CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 133, 16 March 1940, Page 5

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

OCCUPATION BY NAZIS.

THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY. ONLY GERMANS CELEBRATE. (United Press Association. —Copyright.) (Received This Day, 9 a.m.) PRAGUE, March 15. The new Nazi military Black Guard units arrived to prevent disturbances among the Czech population during the anniversary celebration which was purely a German affair. It will extend over three days, beginning with a military parade in Wencelas Square to-day, followed by a tattoo in’ the evening in front of the flood-lit castle.

NAZI BACK-PATTING.

“GLORIOUS GERMAN ARMS.” BERLIN, March 15. The German Official News Agency says that the Prime Minister of the Czech Protectorate (Dr. Hacha) sent a telegram to Herr Hitler on the occar sion of the anniversary of the formation of the protectorate: “This day brings back to me the memory of my visit to your Excellency when 3 T ou showed such full understanding of the needs of the Czech people. By taking us under the mighty protection of the German Reich you have given, us valuable‘ advantages. To-day we are spared the terrors of war, although we are participating in it within the great German people. The Czech people hail the glorious German arms which protect and defen dthem.” Herr Hitler, replying, said: “I am glad you remember our first meeting, mnd am also glad we have spared the Czech people the horrors of war. It is not the German Government's intention to impose on the Czechs any duties and burdens endangering their national existence. The yietory which will follow our common struggle will bring peace and happiness not only to Germans, but also to the Czech ''people.”

ANNIVERSARY MESSAGES.

HITLER’S BRUTALITY

CONDEMNED.

, LONDON, March 14. Reviewing the year since, the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Foreign Secretary (Lord Halifax), in a message to the Czech people, . said: “Herr Hitler’s brutal and treacherous act was less brutal than the rule of terror that followed. The world has learnt with indignation of the closing of your universities and schools, the arrest of your intellectual leaders, and the systematic attempts to deprive your children of educational facilities for which the country of Masarvk is justly famed, ,and to destroy, not only the economic, hut the spiritual life of your nation.”

Lord Halifax Said that the fact that these attempts had failed was a tribute to the Czechs’ courage and unity in adversity, and the British people felt admiration and sympathy for their determined struggle for freedom. The British Empire had taken up arms together with its Allies to restore freedom to the Czechs, right the wrongs they had suffered and create a new Europe in which a recurrence of such evil would be made impossible. Dr. Benes, the former President, in a message to the Czech nation, said that the Nazi plan to destroy and ever enslave the Czechs had failed. “To-day it is generally recognised that because of our sacrifice and our present suffering Europe gained a whole year to prepare itself for an unavoidable attack by Germany,” he declared.

After a review of the horrors suffered in tho Nazis’ inhuman penetration of the country, Dr. Benes concluded with words of encouragement to his countrymen and his conviction that- the day of an Allied victory marking the return of Czechoslovakia’s freedom was not far away.—British Official Wireless.