Why Did the British Mass Media support the appeasement of Hitler in the years 1933-1939?

History of Journalism – Essay 2

Appeasement was the conciliatory policy adopted by Britain and France towards the aggressive foreign policy of Nazi Germany in the years preceding the Second World War. In Britain it is normally associated with the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain but was also followed by Stanley Baldwin. It has been argued by historians such as Richard Cockett that the press in Britain was manipulated by Whitehall - especially during Chamberlain’s years as Prime Minister – to publish only pro-appeasement articles and news and therefore “no alternative to the policy of appeasement was ever consistently articulated in the press.” It is indeed partly true that Chamberlain was a master of press manipulation and the BBC broadcasts were closely monitored by the Foreign Office. However it would be incorrect to assume that all of the press was pro-appeasement and there were dissenting voices. One must also examine in part the role that Hitler played in attempting to control the news that foreign correspondents in Germany sent back to their publications.

In order to examine why some publications such as The Times followed a policy of appeasement one needs to look why at why politicians, like Chamberlain, were convinced that it was necessary. The actual policy of appeasement was a reversion to the traditional foreign policy of 19th century Britain where she had felt it necessary to avoid getting entangled in the affairs of Europe. Many felt that Britain was simply not ready for another war, economically she was struggling through depression in the early 1930s and at that stage simply could not afford to rearm. It was also during this period that the Empire was at its most troublesome with uprisings occurring in the Middle East and India, as well as having to deal with Italian and German expansion, Britain faced threats to her Asian interests from Japanese expansionism. Negotiating with Germany, the greatest and closest of these threats, appeared to be a prudent policy. There was also an unrealistically high fear among politicians about the destructive power of aerial bombardment and the effect that would have on civilians and many Britons remembered the horrors of war not a decade before. Public opinion was anti-war and many felt that the Versailles Peace settlement had been unduly harsh. Philip Taylor point out that despite Germany’s expansion it was not until 1939 when she invaded Czechoslovakia that appeasement was dropped overnight.

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Richard Cockett maintains that it was “due to the incestuous relationship between Whitehall and the press that developed during the 1930s that meant that the press could infact do nothing but help Chamberlain pursue appeasement.” Cockett blames the lobby system on many journalists’ willingness to follow Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement. During Baldwin’s premiership, ministers including Chamberlain had exclusive access to the lobby. Cockett points out that Chamberlain was adept at handling the lobby and that they were “honorary members of a power establishment and ex-officio members of a political system.” Any journalists who expressed suspicions about Hitler’s or Mussolini’s intentions or Chamberlain’s point of view would be excluded by Chamberlain from access to other news, as was the privilege of the lobby. In addition to the journalists, cabinet ministers had close relationships with editors and proprietors as well. Lord Halifax was close to Geoffrey Dawson the editor of The Times and Richard Cockett points out that throughout the 1930s, “Dawson was privy to more cabinet thinking and secrets than most members of the government… it was not for nothing that The Times was taken to be a semi-official conduit of the British government thinking.”

It is clear that Nazi propaganda had some effect on the articles published in British and other foreign newspapers around the world. However one must note especially in the case of the Daily Express that Beaverbrook himself was not an admirer of Hitler and he was anti-fascist. The Daily Express like The Times seemed pro-appeasement, indeed Richard Cockett points out that Beaverbrook was himself on very good terms with Lord Hoare. During the Czech crisis in 1938 when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia Beaverbrook wrote to Lord Halifax and said that the newspapers “were all anxious to help the Prime Minister and help you but we are all in great need of guidance.” The Daily Express was certainly not alone in praising the Munich Agreement as a triumph for peace. Beaverbrook himself, although anti-fascist and no admirer of Hitler, felt that isolation was the way Britain should take. He felt that she should rearm and his biographer A. J. P Taylor points out that “he often said a European war was possible and even likely. What he insisted on was that Great Britain need not be involved in this war, provided that she kept clear of European alliances and built up her armaments … he was not a timid appeaser. He was emphatically not a sympathiser with fascism.”

The press was not however the only media outlet at this time and the BBC was perhaps more guilty than the press, to a certain extent, of towing the government line regarding appeasement. Rex Leeper of the foreign office “realised that with a degree of openness and flattery diplomatic correspondents could be welded into a cohesive body who could always be relied upon to put a Foreign Office point of view in the press.” In October 1933 when Germany walked out of the League of Nations, Vernon Bartlett “pleaded over the air for greater understanding of the German viewpoint and suggested that Britian and her allies were as much to blame for Germany’s action as Hitler.” In early 1938 the BBC ran a series of talks entitled “The Way of Peace” discussing pacifism and isolationism.

Richard Cockett, Twilight of Truth, p 188

Richard Cockett, Twilight of Truth, p.1

Richard Cockett, Twilight of Truth p.7

Ibid p.12

Richard Cockett, Twilight of Truth p.75

A J P Taylor, Beaverbrook, p.343

Richard Cockett, Twilight of Truth, p.16

Philip M Taylor, British Propaganda in the Twentieth Century, p.99