1939.04.07 “To Whom It May Concern”
by Paul R Carmack (1895-1977)
11.6 x 14.6 in., crayon and ink on board
Coppola Collection
Paul Carmack was a staff cartoonist for the Christian Science Monitor.
By April 1939, Europe was dividing into opposing blocs: the Axis-aligned powers (Germany & Italy) expanding aggressively (Italy took Albania), while Britain and France tried to form an Anti-Aggression Bloc by guaranteeing Poland's security and negotiating with the Soviet Union, though Stalin was playing both sides, leading to a fragile, tense standoff before the outbreak of WWII, marked by Hitler's plan to invade Poland and Churchill's warnings.
Anglo-Polish Agreement: On April 6, Britain and Poland signed a pact of mutual assistance, a key step in forming the anti-aggression bloc against German expansion.
Italy, under Mussolini, invaded and annexed Albania on April 7-8, demonstrating Axis aggression and alarming Western powers. In secret, Hitler had issued "Fall Weiss" (Operation White) on April 3, ordering preparations for an invasion of Poland, set for September 1.
Winston Churchill urged Britain to recognize the "darkening scene" and demanded a stronger policy against Hitler, per a speech to Parliament on April 13, urging Britain to Wake Up. He indicted Neville Chamberlain and his Government for having been patsies for Hitler and Mussolini, demanded explanations for failures to act, insisted on a change in policy, and recommended specific measures to face the crisis confronting them. "Neville – who has been a second time deceived by the Dictator in whom he particularly trusts, & invites us to trust…There is a great danger in refusing to believe things you do not like."
On April 16, the Soviet Union proposed an alliance with Britain and France to contain German aggression in Eastern Europe. And on April 18, Neville Chamberlain vowed to go to the aid of the Netherlands, Denmark or Switzerland if they were attacked.
On April 28, Hitler made a speech to the Reichstag renouncing the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and German-Polish declaration of non-aggression yet offered to negotiate new non-aggression pacts with any nations that asked for them. Hitler evoked laughter in the Reichstag by reciting, in exaggerated and sarcastic tones, the thirty-one countries that President Roosevelt had listed in a telegram of two weeks earlier, where he asked Hitler and Mussolini to assure that they would not be attacked or invaded.
