Runciman Mission

[2] After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in neighbouring Germany in 1933, the German minority population within Czechoslovakia, radicalised by economic hardship and propaganda, turned to the SdP, which emulated the Nazis across the border.

[4] Earlier, in March 1938, during a meeting with Hitler in Berlin, Henlein was instructed to keep tension high by continuing to make demands of the Czechoslovak authorities but to avoid reaching a settlement with them.

Although ostensibly independent of the British government, a key member of the Mission was Frank Ashton-Gwatkin, technically on secondment from his official duties at the London Foreign Office.

Other solutions, including the use of a plebiscite for the German areas, the creation of an independent Sudeten-German state, the calling of a four-power conference, the federalisation of Czechoslovakia or the implementation of a variant of Benes's 'Fourth Plan', were now considered by Runciman as impractical.

[12] Toward the end of August, the lack of progress in negotiations in Czechoslovakia, accompanied by signs of increasing belligerence in Nazi Germany, prompted the British government to seek direct contact with Hitler.

"[14] Runciman's refusal resulted in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain developing plans for the dramatic step of himself flying to Germany to meet Hitler at Berchtesgaden on 15 September.

Foreseeing the danger of increased violence and even "civil war", Runciman considered that the "frontier districts should at once be transferred from Czechoslovakia to Germany" without recourse to a plebiscite, which would be a "sheer formality".

[19][20] However, when previously addressing the Cabinet on 17 September, Runciman indicated that he had in mind the specific possibility of transferring the areas with high concentrations of German inhabitants around the towns of Cheb and Aš, in the extreme west of the country.

The 67-year-old mediator (who was accompanied in Czechoslovakia by his wife, Hilda Runciman) spent most of his weekends relaxing in the company of the Sudeten German aristocracy, many of whose members were supporters of the SdP.