ABSTRACT
On 26 March 1936, Anthony Eden, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, opens the debate on the European Situation in the House by expressing to all parties in this House, and to the Press and the people of this country as a whole, the Government’s sincere and grateful thanks for the restraint which they have shown during a most anxious international period – a restraint, if I may say so, which is all the more remarkable in that it was assumed and maintained on a purely voluntary basis.1At a time of crisis, Eden praises the restraint of the MPs and people. He sees freedom as important not only in Britain but in Europe: “Perhaps if the same conditions of liberty of the Press and speech, and the same distinction between liberty and licence, were to-day observed throughout Europe, we should not now be confronted with the problems which unfortunately beset us”.
