Great speeches that were never delivered: Part One – Neville Chamberlain
11.15am, 3rd September 1939
“I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street.
“This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final Note stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o’clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us.
“I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is going to carry on as though nothing had happened because the League of Nations won’t authorise action and the British Parliament says that there can be no intervention without LN approval.”