Peace for our time

The Munich Agreement in 1938 was the long-awaited justification for appeasement. Areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia were transferred to Germany in return for peace in Europe. There was national rejoicing in the British press, as it seemed to have prevented a war with Germany. But the two countries were to go to war only a year later.

Daily Sketch, 1 October 1938
The British Library gratefully acknowledges the John Frost Newspaper Archive for permission to reproduce this front page.

The Daily Sketch produced this peace souvenir issue which is entirely devoted to Neville Chamberlain’s famous ‘Peace for our time’ speech at Heston. The call to give thanks in church embodies the feeling of relief at the seeming triumph of the Munich Agreement.