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"I will tell you why the new memorandum [Godesberg Demands] is unacceptable to Benes—it is because THIS TIME I ASK THAT HE KEEP HIS PROMISE!" was the next Hitler smash-point. "The German districts must be handed over to Germany by October 1.
. . . Benes suggests that the Sudeten districts be credited to Germany in the books, and meanwhile that Czechs continue to rape the Sudetenland. . . . He still hopes that Chamberlain and Daladier can be moved so that he can be released from his promise. But here stands man against man. There is Benes—here am I. Only one of us can win. We are entirely different. During the war he wandered about the world outside the danger zone, while I did my duty as a soldier — and again today I AM THE FIRST SOLDIER OF MY PEOPLE! ... I COULD NEVER BE REPROACHED WITH BEING A COWARD. . . . THE GERMAN NATION IS WITH ME, AND ITS WILL IS MY COMMAND. . . . ONE COMMON WILL IS STRONGER THAN PRIVATION AND DANGER AND WILL CONQUER BOTH!"
In London at midnight Prime Minister Chamberlain, who saw as the crux of the matter the issue of whether Germany would get Sudetenland at once or after the formality of international negotiation, declared:
"It is evident that the Chancellor has no faith that the promises made will be carried out. These promises were made not to the German Government direct, but to the British and French Governments in the first instance. Speaking for the British Government, we regard ourselves as morally responsible for seeing that the promises are carried out fairly and fully and we are prepared to undertake that they shall be so carried out with all reasonable promptitude, provided that the German Government will agree to settlement of terms and conditions to the transfer by discussions and not by force."
In these circumstances the British Parliament was convened for this week and democratic public opinion poised itself to dictate to Chamberlain and Daladier, as well as to Dr. Benes, a decision which had now been left up to it.
Always provocative, Benito Mussolini observed: "I cannot believe that Europe will set fire to itself to cook Prague's putrid egg."
"There are some things we cannot surrender!" cried British Labor Party Leader Clement Attlee. "Life without liberty is not life. If war should come — God forbid — we must all meet it with courage!"
*Sir Horace has hitherto declined invitations to visit Continental statesmen with the dry comment: "Thank you, but I am not one of those Englishmen who travel abroad," never dreaming he would have to fly to Berchtesgaden fortnight ago, to Godesberg last week.