6. “It would have been possible in 1933 or even in 1934 for Britain to have created an air power which would have imposed the necessary restraints upon Hitler’s ambitions... More than five whole years had yet to run before we were to be confronted with the supreme ideal. Had we acted... it might never have come to pass”. Lord Halifax, 1935. “Are we to judge the situation so serious that everything has to give way to military reconditioning of our defence forces? Such a conclusion in fact, seems to rest on premises not only of the inevitability but of a certain degree of certainty as to the early imminence of war which I am not prepared to accept”.

10. “If they had their forces marshalled in what you might call a Grand Alliance; if they had their staff arrangements concerted; if all this rested, as it can honourably rest, upon the Covenant of the League of Nations... then I say you might, even now arrest this war”. Chamberlain: Letter to his Sister “The Plan of the Grand Alliance, as Winston calls it, had occurred to me long before he mentioned it... I talked about it to Halifax and we submitted it to the Chiefs of Staff and Foreign Office experts. It is a very attractive idea; indeed there is everything to be said for it until you come to examine its practicability”.

11. Strong moral case Attempts to deal with Hitler had been unsuccessful. Neither Baldwin nor Chamberlain liked Hitler or had anything against rearming other than the cost. Chamberlain’s actions only made Hitler think that democracies would not fight him. No The Nazi regime seemed popular in Germany therefore could not justify overthrowing it. Neither America or Russia was on side (nor had much been done to get their support). Churchill was outside government responsibilities and could say what he liked. Dominions and British people against war. Britain’s armed forces not ready.