COPY OF DOCUMENT 2860-PS

BRITISH BLUE BOOK
Documents concerning German-Polish Relations and the Outbreak of Hostilities between Great Britain and Germany on September 3, 1939, London, 1939.
Document No. 10
Speech by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs [Lord Halifax] in the House of Lords on March 20, 1939.
"It is quite true, as both the noble Lord who spoke first and the noble Marquess have said, that recent events have been a profound shock to all thinking people in this country and very far outside it. It may perhaps be of use if with all brevity I give the House a short narrative in order to make sure we have the setting correct of what has actually passed during the last few days. The German military occupation of Bohemia and Moravia began on the morning of the 15th March, and was completed, as we know, without serious incident. It is to be observed —and the fact is surely not without significance—that the towns
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of Mahrisch-Ostrau and Vitkovice were actually occupied by German S. S. detachments on the evening of the 14th March, while the President and the Foreign Minister of Czecho-SIovakia were still on their way to Berlin and before any discussion had taken place. * * *"