During the 1930s, Martin's "New Statesman" moved markedly to the left politically. It became strongly anti-fascist and pacifist, opposing British rearmament. After the 1938 "Anschluss", Martin wrote: "Today if Mr. Chamberlain would come forward and tell us that his policy was really one not only of isolation but also of Little Englandism in which the Empire was to be given up because it could not be defended and in which military defence was to be abandoned because war would totally end civilization, we for our part would wholeheartedly support him."