'WILL FIGHT FIRST'

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 223, 20 September 1938, Page 9

'WILL FIGHT FIRST'

EARLIER REACTION

CZECH PUBLIC FEELING (United Preia Association. Copyright.—Rec. 12 noon.) LONDON, September 19. At 1 1.30 p.m. Cabinet and Coalition leaders at Prague were still conferring. The British United Press is reliably informed that it is not intended to accept the plan except as a basis for further negotiations with France and Britain. It is authoritatively stated that the report that M. Daladier and M. Bonnet will go to Prague is unfounded. The Czech Ministers' Council has drawn up a draft reply to France and Britain. The British United Press Prague correspondent says that the Government representative said: "We have not changed our policy. We cannot cede territory or accept a plebiscite which would mean the same thing. We will fight first." Official circles express the opinion that the Czechs should fight while in possession of a strategic frontier of mountain ranges. The Czech semi-official Press Bureau appealed to the populace to receive the news of the Franco-British discussions "with calm assurance," stating that "all constitutional agencies, the President and the Government, are in permanent session and in constant contact with friendly nations. "The Franco-British discussions will be examined from the viewpoint of Czechoslovakia's vital interests. These can be safeguarded only if they are supported by the people's strictest discipline and dignified calm and if they have confidence in their responsible leaders who are in complete unity and full consciousness of the real welfare of the State. They are working to secure the future in the sense of the President's and the Government's recent proclamations." The Prague Cabinet has deferred decision till it sees the actual Franco-British plan. Strict censorship has been imposed and foreign telephone calls have been tapped and foreign newspapers confiscated. An official broadcast stated that the Franco-British conversations constitute a further s*p toward dramatic developments, but are not yet the last word. Prague newspapers publish surmises of the Franco-British plan The public's reaction is that Czechoslovakia has been abandoned. Some declare, "We must go down fighting," but more moderate counsels emphasise the probability of the international guarantee and stress the importance of saving the rest of the country since the Sudeten situation is hopeless. Czech circles in London, says the Australian Associated Press, declare that they did not believe Britain and France would be capable of "such gross betrayal, thus justifying Herr Hitler e contempt of democracies." It is not doubted that the public in Britain and France, with the imminence of war apparently removed, are disposed to withhold judgment until the proposals are fully known. After a conversation at Paris with M Bonnet who disclosed details of the Franco-British plan, the Czech Minister, M. Osusky, visibly moved, said to the Press: Do you want to see a man condemned without a hearing? Here I stand Swiss welcome the report that a neutralised guarantee to k» , t of the Franco-British plan. Czechoslovakia forms a Keynote , , . i- i c>^. tm . They consider the establishment of three neutralised States, Switzerland, Belgium and Czechoslovakia would stabilise the European position and prevent an outbreak of war. It i. felt in League circleethat British .tate«naneh,p and Trench sacrifice «T«d Europe from conflict.