On September 28 at 10 a.m., four hours before the deadline expired and without Czechoslovakia`s agreement, the British ambassador to Italy, Lord Perth, called Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano to request an urgent meeting. [37] Perth informed Ciano that Chamberlain had ordered him to invite Mussolini to begin negotiations and to urge Hitler to postpone the ultimatum. [37] At 11:00 a.m., Ciano Mussolini met with him and informed him of Chamberlain`s proposal; Mussolini agreed and responded by phoning the Italian ambassador to Germany and telling him: “Go immediately to the Führer and tell him that whatever happens, I will be at his side, but that I ask for a delay of twenty-four hours before the hostilities begin. In the meantime, I will study what can be done to solve the problem. [40] Hitler received Mussolini`s embassy during discussions with the French ambassador. Hitler told the ambassador: “My good friend, Benito Mussolini, asked me to postpone the marching orders of the German army for twenty-four hours, and I agreed. This was obviously not a concession, since the date of the invasion was set for October 1, 1938. [41] In an interview with Chamberlain, Lord Perth Mussolini thanked Chamberlain and Chamberlain`s request to ask Mussolini to participate on September 29 in a quadrilateral conference of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy in Munich in order to resolve the Sudetenland problem before the 2:00 p.m. deadline. Mussolini agreed. [41] Hitler`s only demand was to have Mussolini involved in the conference negotiations. [41] As U.S.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt learned that the conference was scheduled, he telegraphed Chamberlain, “Good Man.” [42] During the review of the Munich conference, the minister stated that the fact that France and Britain did not support Czechoslovakia did not surprise him, long convinced that they would not fight and neither would Russia. With regard to the latter, he was certain that help could not be counted on and had often said so to Ambassador Phillips in Rome. In the first place, Russia has not had the opportunity to provide effective military aid due to the lack of transport possibilities and a common border. The Czechoslovaks were convinced that Russia would help through its air force and came to the conclusion that such aid would be effective in resisting Germany. I noticed that it was not my observation that the government was certain that Russia would provide effective assistance, especially towards the end of the summer. He said this applied to the government, but the popular base had the greatest confidence in Russia`s effective aid, while the fact is that Russia would not go beyond its borders to help someone. As far as Britain and France are concerned, in a way, they could not be blamed for the trajectory they are taking in Munich, because the fact is that they could not fight and Germany knew it. They were not prepared.
However, they were seriously responsible for not openly informing Czechoslovakia that it could not depend on Czechoslovakia months before the Munich Conference, or even a few weeks before (because they had to know their fighting strength at the time) that it would help Czechoslovakia militarily if it were to suffer an unattought attack. Had they done so, it would have been possible for Czechoslovakia to have reached an agreement with Germany of a much more favourable nature than the one that finally emerged. .