What was the meaning of the following Neville Chamberlain quote?
score:39
Actually, in 1938, for most Britons, anywhere East of the Rhine was "a faraway land" of which they knew nothing. Only the rich travelled even to continental Europe; most people took their summer holidays in Margate or Scarborough - my parents had their honeymoon in Slough!
The Commonwealth - particularly, I'm afraid, the white Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, New Zealand) were different, honorary Brits who shared a common language and, to an extent, a culture. India and parts of Africa were "ours", and the US was a kind of errant child with which we had a love-hate relationship.
But Eastern Europeans were "different", speaking strange languages (most Britons didn't even speak French!) and having no connection with Britain.
And, while it's true the Royal Family was largely German, George V had done an excellent job rebranding it as quintessentially British - changing the name to Windsor (you couldn't get more English!) and portraying the Royals as middle-class Britons writ large.
The Empire, as it was then, was ours, sharing a sovereign, language and trade links. Eastern Europe, by comparison, was foreign, confusing, and nothing to do with us.
Upvote:7
IMO don't take "faraway land" and "people of which we know nothing" too literally.
It reads like he's referring to Sudetenland and the crisis' immediate stakeholders as something the British have no direct stakes or interests in, and thus not something they'd want to go to war over.
Put another way, a crisis involving territory and people closer to its border (e.g. the Low Countries) or those of its colonies might have warranted making war preparations. Sudetenland, not so much.
Upvote:17
I suspect that it was political hyperbole intended to boost public support for his policy of appeas*m*nt, particularly if you consider the quote in full:
“How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing.”
As James Taulbee observed in his recent book Genocide, Mass Atrocity, and War Crimes in Modern History: Blood and Conscience:
"... taken out of context, [it] suggests indifference. In context, while unfortunately phrased, it reflected a deep-seated fear of another major war."
Memories of the First World War were still fresh in the minds of many in Britain in 1938. As a politician, Chamberlain chose his words with care to garner support for his policy from those who shared his fears.
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