War or Dishonour

chopperdave

War or Dishonour: Part 1
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Excerpt from Old Men Remember, Duff Cooper. 1953

The tension in cabinet on that September day was palpable. The Prime Minister had returned from Berchtesgaden on the 15th and the meeting had aroused the fury of Eden, still grinding his teeth at the commandeering of foreign policy by the P.M. The day after Daladier had rushed over to discuss the crisis, that same day a warrant was been issued for Henlein by the Czechoslovak authorities . I kept my private feelings on the matter hidden, the First Lord of the Admiralty was not there to dictate foreign policy. Besides I was certain Anthony would break down in indignation before I did. Little did I know the long-game he had been playing, secret even from me at the time. I was astonished that he had not resigned previously over the Prime Minister effectively bypassing the Foreign Office. A seasoned poker might have spotted what Anthony was doing, he had been steadily accumulating chips and was now in the situation to use them for a great gamble.
Days later when the Prime Minister announced his intention for a conference Anthony played his hand. He had one chance to ask something of the P.M. and he made it count. Taking him aside after cabinet Anthony played his hand:

“Prime Minister, I feel we have the opportunity here for a lasting peace on the continent. However we can only accomplish this if we bring both parties to negotiate. After all, the same revanchism we see in the German leadership could be mirrored by the Czechs down the line. We can only ensure peace if both parties participate in these talks and reach a mutually agreeable solution. Only then I believe can we have a peace for our time.”

The Prime Minister said nothing, Anthony continued:

“Sir, I have supported your policy but unless we involve both parties there is nothing to stop the Czechs from seeking the support of more dangerous, unstable powers such as the Soviets. We must accomplish this properly or not at all sir.”

Chamberlain seemed to ponder for a while, finally acknowledged his approval and with that I knew matters had changed. The Foreign Secretary had played his hand and won.


Excerpt from the Diary of Anthony Eden.

September 18th 1938
It worked, must arrange meeting with Jan Masaryk tonight. This has to be carefully planned if it is to have any hope of success.
 

chopperdave

Part 2:
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(Tomas Masaryk: First President of Czechoslovakia and his son, Jan: Czechoslovak Ambassador to the United Kingdom)

“If you have sacrificed my nation to preserve the peace of the world, I will be the first to applaud you. But if not, gentlemen, God help your souls."

A piano held pride of place in the living room of the ambassador of the Republic of Czechoslovakia to the Court of Saint James. Eden was politely informed that the ambassador would be returning from a visit to Senate House to meet some academic friends of his father. Eden paced the room pondering. What he was doing wasn’t technically illegal, he reasoned. He was after all Foreign Secretary, it was his job to conduct negotiations with the representatives of other countries… and yet no, what he was doing was so counter to the government’s policy as to be highly suspect. Even if he didn’t face criminal charges his political career would be over. He knew it was the right course of action though. He had never ceased to be astonished at how it was the Prime Minister and not him, the western front veteran, who was horrified at the prospect of war. Delville Wood had been on his mind heavily over the last few days: “here was a royal fellowship of death” and Nicholas, only sixteen when his time came at Jutland. The noise of china brought him out of his thoughts, he hadn’t noticed his hand had been shaking so.


The Darjeeling, thankfully provided by Masaryk’s American wife Mary, served to calm him. If all went well, there would be no war at all. A hope. His main concern was that they would be so focused on avoiding war that they would lose the peace. The image of central Europe handed over to that regime, no that didn’t bare thinking about. His last visit to Germany had been harrowing. Their car had taken a wrong turn and taken them past a sight they had certainly not been meant to see. A book burning.


“Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.” He muttered to himself.

“Quite so, Mr Foreign Secretary, however when they burn your books at least you know you are doing something right.” Jan Masaryk had stealthily entered the room.
“Good evening Mr Masaryk. Firstly I must say, that if you mention this meeting I will deny it.”


“Ah, so we are ‘on the QT?’”


“I always thought you spent too long in the United States.”


“Not possible. Just look at the New World Symphony, such life!”


“Mr Ambassador, I did not come to discuss music.”


“What then, unless you wish to visit Prague while you still can.”


“There will be a conference soon, to determine the Sudeten question; us -that is the British, the French and the Germans, who have insisted on the Italians being present. I’ve used all the influence I have left to persuade the Prime Minister to allow a Czechoslovak delegation at the conference. This is your opportunity to affect the outcome. The French would support you if we do, so you only have to convince Chamberlain. That will be difficult though, his heart’s in the right place I know it, but he can’t look at the larger issues. Find a way. Be reasonable, and make the other chap look ghastly. That’s the only way I can see it working, it has to work on the British public too. To them you’re a just country they know little of and frankly don’t care about. Convince them, cast yourselves in the proper roles in this little drama. I’ve done all that my position allows me. Can you do it?”


