Mr. Winston Churchill made a striking speech in the House of Commons yesterday on the Munich Agreement and its consequences as he sees them. Mr. Churchill was speaking to the Government╒s vote of confidence which Sir J. Simon had moved.
Mr. Churchill summed up his view in a picturesque phrase: ╥The utmost the Prime Minister has been able to secure,╙ he said, ╥has been to secure that the German dictator instead of snatching his victuals from the table has been content to have them served to him course by course.╙ We were, he said, in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude which had befallen Great Britain and France, and he demanded a secret session so that the House could be taken into the Government╒s confidence. ╥The House,╙ he said, ╥has a right to know where we stand and what measures are being taken to secure our position.╙
We had, said Mr. Churchill, been left in the hour of trial without adequate national defence or effective international security. He went on:
Many people no doubt honestly believed they were only giving away the interests of Czecho-Slovakia. I fear we shall find that we have deeply compromised and perhaps fatally endangered the safety and even the independence of Great Britain and France.
The sense of our country falling into the power orbit and influence of Nazi Germany and our existence becoming dependent on their goodwill and pleasure is unendurable.
An effort at rearmament the like of which has not been seen ought to be made forthwith, and all the resources of this country and all its united strength should be bent on that task.
Do not suppose this is the end. This is only the beginning. It is only the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to you year by year unless by a supreme recovery of martial vigour we rise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden times.
