“This Small, Far-away Country in Central Europe...” I : The British Press and the “Czechoslovak Events during the Munich Crisis
Abstract
The British press started to reflect the “Czechoslovak events” in principle after the German occupation of Austria in March 1938 and mainly during so called Lord Runciman’s Mission in summer of that year. In fact there were two views of problems in the Czechoslovak borderland: the first pointed out namely the national connections of the Czechoslovak-German conflict, the second took out more likely its historical roots.
In reference to the British foreign policy in general, the conservative press didn’t veil the very pragmatic attitude favourable for the country and for the empire whereas the leftwing newspaper pointed out the duty to help Czechoslovakia and the necessity to preserve the democracy in Europe; however, during the Munich Crisis this part of British press became the very pragmatic, too. Only after the crisis it returned to more critical evaluation of the policy of appeasement and Munich agreement.