“I believe so, Mr Foreign Secretary. Tell me, have you ever heard of Josef Švejk?
 

Napoleon IV

Intriguing. Will a Czech delegation in Munich really change what happened? After all Hitler was determined to take the Sudetenland even if it mean war, and Chamberlin wanted to avoid war at all costs.
 

chopperdave

Part 3



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(Sir Horace Wilson. GCB, GCMG, CBE.)

From Wikipedia article on the Oxford Union:
“The October 1956 chamber debate is seen as a crucial moment in post-war British history, defining attitudes not only to the war but to Britain and its place in the world for the generation. In an unprecedented move the minutes of the debate were later published in book form and became a bestseller.”


Moderator: Welcome members and distinguished guests. We have today as our motion a controversial one which has seen heavy coverage in the press due to recent revelations regarding the Czechoslovak Crisis. As this is a rather divisive issue I feel the need to remind you of the rules governing the debate: No interruptions, do not heckle the participants and anyone who uses any obscene gestures will be expelled from the debate and their college informed.


The motion before us is: “This House Believes the Second World War was an avoidable catastrophe for this nation.” To propose the motion we are pleased to invite Sir Horace Wilson, formerly Permanent Secretary of the Treasury and Head of the Home Civil Service and a key advisor to Mr Chamberlain during his time in office. I note that you went to the LSE Sir Horace so I will remind you of the rules of the debate: you may speak for a long as you like and I encourage you to allow your opponent the same courtesy, however should they wish to make a point of information or to challenge a statement of yours it would be proper to allow them.


Sir Horace Wilson: Thank you Mr. Speaker, I am breaking the habit of a lifetime in coming here. My career has been devoted to applying the policies of greater men than myself, and so this is all rather new to me. I do feel the distinct need however to speak now, I am one of the few officials of the Chamberlain government still active in public life and with the recent and excellent investigative work by the press I feel the need to stand up for what I believe is right.


This country was ruined and its place in the world destroyed by a war which was all to avoidable. Looking today at this country one could hardly compare it to the nation which held a quarter of the globe and to which kings and emperors paid homage at the start of this century. We have lost or are losing the remaining vestiges of what made us great; our empire without India and countless others is merely a shell, our foreign policy is unduly influenced by outside and our national integrity itself is bound in with myriad restrictions both political and economic. We have accomplished what no dictator or tyrant has ever accomplished. We have made a conquest of ourselves. It is strong language I use here, and a life in the civil service has not accustomed me to it but now I speak with the pain of all those long years.


One need only look around to see our place in the world has declined. This is not something that I believe even my distinguished opponent can refute. I can categorically place the fault at the conspirators who aimed to drag this country into conflict with Germany no matter the cost. We went to war over an issue already settled, against all notions of national self-determination, over an issue we had already solved in principle. Does anyone question whether a region with a German majority should belong to Germany? Does anyone question whether a country which oppresses these people is worth the life of a single British tommy? And yet the opposition would have you believe that we accomplished some noble goal in denying these people the right to join their homeland. I will argue that had we given the territory we would here no more German demands. They would slumber, content with their winning and in time the anger and hate that had brought Mr. Hitler to power would subside and the world would be a better safer place with this nation back where it belongs.

Moderator: Mr Churchill, would you like to respond to any of the points made?
 
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zert

Wow looking good. Hitler apologists in TTL thinking he would have stayed appeased. Have to shake my head at those types. OTL types are just as bad, if not worse, considering the Holocost.

Please keep up the updates. :)
 

ObssesedNuker

Stalin's still going to be a bit miffed at being left out of the conference but still has not yet grown disillusioned with the West's willingness to fight Hitler... which I imagine will push him into a much more neutral position compared to IOTL.
 

Dirk_Pitt

Banned
So will this lead to an earlier WWII or will Hitler back down? I can't see the latter happening and if the allies sell the Czechoslovakia down the river that's little more different than OTL.
 

Geordie

From the first post, I was interested.
chopperdave said:
Moderator: Mr Churchill, would you like to respond to any of the points made?
Click to expand...
After this one, consider me subscribed! :cool:

This looks very interesting. I know 1938 and the potential changes are discussed a lot, but it's rarely made into a TL. Plus, it seems a slightly different PoD to the usual "Britain and France stand up for the Czechs". The Czechs having their own voice is a different take. I wonder how long a game Mr Eden is playing...

Interesting premise, and well written. Carry on, good sir! :)
 

Perfidious Albion

Subscribed.

I confess that part of my motive is my own shame about the betrayal my country committed against Czechoslovakia and the role that this played in facilitating Hitler's power.

I hope that the Hitler & Chamberlain apologists lose completely and that Churchill wins the debate, of course. But with his wit and rhetoric it won't be a fair contest… which is just as well, because anyone defending Nazis deserves to be shot, not listened to.

