armament against Germany early on, a position that contributed to Britain’s early entry into World War II. This collection is a must-read for anyone interested in this pivotal moment in world history, as told by one of its central figures.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780795329852 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | RosettaBooks |
| Publication date: | 02/12/2019 |
| Series: | Winston S. Churchill Essays and Other Works , #4 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 311 |
| Sales rank: | 821,559 |
| File size: | 6 MB |
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Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
BRITAIN, GERMANY AND LOCARNO
March 13, 1936
There has rarely been a crisis in which Hope and Peril have presented themselves so vividly and so simultaneously upon the world scene. When Herr Hitler on Saturday last repudiated the Treaty of Locarno and marched his troops into the Rhineland, he confronted the League of Nations with its supreme trial and also with its most splendid opportunity. If the League of Nations survives this ordeal there is no reason why the horrible, dull, remorseless drift to war in 1937 or 1938, and the preparatory piling up of enormous armaments in every country, should not be decisively arrested. A reign of law may be established in Europe, the sanctity of Treaties may be vindicated, and from that commanding eminence Germany may be welcomed back to the family of nations upon terms which will assure her a safe and honourable future. The risks to be run to gain this prize are, however, serious in the last degree. They must be faced with firm convictions and a steadfast gaze unfilmed by illusion.
France believes and declares that she has sustained a grievous injury at the hands of Germany. If we had been invaded four times in a hundred years, we should understand better how terrible that injury is. England has not seen the camp fires of an invading army for nearly a thousand years. To France and Belgium the avalanche of fire and steel which fell upon them twenty years ago, and the agony of the German occupation which followed, are an overpowering memory and obsession. The demilitarised zone which they gained by awful sacrifices is to them not only a bulwark, but the guarantee of a breathing space between them and mortal calamity. How should we feel if — to change the metaphor — we saw a tiger, the marks of whose teeth and claws had scarred every limb of our bodies, coming forward and crouching within exactly the distance of a single spring? Whether these fears are justified or not, is arguable. But it is particularly important for us to realise how the French and Belgians feel.
Instead of retaliating by armed force, as would have been done in a previous generation, France has taken the proper and prescribed course of appealing to the League of Nations. She has taken her case before the Court and she asks for justice there. If the Court finds that her case is just, but is unable to offer her any satisfaction, that will be a very serious blow to the Court. The Covenant of the League of Nations will have been proved a fraud and collective security a sham. If no means of patient, lawful redress can be offered to the aggrieved party, the whole doctrine of international law and co-operation, upon which the hopes of the future are based, would lapse ignominiously. It would be replaced immediately by a system of alliances, and groups of nations, deprived of all guarantees but their own right arm, which might take the law into their own hands and strike for their vital safety at whatever moment offered them the best chance. On the other hand, if the League of Nations were able to enforce its decree upon one of the most powerful countries in the world found to be an aggressor, then the authority of the League is set up upon so majestic a pedestal that it must henceforth be the accepted sovereign authority by which all the quarrels of peoples can be determined and controlled. Thus we might upon this occasion reach by one single bound the realisation of our most cherished dreams.
But the risk! No one must ignore it. How can it be minimised? There is a simple method: the assembly of overwhelming force, moral and physical, in support of international law. If the relative strengths are narrowly balanced, war may break out in a few weeks, and no one can measure what the course of war may be, or who will be drawn into its whirlpools, or how, if ever, they will emerge. But if the forces at the disposal of the League of Nations are four or five times as strong as those which the Aggressor can as yet command, the chances of a peaceful and friendly solution are very good. Therefore every nation, great or small, should play its part according to the Covenant of the League.
