The agreement was widely welcomed. French Prime Minister Daladier did not believe, as one scholar put it, that a European war was justified „to keep three million Germans under Czech sovereignty.“ But the same argument applies to Alsace-Lorraine – unlike the alliance between France and Czechoslovakia against German aggression. Gallup polls in Britain, France and the United States showed that the majority of people supported the deal. President Beneš was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1939. [52] The British people had anticipated an impending war, and Chamberlain`s „statesman gesture“ was initially greeted with applause. He was greeted as a hero by the royal family and invited to the balcony of Buckingham Palace before presenting the deal to the British Parliament. The generally positive reaction was quickly refused, despite the royal patronage. However, there was resistance from the beginning. Clement Attlee and the Labour Party rejected the deal in alliance with two Conservative MPs, Duff Cooper and Vyvyan Adams, who had previously been seen as a tough and reactionary element in the Conservative Party. To be fair, Chamberlain also said he understood the reasons why the Czechoslovak government rejected Hitler`s latest demands and spoke of the British people`s sympathy for „a small nation in the face of a big and powerful neighbor.“ In Czechoslovakia, however, contempt for these people, whom Chamberlain claimed knew so little, struck at home, as did disbelief that the British Prime Minister would still not recognize what was at stake. Under the headline „A small nation?“, the daily Národní politika tried to find an answer: the agreement on the annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany was signed on 29 September 1938. On September 22, Chamberlain, who was about to board his plane to go to Germany for further talks in Bad Godesberg, told the press that met him there: „My goal is peace in Europe, I hope this journey is the path to that peace.“ Chamberlain came to Cologne, where he was generously received with a German band that played „God Save the King“ and Germans who gave flowers and gifts to Chamberlain.[32] [32] Chamberlain had calculated that full acceptance of the German annexation of all sudetenland without cuts would force Hitler to accept the agreement.
[32] When Hitler learned of this, he replied, „Does this mean that the Allies agree with Prague`s approval of the Sudetenland surrender to Germany?“ Chamberlain replied, „Exactly,“ to which Hitler replied with a whim, saying that the Allied offer was insufficient. . . .