296 NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN: MAN OF PEACE

this time; the political element in their make-up was
for the most part so predominating as to make any
estimate of the fundamental rights and wrongs a
matter for future historians to extract from the
welter of the world crisis which soon enveloped
them. They were indeed the pawns in this greater
game. The part, for instance, played by Henlein
the official Sudeten leader is a good example of the
way in which the real grievances in the Czech-
Sudeten dispute were bandied about and distorted
to meet the wider problem of the European equili-
brium. It would certainly seem, however, that the
Sudeten leaders were more keenly alive to the
implications of a subordinate role than the Czech
leaders were. As for the ventilation of the dispute
in the Press and elsewhere, it opened the eyes of
the public to certain real defects in this so-called
advanced democratic experiment and led quickly
to general agreement that the existing dispensa-
tion was not wholly just in terms either of nationality
or self-determination, for which the last world war
presumably had been fought. Certainly he would
be a rash leader who would be prepared to under-
take a second world war to maintain the status
quo.

On March 24th in the House of Commons Mr.
Chamberlain made a declaration on Foreign Policy
which was to exercise a formative influence on the
European situation right up to the tremendous
climax in September, when it was superseded by
Mr. Chamberlain's contacts with the Fuehrer. Great
play has been made by Mr. Chamberlain's critics
with this speech. Their case was that, while giving
an impression of exactitude it was too indefinite in
tone; but this is to disregard the preamble to its
main points in which he speaks of initiating a
debate on the " attitude" of His Majesty's Govern-