Upon what force can the League of Nations count at this cardinal moment? Has she sheriffs and constables with whom to sustain her judgments, or is she left alone, impotent, a hollow mockery amid the lip-serving platitudes of irresolute or cynical devotees? Strangely enough for the destiny of the world, there never was a moment or occasion when the League of Nations could command such overwhelming force. The Constabulary of the world is at hand. On every side of Geneva stand great nations, armed and ready, whose interests as well as whose obligations bind them to uphold, and, in the last resort, enforce, the public law. This may never come to pass again. The fateful moment has arrived for choice between the New Age and the Old.
But there is one nation of all others which has the opportunity of rendering a noble service to the world. Herr Hitler and the great disconsolate Germany he leads have now the chance to place themselves in the very forefront of civilization. By a proud and voluntary submission, not to any single country or group of countries, but to the sanctity of Treaties and the authority of public law, by an immediate withdrawal from the Rhineland, they may open a new era for all mankind and create conditions in which German genius may gain its highest glory. So much upon the main issue.
I have not mentioned the obligations of Great Britain under the Treaty of Locarno. They are absolute. There is no escape from them. There is much goodwill in England towards Germany, and a deep desire for the day when the clouds may be dispersed and the three great peoples of Western Europe may join hands in lasting friendship. But it ought not even to be necessary to state that Great Britain, if ultimately called upon, will honour her obligations both under the Covenant of the League and under the Treaty of Locarno.
CHAPTER 2STOP IT NOW!
April 3, 1936
It is a mistake to suppose that the problem of averting another European or probably a world war depends to any important extent either upon the reply which Herr Hitler has made to the Locarno Powers, or to staff conversations now decided upon between Great Britain and France or Belgium. Herr Hitler is continuing his efforts to separate Great Britain from France, and also to separate British public opinion from the British Government and House of Commons. The British Government, on the other hand, is anxious to comfort France in view of the great restraint which France, largely in deference to British wishes, has observed in presence of the German breach of treaties and military reoccupation of the Rhine zone. The realities are far larger and more profound than either of these moves upon the diplomatic chessboard.
First stands the rapid and tremendous rearmament of Germany, which is proceeding night and day and is steadily converting nearly seventy millions of the most efficient race in Europe into one gigantic, hungry war-machine. The second is that the recent actions of Germany have destroyed all confidence in her respect for treaties, whether imposed as the result of defeat in war or freely entered into by post- War Germany and confirmed by the Nazi regime. The third is that practically the whole of the German nation has been taught to regard the incorporation in the Reich of the Germanic population of neighbouring states as a natural, rightful and inevitable aim of German policy. The fourth is that the financial and economic pressures in Germany are rising to such a pitch that Herr Hitler's government will in a comparatively short time have only to choose between an internal and an external explosion.
Anyone who bears these terrible and sombre realities constantly in mind will acquire that sense of proportion without which the daily gestures and speeches of rulers, politicians and diplomatists are liable to be merely misleading. All who have acquired this indispensable standard of judgment will see that the issue which is open is not really one between Germany and France, nor between Germany and the Locarno Powers. It is an issue between Germany and the League of Nations. Indeed, expressed in its most searching terms, it is a life and death struggle between the Nazi regime in Germany and the principles of the Covenant of the League of Nations reiterated by the Kellogg Pact.
It therefore concerns all nations, including the German people themselves: but it concerns them all in very different degrees. The countries which lie upon or near the borders of Germany are in the front line. They see the wonderful roads along which four columns of troops or motor vehicles can move abreast, brought to their own frontier terminals. They dwell under the flickering shadow of the most fearful sword ever wrought by human agency, now uplifted in flashing menace, now held anew to the grindstone. Those that are more remote from the German arsenals and training-centres have naturally a greater sense of detachment. But none, even though protected by the oceans can, as experience of the last war proved, afford to view with indifference the processes which are already in motion.
