Word: chamberlaine
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Many other British statesmen have been called just as bad or worse in the German press (notably Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Alfred Duff Cooper), but last week Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Lord Baldwin's successor, decided to defend his old Cabinet colleague. Invited to deliver the main speech at the 50th anniversary dinner of London's Foreign Press Association, which includes in its membership German as well as U. S., French, Italian, Polish, Latin American correspondents, Mr. Chamberlain, in preparing his speech, inserted amidst paragraphs of amiable generalities one moderate sentence of criticism...
Advance copies of Mr. Chamberlain's speech, marked "confidential," were given to correspondents (including the German) at No. 10 Downing Street at 3 p.m., five hours before the dinner at distinguished Grosvenor House. At 6 p.m. German Ambassador Herbert von Dirksen, who was to occupy a seat at the speakers' table, got hold of a copy of the speech, telephoned Berlin. At 7 p.m. Ambassador von Dirksen notified 25 obedient Nazi newsmen not to attend, and telephoned his "regrets" to the association. The Ambassador "felt an embarrassing situation might arise if in the course of the evening mention...
...time the guests-among them British Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon, the Ambassadors of Italy, France, Russia, Brazil-had begun to arrive, 50 chairs reserved for the missing Germans had been removed and table seatings rearranged. Informed of the boycott, Prime Minister Chamberlain was heard to exclaim: "How stupid!" But Mr. Chamberlain made no changes in his speech, got a big hand when he came to the "offending" sentence...
Appeaser. To most polite Britons the German boycott was a shocking lapse of manners. To the London press the "banquet incident" loomed bigger than any far-off territorial dispute. But Mr. Chamberlain's own words at the banquet proved that no question of taste would affect the Prime Minister's appease-the-dictators policy. Avoiding the use of the word "appeasement," a term no longer very popular in England, Mr. Chamberlain said he would continue to make a "prolonged and determined effort to eradicate possible causes of war and to try out methods of personal contact and discussion...
...potent friend because he is chairman of the Conservative Party. As entertainer in chief to Conservative Governments, he holds brilliant gatherings of lords, ladies, ministers and diplomats which have dazzled many a fiery Laborite. He has been a potent behind-the-scenes figure in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasing the dictators. Last September the Marquess bobbed up at Munich at just the time Friend Chamberlain was arranging for Friend Hitler the big Czecho-Slovak handout. Even after Munich Lord Londonderry advocated a deal on colonies further to appease Nazi Germany...