Extract from a letter from Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador in Germany, September 6th, 1938 (FO 371/21737)
Transcript
It is no exaggeration to say that the world is awaiting with anxiety the message which Hitler has to deliver at Nuremberg. He cannot get out of delivering it: that must be realised. The anxiety is no less great in Germany than elsewhere. And dictators can & must speak more clearly than the leaders of a democracy, that is why I have been pressing these last weeks for a clarification before Nuremberg of the situation at Prague. Benes will never go far enough till he is made to do so: & the whole of the Carlsbad points is better than any terms he is likely to get later, war or no war.
[Edvard Benes was the President of Czechoslavakia]
1. These sources are extracts from a letter written by Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador in Germany, 6th September 1938.
- Why were people in Germany anxious about the outcome of talks on the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia?
- What do you think that Nevile Henderson means when he says that ‘Benes will never go far enough till he is made to do so’?
- What did Nevile Henderson want the British press to do about Hitler?
- What do you think Henderson’s opinion was of Hitler?
- How might Henderson’s view affect what Chamberlain did when he met Hitler?