| Description | Wellesley (1885-1972) relates the planning of special radio broadcasts to the German people, 27-30 September. The memorandum, dated 3 October and signed Gerald Wellesley, includes details of his meeting with Sir Joseph Ball during which arrangements were provisionally agreed. Plans were put in motion within a few hours of this meeting, with the first broadcast taking place at 8.00 the same evening. The broadcasts were translations into German of messages from President Roosevelt, Chamberlain, Monsieur Daladier, and Dr Benes. They were intended to give the German people the text of key messages 'of which [they]... were believed to be in complete ignorance', including Roosevelt's appeals to Hitler. Radio Luxembourg was chosen in preference to the BBC as the majority of German people had access only to local radio at the time.
Sir George Joseph Ball (1885-1961) was Director of the Conservative Research Department. The broadcasts carried messages from America, France, Czechoslovakia and Britain: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the USA, 1933-1945; Edouard Daladier, Prime Minister of France, 1938-1940; Eduard Benes, Czechoslovakian Head of State, 1935-1938 and Chamberlain. During the course of the broadcasts, Chamberlain flew to Munich, signing the Agreement that agreed the cession of the Sudetenland to Germany: The Munich Agreement, 29 September 1938. |