Hitler, as he usually did, wanted more than he required last time and he in fact already almost got. He wanted the occupation of most of the area as early as by 28 September, before the intended plebiscite that should have token place, with Czechoslovaks evacuated from the area on the same date. There were also other demands that could help him dismember Czechoslovakia completely – from Polish for the area of Těšín and from Hungarians for (at least) southern Slovakia. Therefore, Hitler was playing for time. He set the deadline, as planned for a long time already, on October 1.
This time Mr. Chamberlain protested vigorously against the Diktat. The next day Halifax enquired of Litvinov, Russian foreign commissar, what action would Soviets take in event of war. “If French came to assistance of the Czechs, Russia would take action” was the answer. Russians now had a good reason for an operation through (and possibly against) Poland if it invaded Czechoslovakia. The Foreign Office announced that France, Britain, and the Soviet Union would come to assist Czechoslovakia if Germany attacked her. As a response, Czechoslovakia, now permitted, mobilized. Hitler rejected all concessions in spite of urgent appeals from Britain and France. On September 27 and 28 it seemed that the moment of clash had arrived – the French mobilized partially on the 24th, Czechoslovaks generally one day earlier. Chamberlain, knowing that Czechoslovak do not want to hand over their border fortifications, coming back from Godesberg stated:
“How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing.”

Then, out of the blue, came the Mussolini’s proposal for Four Power conference that would resolve the tense state of affairs peacefully. To everybody’s surprise, Hitler agreed to it. Now, we know that the Italian plan for conference originated in the German Foreign Ministry. On September 29, 1938, Chamberlain flew to Germany for the third time. This time to Munich, where the French Prime Minister, Italian Duce and German Fuehrer were all expected to take part. No invitation was extended to Russia. Nor were the Czechoslovak representatives allowed to be present at the meetings. ‘The Munich Conference’ was basically just a formal approval of what was negotiated between Chamberlain and Hitler before. It set just the exact details of the occupation of the Sudetenlands by October 10.