The Struggle For Peace

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solution. I propose to come across by air and am ready to start
to-morrow. Please indicate earliest time at which you can see me
and suggest place of meeting. Should be grateful for very early
reply/'
The announcement of this step, together with Herr Hitler s
cordial reply to it, was made on the wireless the same night.
It was received by the British public, and indeed by the entire
world, with intense relief.
At 8.35 a.m. next morning Mr. Chamberlain left Heston
aerodrome for Munich, arriving at Berchtesgaden after seven
and a half hours* continuous travelling at 4.5 p.m. that after-
noon. Here, in the course of a three-hours conversation, he
learned from the German leader s own lips his resolve to give
the Sudeten Germans their right to self-determination with-
out further delay even if the cost of doing so should be
a European 'war with Britain aligned with France and Russia
against the Reich. Obtaining from Herr Hitler an assurance
that) if the British Government were to give its immediate
approval to the principle of self-determination for the Sudeten
Germans^ he would be prepared to discuss peaceful -ways and
means of carrying it out^ Mr. Chamberlain set out for London
early next morning to consult his colleagues and the French
Government. On landing at Heston at 5.30 that afternoon he
made a brief statement to the assembled representatives of the
Press and Public :
" I have come back again rather quicker than I expected,
after a journey which, had I not been so preoccupied, I should
have found thoroughly enjoyable. Yesterday afternoon I had
a long talk with Herr Hitler. It was a frank talk, but it was
a friendly one, and I feel satisfied now that each of us fully
understands what is in the mind of the other.
" You will not, of course, expect me to discuss now what
may be the results of these talks. What I have got to do is
to discuss them with my colleagues, and I would advise
you not to accept prematurely any unauthorised account of
what took place in the conversations. I shall be discussing
them to-night with my colleagues and others, especially Lord
Runciman. Later—perhaps in a few days—I am going to
have another talk with Herr Hitler; only this time he has