Runciman Report (1938)

The Runciman Report was issued at the conclusion of Lord Runciman's Mission to Czechoslovakia in September 1938.^[1] The purpose of the Mission was to mediate in a dispute between the Government of Czechoslovakia and the Sudeten German Party (SdP), representing German separatists within Czechoslovakia (in the so-called "Sudetenland"), which was threatening to plunge Europe into war.

The report, published in the form of letters addressed to the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain and the Czechoslovak President, Edvard Beneš, on 21 September 1938, recommended the cession of the territory concerned to Nazi Germany, thus paving the way for the Munich Agreement of 30 September 1938.

Evidence suggests that a section of the report was redrafted at a late stage, probably by Frank Ashton-Gwatkin, the Chief of Staff of the Mission and a permanent official in the British Foreign Office, in order to bring the recommendations fully into line with British policy.^[2]^[3]

References

^ Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939, Third Series, vol. 2, London, 1949, appendix II, pp. 675–679.
^ Bruegel, J.W Czechoslovakia Before Munich: The German Minority Problem and British Appeasement Policy, Cambridge, 1973, pp. 275–276.
^ Vyšný, Paul: The Runciman Mission to Czechoslovakia, 1938: Prelude to Munich, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire, 2003, ISBN 0-333-73136-0, pp. 344–349.

[1] Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939, Third Series, vol. 2, London, 1949, appendix II, pp. 675–679.

[2] Bruegel, J.W Czechoslovakia Before Munich: The German Minority Problem and British Appeasement Policy, Cambridge, 1973, pp. 275–276.

[3] Vyšný, Paul: The Runciman Mission to Czechoslovakia, 1938: Prelude to Munich, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire, 2003, ISBN 0-333-73136-0, pp. 344–349.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Munich Agreement
Prelude (Oct 1925 – Sep 1938)	Locarno Treaties Sudeten German Party Parliamentary election, 1935 Border fortifications Fall Grün Hossbach Memorandum Heim ins Reich Anschluss May Crisis Runciman Mission Bled Agreement Runciman Report Godesberg Memorandum Oster Conspiracy Sudeten German uprising
Consequences (Nov 1938 – Sep 1939)	First Vienna Award Second Czechoslovak Republic German invasion of Czechoslovakia Czechoslovak government-in-exile Slovak Republic Bohemia and Moravia Hungarian invasion of Carpatho-Ukraine Slovak–Hungarian War Slovak invasion of Poland Generalplan Ost
Nullification (Mar 1945 – Dec 1973)	Third Czechoslovak Republic German evacuation from Central and Eastern Europe German expulsion from Czechoslovakia Potsdam Agreement Beneš decrees Paris Peace Treaties (1947) Treaty of Prague (1973)
Related topics	Events preceding the war in Europe European foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry: Appeasement "Peace for our time" Lesson of Munich History of Czechoslovakia (1918–1938): Germans in Czechoslovakia Western betrayal: Arms and the Covenant (1938) Why England Slept (1940)