The dear desire of all the peoples, not perhaps even excluding a substantial portion of the German people themselves, is to avoid another horrible war in which their lives and homes will be destroyed or ruined and such civilisation as we have been able to achieve reduced to primordial pulp and squalor. Never till now were great communities afforded such ample means of measuring their approaching agony. Never have they seemed less capable of taking effective measures to prevent it. Chattering, busy, sporting, toiling, amused from day to day by headlines and from night to night by cinemas, they yet can feel themselves slipping, sinking, rolling backward to the age when 'the earth was void and darkness moved upon the face of the waters.' Surely it is worth a supreme effort — the laying aside of every impediment, the clear-eyed facing of fundamental facts, the noble acceptance of risks inseparable from heroic endeavour — to control the hideous drift of events and arrest calamity upon the threshold. Stop it! Stop it!! Stop it now!!! NOW is the appointed time.
When, on that Friday night three weeks ago, Herr Hitler, against the advice of his generals, ordered his redoubtable troops to march through the 'scraps of paper' to occupy and entrench the Rhineland, he set in motion a trend of events which offered nothing less than blessing or cursing to mankind. Which fate shall befall us rests no longer with him, but with the world. The world, nay, Europe alone, is overwhelmingly strong compared to any single member of its family. But there must be Concert and Design guided by far-sighted unselfishness and sustained by inexorable resolve. This is no task for France; no task for Britain; no task for the Locarno Powers or any group of Powers; no task for small Powers nor for great; it is a task for all. The means are at hand; the occasion has come. There may still be time.
Let the States and peoples who lie in fear of Germany carry their alarms to the League of Nations at Geneva. Let the greatest among them lead the way and marshal the assembly. Let none be a laggard or a doubter. Let the League, if satisfied that their fears are well-founded, authorise, nay, adjure them, to take forthwith all necessary measures for mutual protection, and require them to stand in readiness alike to submit themselves to, or, if need be, enforce the reign of international law. Let us have, in the words of a writer in The Times: 'A block of peaceable but resolute nations determined to make a stand against aggression in any form.' Let the League then address Germany collectively, not only upon her treaty breaches but also upon her own grievances and anxieties, and, above all, upon her armaments. Let Germany receive from united nations a guarantee of the inviolability of her own soil unless she invades the soil of others. Let unchallengeable power and fair play march hand in hand. Let us move forward by measured steps, without haste and without rest, to a faithful and a lasting settlement in accordance with the general need.
CHAPTER 3WHERE DO WE STAND?
April 17, 1936
Where do we stand about Italy and Abyssinia?
The past unfolds a lamentable tale. When, last June, Mr. Baldwin became Prime Minister in name as well as in fact, his first step was to remove Sir John Simon from the Foreign Office and install in his stead one of his closest adherents, Sir Samuel Hoare. This accomplished Minister had at length succeeded in carrying into law the India Constitution Bill, upon which Mr. Baldwin's heart was set. His promotion to the Foreign Office meant not only a reward for his achievement, but a special mark of the confidence which his chief felt in him. In order, however, to preserve a most intimate control over foreign policy, Mr. Baldwin adopted the extraordinary experiment of having a second Foreign Office representative in the Cabinet. He appointed the youthful and able Mr. Anthony Eden to be Minister for League of Nations affairs. Such an arrangement was clearly unworkable except upon the basis that the Prime Minister himself would give constant personal guidance. Having practically made two Foreign Ministers, he was in a position to hold the balance between them and to control both. We are bound, therefore, to attribute to the Prime Minister a degree of responsibility even beyond what is inseparable from his high office. All the power was in his hands. Let us, then, recall the main features of his policy.
A General Election was approaching in which foreign affairs must play an abnormal part. Earlier in the year the League of Nations Union had taken a ballot at which no fewer than eleven million persons in Great Britain had voted in favour of active adherence to the Covenant of the League, and a large proportion in favour of making serious and even military exertions to enforce it. Upon this strong national impulse both Mr. Baldwin's Foreign Ministers pressed the case for sanctions against Italy to their utmost. Great Britain took the lead at Geneva. Mr. Eden fought a vigorous battle for sanctions upon the committees there, and whipped up the nations in support of the British view as if they were to vote in a lobby. Early in September, when the ground was thus prepared, Sir Samuel Hoare flew to Geneva and delivered an oration in favour of the enforcement of the Covenant, which was accepted not only throughout Europe, but all over the world, as one of the greatest declarations upon international affairs ever made since the days of President Wilson. He received the rapturous applause of all the small States at Geneva, and the support not only of all parties at home but of all the Dominions of the British Empire.