It's a great idea and an interesting-looking TL that you've started here, chopperdave, and I very much look forward to reading more of it.
 

chopperdave

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(A good portion of this update is from OTL, I can’t take credit for the events but will do my best to make them as interesting as possible. Nicholson’s writing is however almost verbatim from the original.)
Part 4

"If ever that silly old man comes interfering here again with his umbrella, I'll kick him downstairs and jump on his stomach in front of the photographers." Adolf Hitler on Chamberlain.

Excerpt from Old Men Remember, Duff Cooper. 1953


The next few days tested everyone deeply. The Prime Minister had sent out unofficial messages to Daladier and Mussolini through a producer at the BBC called Burgess and sent Sir Horace Wilson to Berlin in order to work with Neville Henderson, our ambassador there. Every sign seemed to show that Mr Hitler was going to invade and the government desperately sought a conference to avoid war. That afternoon in parliament the mood was grim, the Royal Navy was mobilising, gas masks were being issued and on my way to the Commons I saw barrage balloons being put up along the Thames Embankment.

Hans Geist.(nom de plume) I was Hitler’s Translator. 1960


I had never seen him as angry as on that day. The insistence of the British on a conference tried his will and seemed to sap him of what he wanted most, a Roman triumph through the streets of Prague. Something in him seemed to snap and he proceeded to rant at Sir Horace: “if France and England want to strike, let them go ahead. I don’t give a damn!” His anger persisted into the evening and throughout the day after. The sudden explosion of him seemed to be caused by the insistence of the British that he play their game. Our ideology was focused on actions speaking louder than words and the thought of gained the territory in this manner seemed anathema to that. It was only through pressure from others within the leadership that he even agreed to the conference and the presence of the Czechs only served to anger him further. Having to do business and make polite conversation with the bean-counter Chamberlain exasperated him though.


Harold Nicholson. The Harold Nicolson Diaries 1907–1963 (Pub. 1973)

It was twelve minutes after four. Chamberlain had been speaking for exactly an hour. I noticed that a sheet of Foreign Office paper was being passed rapidly along the government bench. Sir John Simon interrupted the Prime Minister and there was a momentary hush. He adjusted his pince-nez and his whole face, his whole body seemed to change. All the lines of anxiety and weariness seemed suddenly to have been smoothed out he appeared ten years younger and triumphant. He read the document that had been handed to him. “Herr Hitler”, he said, “has just agreed to postpone his mobilization for twenty-four hours and to meet me in conference with Signor Mussolini, Monsieur Daladier and Mr Beneš at Munich.” For a second the House was hushed in absolute silence. And then the whole House burst into a roar of cheering, since they knew this might mean peace. That was the end of the Prime Minister’s speech and when he sat down the whole House rose to pay tribute to his achievement. I remained seated. Liddall, the Conservative member for Lincoln behind me, hisses out “Stand up, you brute.”

William Barrington-Ward. Memoirs. 1935-1957
I had been watching from the Press Gallery, listening with interest to Chamberlain’s speech. Despite Dawson’s (Geoffrey Dawson: Editor of The Times) work in shaping The Times to a pro-appeasement stand I wanted to be there to record every moment. After the announcement there was a huge prolonged cheer. I looked around and saw the public violently applauding in the Stranger’s Gallery. It was a venture to say a spontaneous demonstration the likes of which has not been seen in Parliament before or since. At the centre of it all was Chamberlain, drinking in their adoration, many members of the opposition walked over to the Prime Minister and with tears in their eyes grasped him by the hand.


Looking down I could see Harold Nicholson still sitting, stone-faced. My eye moving over a few Conservatives throwing paper in the air I saw that Leo Amery, Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden were also sitting with grim, set faces; Churchill was pale with shame and anger and made to speak but was silenced by the revellers, Amery sat as if paused in time, his mind refusing to take in the events. Eden had what I can only describe as a lean and hungry look as if he had staked his life on an unpleasant but necessary course. At that moment I put it down to his determination to support his party’s government despite his personal opinions. I assumed his conversation with Mr Masaryk in the Stranger’s Bar was a diplomatic apology for the actions of the government. That can be no doubt however that the vast majority of the House were appeasers that day. All the party leaders gave speeches praising Mr Chamberlain; from Atlee down to Sinclair. The only member to voice disgust was William Gallagher of the Communists. The whole event was electrifying and I found myself getting quite caught up in the emotion. It was decided. With incredible speed the Prime Minister flew out to Munich to meet the other leaders the following day.
 
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zert

Even with the direct quotes from OTL makes me shake my head and shudder at what the appeasers did that day. I know I am using hindsight and know what was to come, butvthis was not one of the West's finist hour. :(

Thanks for the update.
 
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