Chamberlain and Daladier capitulated completely. The conference of the four essentially accepted the Godesberg ultimatum with minor and negligible adjustments. The one ‘victory’ won by the British and the French is that the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany will take place not on the 1st but on the 10th of October. What a tremendous achievement!

I paced the dining room for a long time, lost in thought. My thoughts were distressing. It is difficult to grasp at once the true meaning of all that had just happened, but I feel and understand that a landmark of enormous historical significance was passed last night. In one bound quantity became quality, and the world suddenly changed…

I woke up in the morning with a headache and the first thing that occurred to me was that I should immediately visit Masaryk.

When I entered his reception room there was no one there. A minute later I heard someone’s hurried steps on the stairs and the host sidled in. There was something strange and unnatural about his tall, strong figure. As if it had suddenly iced over and lost its habitual agility. Masaryk threw a passing glance at me and tried to make polite conversation in the usual manner: ‘What fine weather we are having today, aren’t we?’

‘Forget the weather,’ I said with an involuntary wave of my hand. ‘I have not come here for that. I have come to express my deep compassion for your people at this exceptionally hard moment and also my strong indignation at the shameful behaviour of Britain and France!’

A kind of current seemed to pass through Masaryk’s tall figure. The ice melted at once. Immobility gave way to quivering. He rocked rather comically on his feet and fell all of a sudden on my breast, sobbing bitterly. I was taken aback and somewhat bewildered. Kissing me, Masaryk mumbled through his tears: ‘They’ve sold me into slavery to the Germans, like they used to sell negroes into slavery in America.’

Little by little, Masaryk calmed down and began to apologize for his weakness.

I shook his hand firmly.

I decided to cut to the chase. I bluntly stated my belief that England and France had suffered a crushing defeat in Munich; that an important historical landmark had been passed last night, ushering in a new era in European history – the era of German hegemony; and that the result would be a succession of further retreats by ‘Western democracies’ and, perhaps, the collapse of their current empires.

Cadogan tried to refute my statements, stressing the importance of the fact that peace had been preserved and war had been averted; but eventually he had to confess that he could not be sure about the future and that only subsequent developments would show whether Munich was worth the price.

Churchill is satisfied with the position taken by the USSR during the crisis. In particular, he liked the speech delivered by M.M. [Litvinov] in the League of Nations on 21 September and our Polish démarche of 23 September. He thinks that the USSR has carried out its international duty in this critical period, while Britain and France have capitulated. In connection with this he pointed out how the prestige of the USSR and sympathy towards it was growing, not only in Liberal and Labour circles, but also among Conservatives, even among the diehards. Four days ago, Churchill spoke at a special joint meeting of the Conservatives of both Houses arranged by Amery

Leopold Amery, Conservative MP, secretary of state for India and for Burma, 1940–45.

and Lord Lloyd. The resolution adopted unanimously at this meeting was quite something!

Churchill gave me a sheet of paper on which I read the following: the gathering welcomes the establishment of direct contacts between the governments of Britain and the USSR; it believes that from now on close political and military cooperation will be maintained between the British, French and Soviet governments; and it hopes that Hitler will be made to understand, before he takes an irreversible step, that the said three powers will act as a united front against a German assault on Czechoslovakia.

This resolution was handed to Halifax. Churchill also told me that it was at his urgent request that the communiqué issued in London on 26 September said that, in the event of German aggression against Czechoslovakia, Germany would come up against a united front of Britain, France and the USSR. Churchill believes that the statement had a sobering effect on Hitler and that it may be regarded as a truly historical event. Chamberlain was forced to swallow this mention of the USSR. But how absurd and criminal is his attitude to the Soviet Union!

I asked Churchill about the state of affairs in the Cabinet and in the country at large. According to him, major shifts occurred in public opinion during my two weeks’ absence from England. If Germany unleashes war, the entire country will rise to fight. This mood has been reflected in the government, where there are now considerable disagreements. Duff Cooper, Hore-Belisha, Stanley, Elliot and others are opposed to the prime minister. Halifax guardedly backs the opposition, but he does not want to break with Chamberlain as yet. The presence of an opposition has forced the prime minister to agree to the guarantees of Czechoslovakia’s borders, which in the past he could not even bear to hear mentioned, and also to the mobilization of the navy carried out by Duff Cooper.

In conclusion, Churchill told me about the campaign against the USSR being conducted in London. It transpires that the Cliveden Set and other related elements have been busy spreading rumours that Soviet aviation is weak; that the recent ‘purges’ have deprived it of nearly all of its qualified personnel; that owing to this fact the USSR presently has no more than a thousand first-line aircraft at its disposal; and that all this played a major part in determining the Anglo-French position in the Czechoslovak crisis. Churchill learned from Cabinet circles that the British government has received a document confirming that between 60% and 70% of the officers in our air force have been ‘liquidated’ in some form or another. When relating all this, Churchill tried to smile sceptically, but I could see that the ‘information’ he had received worried him. I scoffed at the Cliveden Set’s idle talk and tried to reassure Churchill. I don’t know to what extent I succeeded.