Mr. Baldwin's policy and Mr. Baldwin's Ministers were thus raised to the highest pinnacle, and British foreign policy became the cynosure of world attention. The prominent part Britain was taking against Italy galvanised the League of Nations into action, and more than fifty States imposed their censures and their sanctions upon the Italian aggressor. The Abyssinians were encouraged to a desperate resistance by the feeling that almost the whole world, and, above all, Great Britain, were behind them.
These steps excited the vehement resentment of Italy. Threats filled the Government-controlled Italian Press. It became urgently necessary to reinforce the British Fleet in the Mediterranean and to place all our important establishments in and around that inland sea upon a war- footing. As these movements of ships, troops and aeroplanes became apparent, the possibility of war between Great Britain and Italy suddenly broke upon the British public. The Labour Party and the trade unions by a large majority threw their weight behind the Government and its cause. They dismissed their pacifist leader, Mr. Lansbury, and were in fact split from end to end. In these circumstances the General Election was fought under the most favourable conditions for Mr. Baldwin. The electors returned an enormous majority in favour of his policy, and he reached a position of personal power unequalled by any Prime Minister since the close of the Great War.
It was therefore with an intense spasm of surprise and disgust that Parliament and the public found themselves confronted with the Hoare-Laval proposals to reward the Italian aggressor with a great part of Abyssinia. These emotions were stimulated by the fact that at that time the Italian campaign seemed to be at a standstill. Mr. Baldwin approved, and led his Cabinet in approving, the Hoare-Laval scheme, and he told the House of Commons that if his lips were unsealed, no man would vote against him. However, when several days later he felt the full tide of the public indignation, he forced his Foreign Secretary to resign and solemnly admitted he had made a mistake. He sought to placate the League of Nations Union and their eleven million ballotteers by placing Mr. Eden in sole control of the Foreign Office. He repudiated the Hoare-Laval proposals, and resumed the policy of limited sanctions from which he and Sir Samuel Hoare had recoiled on account of its great danger. From that moment we saw Mr. Baldwin and his Cabinet carrying out a policy which their better judgment told them was too dangerous.
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Table of Contents
PREFACE,
FOREWORD,
BRITAIN, GERMANY AND LOCARNO – 13 March 1936,
STOP IT NOW! – 3 April 1936,
WHERE DO WE STAND? – 17 April 1936,
HOW GERMANY IS ARMING – 1 May 1936,
OUR NAVY MUST BE STRONGER – 15 May 1936,
ORGANISE OUR SUPPLIES – 29 May 1936,
HOW TO STOP WAR – 12 June 1936,
WHY SANCTIONS FAILED – 26 June 1936,
DUSK APPROACHES – 13 July 1936,
THE SPANISH TRAGEDY – 10 August 1936,
KEEP OUT OF SPAIN – 21 August 1936,
