Introduction

It is known to us that each and every country will be involved in war more or less over history and they are bound to be bothered by war in the due time. There is no doubt that all the countries have to find a way to get themselves rid of the detrimental effects brought by war. For example, Britain in 1930s chose rearmament as a diplomatic deterrence while opinions vary from person to person as for whether rearmament of Britain in 1930s is a diplomatic deterrence and to what extent rearmament of Britain in 1930s is a diplomatic deterrence. Therefore the following would like to argue that rearmament of Britain in 1930s is really a diplomatic deterrence and such extent is large.

Rearmament of Britain in 1930s Is a Diplomatic Deterrence

Firstly, Neville Chamberlain’s speech in front of the House of Commons on October in 1938 will be talked about. To put it more specifically, the Munich Pact was signed in 1938 around four countries, Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy, after which Neville Chamberlain gave a speech in front of the United Kingdom’s House of Commons. The Munich Pact is the agreement reached to allow German annexation of the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia and the major beneficiary of the Munich Pact was probably the United States in the special sense of preparation for war. In this sense, we can find that the signing of the Munich Pact has played a role in averting the outbreak of war.

What Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister, has stated in his speech is that “we should seek all means in our power to avoid war…but I never meant to suggest that we should do that by disarmament. Our past experience has shown us only too clearly that weakness in armed strength means weakness in diplomacy, and if we want to secure a lasting peace, I realize that diplomacy cannot be effective unless… behind the diplomacy is the strength to give effect.” Based on this, it is not hard to find that Neville Chamberlain holds that peace calls for sufficient power to support and such sufficient power can be provided by armed strength. Or maybe it can be put in another way that rearmament is effective in guaranteeing armed strength so that it is able to ensure strength in diplomacy as well, leading to the securing of a lasting peace. Though Neville Chamberlain directly points out that “I never meant to suggest that we should do that by rearmament”, what he mentions later on all indicates the necessity and urgency of rearmament if Britain would like to avoid war. Thus we can readily detect that Neville Chamberlain gives full support to rearmament as a diplomatic deterrence.

Moreover, Eric Lai puts forward that the policy of appeasement adopted by the British government in the 1930s is the only viable option at that time and there was no other alternative method for it to do in order to prevent war in diplomatic terms (Robert J. Caputi. 2000). Detailed speaking, Chamberlain’s diplomacy of appeasement policy should not be blamed for the incidence of war and it is actually out of the Britain’s control to make appropriate provision in peace so as to defend its Empire against three other major powers. Under that circumstance, there is nothing else for Chamberlain to do but to choose appeasement. Apart from that, Eric Lai also proposes that the Britain was confronted with economic challenges in the 1930s due to the Great War, the Stock Market Crash as well as the economic depression caused by the Central European banking crisis (Eric Lai. 2015). The economic challenges may make the Britain unable to protect its over-valued currency in adequate reserves, which determines that Britain has to follow appeasement but not rearmament because rearmament may take away all the available resources that are necessary for economic recovery. Later on, Chamberlain called for an emergency Cabinet meeting on March 12, 1938 and demanded that an increased rate of rearmament towards the Air Force and anti-aircraft defenses has to be implemented. According to this, we can say that the appeasement policy is used for buying time for rearmament while it will definitely be complex for this country to implement rearmament after appeasement (Peter Trubowitz, Peter Harris. 2014). As a result, Chamberlain smoothly turns an originally passive policy of appeasement into an active and resolute one in the end. Obviously, Chamberlain’s decision of appeasement at the first place and rearmament afterwards has made it possible for the Britain to both guarantee its economic stability and maintain its peace at the same time. Thus it can be easily understood that rearmament was the only means to achieve peace and settle disputes and the Britain successfully deterred German aggression in Czechoslovakia at last.

In addition, Dunbabin has illustrated the charge that J. Barnes’ Baldwin deceived the country at the 1935 general election over the need to re-arm, and to suggest that there was no essential difference between the government’s position on rearmament and that of the Labour opposition (587). This statement seems to criticize J. Barnes’ Baldwin’s acting on his own simply based on his own willingness and judgment to emphasize the necessity to re-arm, but it effectively points out the great importance of rearmament of the Britain in turn. We can understand it in this way that if rearmament cannot help the Britain avoid the war, then why J. Barnes’ Baldwin would be bothered so much to deceive the country over the need to re-arm and to imply that there was no essential difference between the government’s position on rearmament and that of the Labour opposition. As a matter of fact, there will be a lot of troubles as will be brought by his deceiving the government and it is his deeming his behavior is worthwhile that motivates him to conduct the behavior of deceiving the government over the need of rearmament.

In the meantime, Dunbabin refers to that “And he now sought to re-cast British rearmament so as to deter war rather than fight it” (590), which indicates that British rearmament can actually play a role in helping the Britain to deter war. That is to say, rearmament of Britain in 1930s is really a diplomatic and political deterrence and it can get the Britain out of fighting for the war anymore. Also, it is added that “the air force was to be increased (in fact to eight-four squadrons), both ‘as a gesture to Europe and especially to Germany’” (Dunbabin 591), which mentions the increase of the air force. Actually, the increase of the air force can be seen as an effective way for the British rearmament and it can help enforce the Britain in front of Europe and Germany. And it is as well mentioned that “Britain also created ‘shadow factories’ to expand military capacity” and here the creation of the shadow factories of the Britain is actually another form of rearmament. Besides, we can have a fair knowledge that Britain will really have the idea to deter when we consider the arm race difference between Britain and that of Germany. Only by rearmament can Britain successfully avoid war so as not to be influenced by war.

Conclusion

To sum up, a reasonable conclusion can be drawn that rearmament of Britain in 1930s is absolutely a diplomatic deterrence and it has played a significant role in helping Britain avoid war. But what is a pity to say is that the rearmament of Britain in 1930s is quite complex and there is a lot that has to be done in order for successful rearmament after long-term appeasement. The rearmament of Britain in 1930s really helps the Britain a lot in avoiding war and it has helped Britain gain peace in the reality. It is obvious that more has to be explored in order to know more about the rearmament of Britain in 1930s, which requires further discoveries in approaching days.