British Declaration of War – September 3rd 1939 - Radio address of Neville Chamberlain

This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11.00 a.m. that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us.

I have to tell you that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.

You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed. Yet I cannot believe that there is anything more or anything different I could have done and that would have been more successful.

Up to the very last it would have been quite possible to have arranged a peaceful and honourable settlement between Germany and Poland, but Hitler would not have it.

He had evidently made up his mind to attack Poland whatever happened; and although he now says he has put forward reasonable proposals which were rejected by the Poles, that is not a true statement.

The proposals were never shown to the Poles nor to us; and although they were announced in a German broadcast on Thursday night, Hitler did not wait to make comment on them, but ordered his troops to cross the Polish frontier.

His actions show convincingly that there is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force.

We and France are today, in fulfilment of our obligations, going to the aid of Poland, who is so bravely resisting this wicked and unprovoked attack on her people. We have a clear conscience. We have done all that any country could do to establish peace. The situation in which no word given to Germany’s ruler could be trusted and no people or country could feel themselves safe has become intolerable.

And now that we have resolved to finish it, I know that you will play your part with calmness and courage.

At such a moment as this the assurances of support that we have received from the Empire are a source of profound encouragement to us.

When I have finished speaking certain detailed announcements will be made on behalf of the Government. Give these your closest attention.

The Government have made plans under which it will be possible to carry on the work of the nation in the days of stress and strain that may be ahead. But these plans need your help.

You may be taking part in the fighting Services or as a volunteer in one of the branches of civil defence. If so you will report for duty in accordance with the instructions you have received.

You may be engaged in work essential to the prosecution of war for the maintenance of the life of the people – in factories, in transport, in public utility concerns or in the supply of other necessaries of life. If so, it is of vital importance that you should carry on with your jobs.

Now may God bless you all. May He defend the right. It is the evil things that we shall be fighting against – brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution – and against them I am certain that the right will prevail."

In September 1938, Neville Chamberlain had journeyed to Munich and made an agreement with Hitler that he percieved would guarantee "peace for out time"

See my posting HERE of Chamberlain's words on his return and in the House a few days later.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland.

The above is Chamberlain's radio address, made 15 minutes after the expiry of an extremely short British ultimatum to Germany to get out of Poland, in which he announced that Britain was at war.

We well remembet the "peace for our time" remark as Chamberlain's legacy of appeasement, but we often forget that he well understood the meaning of an ultimatum.

Note that the ultimatum was delivered in the morning and expired before noon. There were no further formalities except to announce to the world that war had begun.

Shortly after Chamberlain made his extraordinary trip to Munich -- extraordinary because he went virtually unannounced and without a prenegotiated agenda -- he enjoyed the same bubble reputation that now haloes Chirac. The anti-Bolshevik Right loved him; and the pacifist-Left adored him. Shades of Pat Buchanan and ANSWER.

Then he was instantly betrayed by Hitler, who invaded Poland. The Chamberlain cabinet, faced with having to uphold its treaty with Poland, declared war. Well, sort of. The famous Phoney War ensued, in which the French, who were the main force in the West, did nothing. The BEF took it's position near the channel. The French Generals assured themselves they were invincible. Then the deluge came.

In forty days of the most glorious summer in memory, a Panzer sickle swept through the French lines in an arc towards Paris. It sundered the BEF from its French right flank and then doubled back to cut it off from the channel ports. The BEF was doomed.

Then followed a test of national character that few Frenchmen care to remember and no Briton should forget. The French, with the majority of their army still unbeated, surrendered, in exchange for a faux independence, a make-believe glory under Marshall Petain. The British waded out to the surf, where they waited for small boats from England to rescue them, and rode out to despair, then hope, then glory.

A small rear guard remained behind to cover the evacuation. They were killed or captured. Their graves lie on the soil of an ungrateful France.

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

As far as declarations of war are concerned, I rather prefer Churchill's letter to the Japanese Ambassador to the United Kingdom some 26 months later:

Foreign Office, December 8 [1941]

Sir,

On the evening of December 7th His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom learned that Japanese forces without previous warning either in the form of a declaration of war or of an ultimatum with a conditional declaration of war had attempted a landing on the coast of Malaya and bombed Singapore and Hong Kong.

In view of these wanton acts of unprovoked aggression committed in flagrant violation of International Law and particularly of Article 1 of the Third Hague Convention relative to the opening of hostilities, to which both Japan and the United Kingdom are parties, His Majesty's Ambassador to Tokyo has been instructed to inform the Imperial Japanese Government in the name of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom that a state of war exists between our two countries.

I have the honour to be, with high consideration,

Sir,

Your obedient servant,

Winston S. Churchill

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