Britain's ‘Football Ambassadors' Perform Work of ‘National Importance’: The Late 1930s

The period leading up to the outbreak of the Second World War was described by Joseph Avenol, Secretary-General of the League of Nations, as one of ‘demi-guerre’. ¹ Repeatedly, international order was threatened by major crises prompted largely by the territorial ambitions of Germany, Italy and Japan, whose restlessness concentrated the mind of a British government led by Neville Chamberlain, a prime minister striving for appeasement. ²