ABSTRACT
The appointment of Neville Chamberlain as prime minister in June of 1937 slowed the Labour Party's reluctant acceptance of the need for rearmament. Chamberlain's determination to play a greater role in shaping foreign policy than his predecessor made many factions of Labour uneasy, particularly since the prime minister's cold demeanor left little room for debate. The Labour press mirrored Citrine's comment that most of the National Council thought that Chamberlain had done the right thing in going to see Hitler. Chamberlain was implacably opposed to any form of sanctions and, in the end, Japan, rather than Britain or the United States, determined when, and under what circumstances, the Anglo-American position in the Far East was finally challenged by force. Chamberlain was being forced by the logic of his own past policy to become one of the Fascist International, to seek, by alliance with them, the safety he could not get in opposition to them.
