CZECHOSLOVAKIA’S ATTITUDE CONFIRMED

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22519, 29 September 1938, Page 12

CZECHOSLOVAKIA’S ATTITUDE CONFIRMED

Acceptance i| British-French Plan Renewed ARMY REFUSES TO TAKE FURTHER VOLUNTEERS German Regular Troops Reported To Be Occupying Frontier {TnniX9 PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) (Received September 28, 11 p.m.) LONDON, September 27. Reuter’s Prague correspondent says it is emphasised in competent political quarters that the Czech Govern-' ment confirms jts previous acceptance of the British and French recommendations and shares the viewpoint that Mr Chamberlain’s recommendations should be carried out as quickly as is reasonably possible. It is officially announced that the army is not accepting further volunteers. The ranks have reached capacity. The Czech military authorities • report that regular troops are now occupying the German side of the frontier. It is stated that the crossing of the first German soldier will mean the outbreak of War. The German official news agency states that the Czechs have blown up 24 bridges between Zittau and Ratibpr. Czech troops ,near S.chandau, in Saxony, .are feverishly felling trees and preparing gun emplacements commanding the German bank of the Elbe.

46 WILL NOT BOW TO THREATS”

GERMAN TERMS

REFUSED

CZECH COMMENT ON HITLER’S SPEECH “FAINT POSSIBILITY FOR PEACE” PROTEST BY SLOVAK

Contents of Czech

Letter

REPLY TO HERR HITLER’S MEMORANDUM • (itmsi prrtciii. wmscrsi.). (Received September 28, 10*50. a m.) RUGBY, September 27. The Czechoslovakian Legation has published the text of the letter which was handed to the Foreign Secretary (Lord Halifax) on Monday .by the Czech Minister (Dr. Jan Masaryk). and which constitutes the Czechs’ reply to the German memorandum.

MINISTER

tliuD PXBSS AMOCXATIO*— COPTKIOHT.)

September 28, 9 p.m.)

PRAGUE, September 28. An official broadcast commentary on Herr Hitler’s speech said: “We will never allow- the nation to be crippled. There is still one ialnt possibility for peace. “Our nation, which made cruel aacrifices, has the right to demand that Germany show a conciliatory and temperate spirit, both in her claims and the method of their solution. “If she refuses, our nation will . not bow to threats.” . ‘ The Czech Minister in London (Dr. UfJan Masaryk) said:

Tn its course the letter stated: “Britain and France are very well aware that we agreed, under the most severe pressure, to the socalled British-French plan for ceding parts of Czechoslovakia. We accepted this plan under extreme duress. We had not even time_to make any representations about its many unworkable features. Nevertheless, we accepted it because we understood it was the end of the demands to b'e made, and because it followed from British and French pressure that these two Powers would accept responsibility for our reduced frontiers, and would guarantee us their support in the event of our being feloniously attacked. The vulgar German campaign continued. “While Mr Chamberlain was at Godesberg the following message was received by my Government from the British and French representatives at Prague: ‘We have agreed with France that Czechoslovakia should be informed that France and Britain cannot continue to take the responsibility of advising them hot to mobilise.’

*S “The unprecedented attack by the head of one State on another, coni' tained in Herr Hitler’s speech, would if make a re-entry into negotiations I very difficult without a proper F apology. “Herr Hitler made himself the protectee of the Slovaks, whom he depicted as an oppressed nationality. I am a Slovak as are our Ministers at Paris, Washington and Warsaw, and also our Chief Justice. “I object in their name to Herr Hitler’s championing us and interfering with our destinies. “The Czechs and Slovaks are brothers, who trust each other, particularly in adversity.” The Riga correspondent of “The Times” says that the Soviet press described Herr Hitler’s speech as “political blackmail and bluff.” The newspapers declare that Germany is not so prepared as she has claimed.

Responsibility Accepted

“My new Government, headed by the Premier (General -Tan Syrovy), declared it accepts full responsibility for its predecessors* decision to accept the stern terms of the so-called Britisn-Ffench plan. “Yesterday, after Mr Chamberlain’s return from Godesberg, the new proposition was handed to my Government with the additional information that Britain was acting solely as an intermediary, and is neither advising nor pressing my Government in any way. “Dr. Krofta, in receiving the plan, gave an assurance that Czechoslovakia would study it in the same spirit in which it had co-operated with Britain and France hitherto. . “My Government has now studied the plan and map. It is de facto an ultimatum of the sort usually presented to a vanquished nation, and not a proposition to a sovereign State which has shown the greatest possible readiness to make sacrifices for appeasement. “Not the smallest trace of such readiness for sacrifices has yet been manifested by Herr Hitler’s. Government. My Government was amazed ■at the contents of the memorandum. “The proposals go far beyond what we. agreed to m-the so-called British-French plan. They deprive us of every safeguard for our national existence. We are to yield up large proportions of our carefully prepared defences, and admit the German armies deep into our country before we have been able to organise it on a hew basis, or make any preparations for its defence. ‘“These New Cruel Demands” “Qur national .economic independence would automatically disappear with the acceptance of Herr Hitler’s plans. “The Whole process of moving the population is to reduce it to panic and flight on- the part of those who will not accept the German Nazi regime. They have to leave their

LOYALTY OF GERMAN DEMOCRATS

ADHERENCE TO CZECH STATE REAFFIRMED

(Received September 28, 9.30 p.m.)

LONDON, September 28,

The Sudeten German Democrats have sent a message to British members. of Parliament, reaffirming their adherence to the Czechoslovak State and reliance on the solidarity of the great democracies. The message declares that -Herr Hitler’s time limit will deprive more than 1,000.000 German Czech Democrats in the Sudeten territories of their homes and expose them to the danger of massacre. SAFETY OP GERMAN SHIPS (Received September 28, 9.30 p.m. COLON (Panama). September 28. Agents and captains of German ships here to-day conferred to decide whether to remain in the Canal Zone or, in the event of war, to run for-other neutral ports, risking British naval units patrolling the Canb-, bean Sea.

homes without even the right to take their personal belongings, or even, in the case of peasants, their cow.

“My Government wishes me to declare, in all solemnity, that Herr Hitler’s demands in their present form are absolutely and unconditionally unacceptable to my Government.

“Against these new cruel demands my Government feels bound to make its utmost resistance, and wo shall do so, God helping.” “We cannot allow the destruction of the life of the Czechoslovakian nation,” said Dr. Benes in a broadcast from Prague. “Nevertheless, we are ready to solve the entire problem by peaceful negotiation, and fulfil the demands of the British and French proposals, however cruel. We demand that Germany, too, prove its professed love for peace by using peaceful instruments, “We rely on the two Western democracies, whose wishes we followed against our own judgment, to stand by us in our hour of trial* 1 *