Changes

:[[Martin Niemöller]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Martin Niemöller: "First They Came For The Socialists..." |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392 |accessdate=March 8, 2014}}</ref>|group=note}} A few hours before the [[Führer]]’s ultimatum related to territorial claims in [[Sudetenland]] at the expense of [[Czechoslovakia|Czecho-Slovakia]] would have expired, [[Neville Chamberlain]], the Prime Minister of [[Great Britain]], asked Mussolini to "save the peace" by intervening. In his reply, "Herr Hitler" agreed to postpone his mobilization for twenty-four hours and invited Chamberlain to meet in conference at Munich. After Chamberlain brought the news to [[House of Commons (UK)|House of Commons]], the whole house burst into a roar of cheering. Men all round, except few remaining in their benches, were shouting: ''"Get up! Get up! Thank God for the Prime Minister!"'' One man who remained silent and seated—with his head sunk on his shoulders, his whole demeanor depicting something between anger and despair, was [[Winston Churchill]].<ref name="Guinness">{{cite book|first=Os |last=Guinness|editor= Virginia Mooney Withrow|title=When No One Sees: Character and Leadership in an Age of Image|publisher=[http://www.ttf.org/ TheTrinityForum.org]|location=McLean, Virginia|year=2007|pages=73–77|isbn= 1-57683-159-0}}</ref>

:[[Martin Niemöller]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Martin Niemöller: "First They Came For The Socialists..." |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392 |accessdate=March 8, 2014}}</ref>|group=note}} A few hours before the [[Führer]]’s ultimatum related to territorial claims in [[Sudetenland]] at the expense of [[Czechoslovakia|Czecho-Slovakia]] would have expired, [[Neville Chamberlain]], the Prime Minister of [[Great Britain]], asked Mussolini to "save the peace" by intervening. In his reply, "Herr Hitler" agreed to postpone his mobilization for twenty-four hours and invited Chamberlain to meet in conference at Munich. After Chamberlain brought the news to [[House of Commons (UK)|House of Commons]], the whole house burst into a roar of cheering. Men all round, except few remaining in their benches, were shouting: ''"Get up! Get up! Thank God for the Prime Minister!"'' One man who remained silent and seated—with his head sunk on his shoulders, his whole demeanor depicting something between anger and despair, was [[Winston Churchill]].<ref name="Guinness">{{cite book|first=Os |last=Guinness|editor= Virginia Mooney Withrow|title=When No One Sees: Character and Leadership in an Age of Image|publisher=[http://www.ttf.org/ TheTrinityForum.org]|location=McLean, Virginia|year=2007|pages=73–77|isbn= 1-57683-159-0}}</ref>

Chamberlain believed Hitler when the latter vowed that restoring their beloved homeland to the mistreated Sudetendeutsche was his last territorial demand. The Prime Minister treated Czechoslovakia, a “faraway country,” only as the “Czech problem” on his desk and not as a land inhabited by real people. Churchill adopted a different attitude; he had studied Adolf Hitler’s career with intensity and was aware of the history of broken promises and “last territorial claims” including the [[Versailles Treaty]], the [[Causes of World War II#Munich 1938|Locarno Pact]], the [[Rhineland]] claims, and [[Anschluss|the claims to Austria]].

Hitler used a language of '[[equal rights]]' arguing that rearmament was the best way to secure German defence based on the principle of basic equity and many, not just in Nazi ranks, considered his demand to be on par with the western powers in terms of military strength a compelling argument. Where Hitler pulled a masterstroke was in persuading them for years that he was striving for peace, not war.<ref>{{cite book |title=To Hell and Back: Europe, 1914-1949 |author=Ian Kershaw |publisher=Penguin |location=UK |year=2015 |chapter=6.Danger Zone |pages=251 |isbn=978-02411-87159 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HPqjBwAAQBAJ&q=equal%20rights }}</ref> Chamberlain believed Hitler when the latter vowed that restoring their beloved homeland to the mistreated Sudetendeutsche was his last territorial demand. The Prime Minister treated Czechoslovakia, a “faraway country,” only as the “Czech problem” on his desk and not as a land inhabited by real people. Churchill adopted a different attitude; he had studied Adolf Hitler’s career with intensity and was aware of the history of broken promises and “last territorial claims” including the [[Versailles Treaty]], the [[Causes of World War II#Munich 1938|Locarno Pact]], the [[Rhineland]] claims, and [[Anschluss|the claims to Austria]].

After the Four-Power Meeting began in [[Bavaria]], the Focus group was supposed to meet and draft and sign a telegram to the British Prime Minister adjuring him to make no further concessions at the expense of Czechoslovakia and warning him that if he did so he would have to fight the House of Commons on his return. Regrettably, one by one, the group drifted away. Some who had said they would come had not and finally declined to permit the use of their names, while others made excuses of lacking the approval from their parties. They refused to put their names to their principles. Churchill commented: ''"What are they made of? The day is not far off when it won’t be signatures we’ll have to give but lives—the lives of millions. Can we survive?  Do we deserve to when there is no courage anywhere?"'', and Nicolson wrote in his diary: they ''"sat there gloomily realizing that nothing could be done…. So far as one can see, Hitler gets everything he wants."''<ref name="Guinness"/>

After the Four-Power Meeting began in [[Bavaria]], the Focus group was supposed to meet and draft and sign a telegram to the British Prime Minister adjuring him to make no further concessions at the expense of Czechoslovakia and warning him that if he did so he would have to fight the House of Commons on his return. Regrettably, one by one, the group drifted away. Some who had said they would come had not and finally declined to permit the use of their names, while others made excuses of lacking the approval from their parties. They refused to put their names to their principles. Churchill commented: ''"What are they made of? The day is not far off when it won’t be signatures we’ll have to give but lives—the lives of millions. Can we survive?  Do we deserve to when there is no courage anywhere?"'', and Nicolson wrote in his diary: they ''"sat there gloomily realizing that nothing could be done…. So far as one can see, Hitler gets everything he wants."''<ref name="Guinness"/>