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Higher History Supported Study Project |
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Comparison of Sources 1
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Source Extract
from a speech by Sir Winston Churchill in
the House of Commons, March 1938. We cannot leave the Austrian question where it is . . . The public mind has been concentrated upon the moral and sentimental aspects of the Nazi conquest of Austria - a small country brutally struck down, its Government scattered to the winds, the oppression of the Nazi party doctrine imposed upon a Catholic population and upon the working classes of Austria and of Vienna . . . But there are some things which I have not seen brought out in the public Press . Vienna is the centre of all the communications of all the countries which formed the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, and of all the countries lying to the south east of Europe. A long stretch of the Danube is now in German hands. This mastery of Vienna gives to Nazi Germany military and economic control of the whole of the communications of south eastern Europe, by road, by river and by rail. What is the effect of this upon what is called the balance of power? . .
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Source Extract from the editorial, Kilmarnock Standard, 19 March 1938.Austria is no longer an independent country. It is one of the States that comprise Germany. It was natural and inevitable that such a union should occur sooner or later. Even in the Treaty of Versailles the possibility of it was foreseen . . . Strictly speaking, there is no good reason for disapproving the union of Germany and Austria, but there is solid ground for disapproving Germany's method of annexation. [War mongers say that] Germany's next step . . . will be to annex Czecho-Slovakia . . . Czecho-Slovakia as a so-called nation fails to enlist British sympathies. It is not a nation at all. It is an ill-sorted gathering of peoples, thrown together by the makers of the Treaty of Versailles . . . There could be no more ironic tragedy than that we should be involved in war for the sake of preserving the unwarrantable frontiers of Czecho-Slovakia . Even in the face of all that has passed, why should it be assumed that Germany and Italy are potential enemies? It is worthwhile now-it is more desirable than ever before to try to secure an understanding with these two countries. It is the lack of understanding between nations that breeds wars. Knowing that, it is surely the duty of the Cabinet, not to breathe fire and slaughter (as some would now have them do), but patiently and with goodwill to seek to find some path that leads to fuller mutual understanding and thus to . . . peace.
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Go to Contemporary British Opinions and Possible Purpose of Source
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