Document I

Churchill takes his message to the country

Winston S. Churchill: message given on the telephone to the Press Association.

“13 April 1938

A series of meetings is being planned throughout the country with the object of helping the public to realise the increasing danger of the situation, and the need for a united national effort to cope with it. It is hoped to rally the great mass of latent opinion irrespective of party to those measures most conducive to the safety of Britain and the peace of the world.

The principle of these meetings is the support of national rearmament for the defence of Great Britain and for the maintenance of Freedom and peace in accordance with the Covenant of the League.

The meetings will now be held in association with the League of Nations Union and the New Commonwealth. Mr Winston Churchill has undertaken to address several of these meetings and various fixtures have already been made for him, the first at Manchester on the 9th May. Others are being fixed at Sheffield, Birmingham and Bristol, and particulars of these will be announced later. Mr Churchill will also speak in the Epping Division during the month of May.”