"I do not propose to say many words tonight. The time has come when action rather than speech is required. Eighteen months ago in this House I prayed that the responsibility might not fall upon me to ask this country to accept the awful arbitrament of war. I fear that I may not be able to avoid that responsibility. But, at any rate, I cannot wish for conditions in which such a burden should fall upon me in which I should feel clearer than I do to-day as to where my duty lies... We shall stand at the bar of history knowing that the responsibility for this terrible catastrophe lies on the shoulders of one man—the German Chancellor, who has not hesitated to plunge the world into misery in order to serve his own senseless ambitions."
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Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandUnitariansPeople from BirminghamConservative Party (UK) politicians
Original Language: English
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Speech in the House of Commons on the British ultimatum to Germany (1 September 1939)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neville_Chamberlain
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