Will history repeat itself?

THE EDITOR: On September 30, 1938, a man came off a plane waving a piece of paper in his hand.

A few hours later, he gave a brief speech in which he joyfully exclaimed: “My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street, peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.”

A few months later, that paper was totally worthless.

The man was British prime minister Neville Chamberlain. The Munich Agreement of 1938, signed among Italy, Britain, France and Germany, allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia had no say in the matter.

It was done on the premise that Adolf Hitler would not invade Czechoslovakia, as he had threatened to do, on October 1, 1938.

Chamberlain also drafted a non-aggression pact between Germany and Britain that was signed by himself and Hitler.

In March 1939, Hitler annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia and by September 1 that year, World War II officially began when Germany invaded Poland.

I was reminded of all this when I read about the Argyle Declaration signed between Venezuela and Guyana on December 14.

While the situations are a bit different, the context is important.

The Argyle Declaration gave a commitment to peace and non-aggression on both sides. It also committed both sides to a further meeting in Brazil, in three months time.

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro had already given the order for state-owned Venezuelan companies to invade the Essequibo and start drilling for oil. Has this order been rescinded? There has not been a word about this.

History tends to repeat itself.

LINUS F DIDIER

Mt Hope