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APPEASEMENT

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see "WAR & PEACE" for related links


The one sure way to conciliate a tiger
is to allow oneself to be devoured.
--Konrad Adenauer (1876—1967)
German statesman.

Those who will not reason
Perish in the act:
Those who will not act
Perish for that reason.
--W.H. [Wystan Hugh] Auden (1907—1973)
English-born poet and man of letters.

Appeasers believe that if you keep on throwing
steaks to a tiger, the tiger will become a
vegetarian.
--Heywood Broun (1888—1939)
American journalist & father of
Heywood Hale Broun.

When bad men combine, the good must associate;
else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice
in a contemptible struggle.
--Edmund Burke (1729—1797)
Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters.
_Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent_,
Vol. i. p. 526.

-

There are two ways of losing a war. One is to be
defeated in the field. The other is to lose the war
before it begins.

We have indicated this peril for months past. It is
now obvious. It has to be admitted.

Why is so plain a peril — plainly revealed in Hitler's
book — why, we ask, is it only now recognised by
our rulers?

Simply because, even if they have read Hitler (which
is still doubtful) they have not believed what he has
said in Mein Kampf.

Not believing him, not knowing the sort of lucid lunatic
with whom they have had to deal, they have believed it
possible to disarm him by smiles, handshakes, pacts
and scraps of paper.

--"Cassandra" [William Connor] (1909—1967)
British journalist.
"The Daily Mirror" [21 March 1939]

-

My good friends, this is the second time in our
history that there has come back from Germany to
Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is
peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom
of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go
home and sleep quietly in your beds.
--Neville Chamberlain (1869—1940)
British Conservative politician, Prime Minister [1937—1940].
In M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 825.
Cohan & Major explain:
Speaking to cheering crowds from a first-floor window of
10 Downing Street after his return from Munich, 1 Oct. 1938.
The sense of relief was shared in France, where a crowd of
half a million turned out to welcome Daladier back from
Germany. The phrase 'peace for our time' seems to be
based on words in the Order of Morning Prayer in the
Anglican liturgy: 'Give peace in our time, 0 Lord.'


We should seek by all means in our power to avoid
war, by analysing possible causes, by trying to
remove them, by discussion in a spirit of
collaboration and good will.
--Neville Chamberlain (1869—1940)
British Conservative politician, Prime Minister [1937—1940].
Speech, 6 October 1938, to the House of Commons.
It was delivered one week after Chamberlain’s
return from the Munich Conference.

-

-

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile — hoping
it will eat him last.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].
Referring to Prime Minister Chamberlain and the Munich Pact,
House of Commons speech [2 October 1938].


Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily
win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your
victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to
the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds
against you and only a precarious chance for survival.
There may be a worse case. You may have to fight
when there is no chance of victory, because it is
better to perish than to live as slaves.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].

-

Well, there we are. I see there is nothing to be
done.
--Pierre-Ιtienne Flandin (1889—1958)
French foreign minister.
On the German re-militarization of the Rhineland, March 1936.
In M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 818.
Cohan & Major point out:
General Gamelin, the French army commander-in-chief,
exaggerated the size of the German army and warned that
French military action in response to the occupation would
lead to general mobilization. Thus, in the words of a modern
British historian 'Hitler got away with his first and most
desperate gamble'.

Do the people of the world not yet realize that by fighting on
until the bitter end I am not only performing my sacred duty to my
people, but standing guard in the last citadel of collective security?
Are they too blind to see that I have my responsibilities to the whole
of humanity to face? I must still hold on until my tardy allies
appear. And if they never come, then I say prophetically and
without bitterness: The West will perish.
--Haile Selassie I [Tafari Makonnen] (1892—1975)
Emperor of Ethiopia [1930—1974].
In 1935.

It is when we all play safe that we create
a world of utmost insecurity.
--Dag Hammarskjφld (1905—1961)
Swedish diplomat; served as the
Secretary General of the U.N. [1953-1961].

-

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: —
'Though we know we should defeat you, we have
not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.'

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: —

'We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!'

--Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936)
English writer and poet.
_School History_ "Dane-Geld (A.D. 980-1016)" [1911]
Coauthored with C. Fletcher.

-
-

It is not difficult to understand why Jewish people
desire the overthrow of Nazi Germany. The
persecution they suffered in Germany would be
sufficient to make bitter enemies of any race.

No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind
can condone the persecution of the Jewish race
in Germany. But no person of honesty and vision
can look on their pro-war policy here today without
seeing the dangers involved in such a policy both
for us and for them. Instead of agitating for war,
the Jewish groups in this country should be
opposing it in every possible way for they will
be among the first to feel its consequences.

Tolerance is a virtue that depends upon peace and
strength. History shows that it cannot survive war
and devastations. A few far-sighted Jewish people
realize this and stand opposed to intervention.

[. . . ]

We cannot blame them for looking out for what they
believe to be their own interests, but we also must
look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural
passions and prejudices of other peoples to lead
our country to destruction.

--Charles Lindbergh (1902—1974)
American aviator.
Speech in Des Moines, Iowa [1941].

-

If you have sacrificed my nation to save the peace
of the world, I will be the first to applaud you. But
if not, gentlemen, God help your souls.
--Jan Masaryk (1886—1948)
Czech statesman and diplomat.
In Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster _The Century_ [1998] p. 206.

You may either win your peace or buy it:
win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by
compromise with evil.
--John Ruskin (1819—1900)
English art and social critic.
_The Two Paths_, Lecture

They all believe that today or tomorrow Hitler will start the war,
but I'm not so sure. What good would a war do him, since whatever he
wants they bring him on a silver platter? The Americans and the whole
democratic world have lost the most valuable possession — character.
There's a form of tolerance that's worse than syphilis, worse than
murder, worse than madness.
They all believe that today or tomorrow Hitler will start the war,
but I'm not so sure. What good would a war do him, since whatever he
wants they bring him on a silver platter? The Americans and the whole
democratic world have lost the most valuable possession — character.
There's a form of tolerance that's worse than syphilis, worse than
murder, worse than madness.
--Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904—1991)
Polish-American novelist who won the 1978
Nobel Prize for Literature.
_Shosha_ [1978]

-----

implacable [im-PLAK-uh-bull], adjective:
Not to be appeased; incapable of being pacified
Ex.: For it is my office to prosecute the guilty with implacable zeal.
--Paola Capriolo, Floria Tosca (translated by Liz Heron)


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