No peace for our time... (*)

 

"Peace for our time" was a declaration made by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in his 30 September 1938 remarks in London concerning the Munich Agreement and the subsequent Anglo-German Declaration. The phrase echoed Benjamin Disraeli, who, upon returning from the Congress of Berlin in 1878, had stated, "Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back peace — but a peace I hope with honour." The phrase is primarily remembered for its bitter ironic value since less than a year after the agreement, Germany's invasion of Poland began World War II.

Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler immediately before making his famous declaration of "peace with honour" (often quoted as "peace for our time"). The final meeting that led to the famous quote was the Munich Conference held on September 29–30, 1938. Chamberlain, along with French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, met with Hitler in Munich, Germany, to discuss the  Sudetenland crisis in Czechoslovakia. They signed the Munich Agreement, which ceded the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany in an attempt to avert a larger war.

When Chamberlain flew back to England on September 30, 1938, he landed at Heston Aerodrome and then spoke outside 10 Downing Street. He held up a paper signed by him and Hitler (the Anglo-German Declaration) and famously proclaimed: "My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time..." It is also important to note that the Munich Conference was the third meeting between Chamberlain and Hitler that month, as Chamberlain had been urgently flying to Germany for diplomatic talks.

It is often misquoted as "peace in our time", a phrase already familiar to the British public from its longstanding appearance in the Book of Common Prayer. A passage in that book translated from the 7th-century hymn "Da pacem Domine" reads, "Give peace in our time, O Lord; because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God." 

(") "I see little difference in the strategy and tactics of Vladimir Putin, a new Hitler, facing a naive Chamberlain and a poor soul named Édouard Daladier. These roles are now played by a crowd of European officials who still haven't realised that the true name of Ukraine is 'Sudetenland' - at least for Vladimir Putin, who already understood that fear is widespread in Europe and cowards are at the helm of most ships.

They don't even remember what appeasement is: it is feeding a crocodile in the hope of being the last one devoured. And instead of Adolf Hitler, they have a man with an icy stare, who will stop at nothing to avenge the destruction of the Soviet Union and who jokes about the possibility of his drones and missiles reaching Lisbon. I am too old to take up arms, but it worries me that my two sons could be forced to face the Russian hordes, sooner or later."