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“When the situation was manageable it was neglected,
and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late
the remedies which then might have effected a cure.

There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the Sibylline books.
It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience
and the confirmed unteachability of mankind.

Want of foresight,
unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective,
lack of clear thinking, confusion of council until the emergency comes,
until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—
these are the features which constitute
the endless repetition of history.”

—Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 2 May 1935.

“In a conference at Stresa, Britain, France and Italy had agreed
to cooperate to maintain the independence of Austria.
His fear was that this plan would be nullified by inertia.

Hitler annexed Austria in March 1938.

If only, Churchill was saying, these three powers had worked for peace
and collective security earlier.“