ABSTRACT
The French government endeavoured to find some crumbs of comfort in the Munich settlement. The German members of the commission were instructed that the areas to be ceded to Germany should ‘in principle coincide’ with the Godesberg demands. Bonnet telephoned fresh instructions: rather than nullify the Munich agreement Franccis-Poncet was to accept the German demand. The trend towards disengagement from central and eastern Europe was confirmed by the French government’s approach to the international guarantee for Czechoslovakia. In Paris on 24 November British Ministers explained that only a general guarantee, as distinct from an individual guarantee, could be envisaged. The spark of French resistance was soon extinguished. ‘It was essential remarked Halifax, that ‘a repetition’ of the September crisis ‘should be avoided for, in the future, France and Great Britain would be in a far worse position’. The Ambassador’s views clearly met with approval in the Quai d’Orsay.