ENEMIES TO THE LEFT – 4 September 1936,
A TESTING TIME FOR FRANCE – 18 September 1936,
AN OBJECT LESSON FROM SPAIN – 2 October 1936,
THE COMMUNIST SCHISM – 16 October 1936,
GATHERING STORM – 30 October 1936,
IN MEDITERRANEAN WATERS – 13 November 1936,
GERMANY AND JAPAN – 27 November 1936,
THE PLEDGE OF FRANCE – 11 December 1936,
MR. BALDWIN'S REVIVAL – 28 December 1936,
NO INTERVENTION IN SPAIN – 8 January 1937,
HOW TO MEET THE BILL – 22 January 1937,
EUROPE'S PEACE – 5 February 1937,
FRANCE FACES A NEW CRISIS – 19 February 1937,
GERMANY'S CLAIM FOR COLONIES – 5 March 1937,
REBUILDING THE BATTLE FLEET – 22 March 1937,
CAN THE POWERS BRING PEACE TO SPAIN? – 2 April 1937,
THE NEW PHASE IN INDIA – 16 April 1937,
GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES – 7 May 1937,
DEFENDING THE EMPIRE – 13 May 1937,
AMERICA LOOKS AT EUROPE – 31 May 1937,
THE ROME-BERLIN AXIS – 11 June 1937,
"VIVE LA FRANCE!" – 25 June 1937,
THE EBBING TIDE OF SOCIALISM – 9 July 1937,
PALESTINE PARTITION – 23 July 1937,
ANGLO-ITALIAN FRIENDSHIP–HOW? – 6 August 1937,
A PLAIN WORD TO THE NAZIS – 20 August 1937,
THE WOUNDED DRAGON – 3 September 1937,
FRIENDSHIP WITH GERMANY – 17 September 1937,
THE DICTATORS HAVE SMILED – 1 October 1937,
WAR IS NOT IMMINENT – 15 October 1937,
YUGOSLAVIA AND EUROPE – 29 October 1937,
ARMISTICE-OR PEACE? – 11 November 1937,
SPAIN'S ROAD TO PEACE – 26 November 1937,
WHAT WE ASK OF THE UNITED STATES – 10 December 1937,
PANORAMA OF 1937 – 23 December 1937,
BRITAIN REARMS – 7 January 1938,
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OF US – 21 January 1938,
THE DUSK OF THE LEAGUE – 4 February 1938,
IT'S NOT ALL OVER YET – 17 February 1938,
CARRY ON! – 4 March 1938,
THE AUSTRIAN EYE-OPENER – 18 March 1938,
RED SUNSET IN SPAIN – 5 April 1938,
THE NEW FRENCH GOVERNMENT – 14 April 1938,
BRITAIN'S DEFICIENCIES IN AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURE – 28 April 1938,
BRITAIN AND ITALY – 12 May 1938,
JAPAN ENTANGLED – 26 May 1938,
NATIONAL SERVICE – 9 June 1938,
SHADOWS OVER CZECHOSLOVAKIA – 23 June 1938,
THE RAPE OF AUSTRIA – 6 July 1938,
THOUGHTS ON THE ROYAL VISIT – 26 July 1938,
THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE – 4 August 1938,
GERMAN MANŒUVRES – 18 August 1938,
IS AIR-POWER DECISIVE? – 1 September 1938,
THE EUROPEAN CRISIS – 15 September 1938,
FRANCE AFTER MUNICH – 4 October 1938,
PALESTINE – 20 October 1938,
THE JAPANESE BURDEN – 3 November 1938,
THE MORROW OF MUNICH – 17 November 1938,
FRANCE AND ENGLAND – 1 December 1938,
NEW LIGHTS IN EASTERN EUROPE – 15 December 1938,
THE SPANISH ULCER – 30 December 1938,
THE ANGLO-GERMAN NAVAL AGREEMENT – 12 January 1939,
MUSSOLINI'S CARES – 30 January 1939,
THE LULL IN EUROPE – 9 February 1939,
HOPE IN SPAIN – 23 February 1939,
IS IT PEACE? – 9 March 1939,
THE CRUNCH – 24 March 1939,
MUSSOLINI'S CHOICE – 13 APRIL 1939,
AFTER PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S MESSAGE – 20 April 1939,
THE RUSSIAN COUNTERPOISE – 4 May 1939,
THE ANGLO-TURKISH ALLIANCE – 15 May 1939,
EPILOGUE,
ENDNOTES,