and destruction of Czecho-Slovakia had been justified as Germany was just undoing the "unjust" terms of Versailles. Halifax, not impressed with that argument, told Dirksen that his government had promised in the Munich Agreement to respect the sovereignty of Czecho-Slovakia and that for him, keeping a promise was the mark of men of honour. Halifax, an aristocrat from Yorkshire, had felt a certain affinity for Dirksen, an aristocrat from Silesia and so found dishonesty from Dirksen to be especially reprehensible and told Dirksen that gentleman do not lie to each other. In his reports to Berlin, Dirksen toned down Halifax's language and remarks, especially the parts in which Halifax criticised Dirksen for not behaving like a gentleman and an aristocrat by lying to him. However, the British transcripts showed that Halifax was far more angry than what Dirksen's reports would suggest. On 17 March 1939, Chamberlain delivered a speech in Birmingham to the Birmingham Unionist Association and said that if Germany wanted to dominate the world, Britain would go to war, rather than accept a world dominated by the Reich. In his speech, Chamberlain wondered aloud if, by occupying Prague, Germany had taken "a step in the direction to dominate the world by force". He went on to say if Germany wanted to "challenge" Britain for world domination that "no greater mistake could be made than to suppose that because it believes war to be a senseless and cruel thing, this nation has so lost its fibre that it will not take part to the utmost of its power in resisting such a challenge if it ever were made". In a long report on the Birmingham speech that he sent to Berlin on 18 March 1939, Dirksen wrote, "It would be wrong to cherish any illusions that a fundamental change has not taken place in Britain's attitude to Germany". Dirksen took a contradictory line in the spring and summer of 1939 between his desire to see a war that would wipe Poland off the map and his fear of starting a world war that Germany might lose. Dirksen was extremely anti-Polish and had often called for the destruction of Poland and so supported Fall Weiss (Plan White), the German plan to invade Poland. Schorske wrote that Dirksen "believed firmly in the justice of Hitler's anti-Polish policy. Like most German nationalists, he held the Poles in complete contempt, a contempt fortified