Documents that were newly declassified last week by the British National Archives show that former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain continued negotiations with Adolf Hitler following the 1938 signing of the Munich Pact by Britain, France, Germany and Italy. According to the documents, Chamberlain tried to persuade Hitler to agree to additional terms that would make the Nazi regime more palatable for British citizens. The Munich Pact was an agreement between the four major European powers allowing Nazi Germany to annex Czechoslovakias Sudetenland. It was intended to appease Nazi Germany and is widely considered a failure today. Because they were not invited to the meeting, Czechs viewed the pact as a betrayal. Chamberlain's additional conditions for the Nazis were discussed in a secret meeting between Chamberlains press chief, George Steward, and his counterpart at the German Embassy in London, Dr. Fritz Hesse. The meeting was held just one month after the signing of the pact, which Chamberlain said would bring peace in our time." During the meeting, the documents show, Steward proposed to Hesse that the two countries sign an agreement on a number of issues which, he said, would bring happiness and have a far-reaching impact on bilateral relations. One of the proposals was that, during future times of war, the two countries will not use poisonous gas nor will they bomb areas with civilian populations, including attacks on cities with cultural treasures. At the end of the meeting, Steward told Hesse that Chamberlain was interested in a personal meeting with Hitler to settle details and that he wished for the entire process to be kept confidential until an agreement was actually signed. Throughout discussions in advance of the meeting, Chamberlain told no one, not even his own foreign secretary Lord Halifax, of the developments. Unfortunately for Chamberlain, however, Hesse returned from his meeting with Steward and sent a communique about the meeting to German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Soon thereafter, a mole in the German Embassy sent a copy of the document to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. When Halifax heard about the secret meetings, he confronted Chamberlain. While the latter pretended to be surprised at first, he promised that meetings of this sort would not take place in the future. Of course, one year later, perhaps as an unintended consequence of Chamberlains passion for conciliation, World War II erupted across Europe. Chamberlain was forced to resign in disgrace in 1940, and Winston Churchill replaced him as prime minister.
