ABSTRACT
Trends in public opinion, and the manner in which they were expressed, were particularly important in making British foreign policy. The issues that exercised the general public, what it thought about them, and why, constituted one factor of a democratic tradition that could not be ignored by the government of the day. That was true after Hitler rose to power, and then from September 1939 onwards. A revealing light is provided by a speech Anthony Eden gave as foreign secretary to the Commonwealth Conference in 1937. With reference to the German menace then threatening Czechoslovakia and Austria, he noted: ‘There could be no greater danger than for the Government to declare themselves in favour of a policy which did not command the general support of public opinion at home.’335 This inclusion of public opinion as a factor to be taken into account may explain instead certain British decisions that Hungary found hard to accept, if at all. One example of this happened in September 1938, when most Britons had little or no interest in the territorial disputes between Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
