As German air power increased during the late 1920′s and early 1930′s, Churchill was appalled at the lack of concern from the Prime Minister and the British Parliament. After a visit to a German battlefield during the fall of 1932, he said,
All these bands of sturdy Teutonic youths marching through the streets and roads of Germany, with the light of desire in their eyes to suffer for the Fatherland, are not looking for status. They are looking for weapons, and, when they have the weapons, believe me they will then ask for the return of lost territories.
I cannot recall any time when the gap between the kind words which statesmen used and what was actually happening in many countries was so great as it is now. The habit of saying smooth things and uttering pious platitudes and sentiments to gain applause, without relation to the underlying facts, is more pronounced now than it has ever been in my experience.
The British government ignored and even openly mocked his warnings, and the Daily Despatch reported that “The house was enraged and in an ugly mood — towards Mr. Churchill.” But he didn’t give up.
In a speech in March 1935, Churchill stated:
Britain has lost air parity already both in the number of machines and in their quality. Everyone sees now that we have entered a period of peril. From being the least vulnerable of all nations we have, through developments in the air, become the most vulnerable…
A member of parliament was quick to speak of “the scaremongering speech of the right honorable Member for Epping [Churchill] who endeavored to make our flesh creep.”
In 1938, after Prime Minister Chamberlain’s continual attempts to forge relationships with Hitler and Mussolini, Churchill commented,
This has been a good week for Dictators. It is one of the best they have ever had… I predict that the day will come when, at some point or the other, you will have to make a stand, and I pray to God, when that day comes, that we may not find, through an unwise policy, that we have to make that stand alone.
