Chamberlain, naval limits and time for rearmament

Neville Chamberlain's policy involved more than simple confidence that Hitler could be satisfied. British leaders had received sobering information about French rearmament and did not want to enter a continental war before allied forces were ready. Allowing limited German naval construction could channel money and industry away from the army while Britain and France gained time. That logic did not make the policy safe or successful, but it supplies a strategic rationale often lost in a purely moral label. The passage presents appeasement as a contested rearmament calculation as well as a diplomatic choice.