File:Chamberlain returns from Munich with Anglo-German Agreement.ogg

Circling around us up above here, in a very dirty and rainy sky, is the machine bringing the Prime Minister back to Heston. And we're going to wait about a minute and a half or so before it comes down. We were waiting all very happily just now about twenty minutes ago in a rather threatening sky but not a particularly bad one. Suddenly rain began to fall, and it got harder and harder until the tarmac of the airport is skiddy and flooded and everybody is looking very wet, bedraggled, umbrellas up and all the rest of it. In spite of the weather at this end, I hear that the Prime Minster's had good weather for his flight, which he's made in something like three and a half hours. A little less than that in fact—he took off at two-twenty and he probably didn't strike this dirty weather that we're getting here until he hit the English coast somewhere by Sandwich. You'll know that this is the Prime Minister's sixth flight, the third of a double, and the end of his last visit to Germany. And you'll know already of the momentous news which he brings with him. Now right over the other side comes the machine which is bringing him. She is just going to land. She's coming straight up to us. Those of you who are looking as well as listening to this will be able to see her coming down I hope. She must be what ten feet off the ground and levelling out. And she is down quite safely. The number of times we've seen her coming in it's becoming quite a habit to stand up here now and say that the Prime Minister's coming and going. On this occasion it's a much greater enjoyment to us and to everybody else to say so because of the huge and enthusiastic crowd which has gathered here, and the crowds which have gathered all the way from here to Whitehall. The roads two hours ago were beginning to fill and now they're black with people. There are houses near the airport which have put out the flags they had out at the time of the coronation. And there are many more formalities here today than there were last time. They've put barricades up to keep people back. They've even put our friends at the press and friends with still cameras inside a sort of pen down there.

And now they bring her up. The police are coming forward, and the Lord Chamberlain is to be seen down there waiting to greet Mr. Chamberlain. I believe he'll be the first person to meet him as he steps out of the machine. Ah they're beginning to wave now. We thought they wouldn't be long before they began to wave. Off come the hats. The hats were taken off in the first place to give him a cheer. Now just in the nick of time Lord Halifax has arrived in a small American car, not at all the one that was expected. He only got here just as the door was opening. Now there was the welcome to Mr. Chamberlain as he stepped down from the machine, smiling and beaming even more than he smiled when he came back last time. He greets Lord Halifax. He's been given a letter from the King. Now you'll hear they've just welcomed [garbled] But I can hardly speak to you from this point at all. Let me say quickly that he's talking to Lord Halifax. The French Ambassador has greeted him, representatives of the German Embassy in London, Mr. Hore-Belisha, and other faces that I just can't pick out for the moment. And now the crowd has got through the police as we knew they would and they're all streaming up around the machine. Mr. Chamberlain still holds in his left hand the letter from the King. He has not yet had a moment's time in which to open it as the greeting is coming thick and fast now. The police redoubling their cordon. Mr. Chamberlain, rather like the figure of the King himself at a royal garden party, shaking hands and shaking hands. And here he is at the microphone. Before he speaks he opens the letter from the King. And here is... Here is Mr. Chamberlain.

There's only two things I want to say. First of all, I have received an immense number of letters during all these anxious times, and so has my wife. Letters of support, and approval, and gratitude and I can't tell you what an encouragement that has been to me. I want to thank the British people for what they have done. Next. And next I want to say that the settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved, is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace. This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to read it to you:

We, the German Führer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognising that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for the two countries and for Europe. We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German naval agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again. We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe.

Now you can hear the cheers and the cries of well done Mr. Chamberlain and three cheers for Neville and various things like that. The police are having to fight a way for Mr. Chamberlain. It's a real triumph for survival. How much more impressive it is than any other one that he's made in the last two weeks. Almost as soon as he'd finished. Oh, now listen. You know what, that's a very tuneless version of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". I see a big bunch of red and yellow flowers there which haven't succeeded in reaching him although I know they were meant to. Now the crowd pushes around the car. Ah, if you wanted to see a British crowd in real enthusiasm, you've heard that one. Mr. Chamberlain's car has driven away, around the corner of the Aerodrome control block here. The crowds are fighting their way behind it as he goes on his way towards Whitehall.

Before we finish from here, may I say to viewers will you please just stay where you are for the moment because Freddie Grisewood is coming back to you again in a moment. To sound listeners, to those in America who may have been listening, and to anybody else on the air, you may expect, I hope, to hear something of Mr. Chamberlain's triumphant arrival in the White Hall area in something like three-quarters of an hour's time.