The Press FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1939. Germany’s Problem

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22662, 17 March 1939, Page 10

The Press FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1939. Germany’s Problem

The cautious tone of the meagre official German communiques on the situation in Eastern Europe, and absence of the outbursts of jubilation which normally follow a successful coup, suggest that the German Government is at the moment somewhat embarrassed by the problems which its unexpected victory has created. The gains are obvious and substantial. The best disciplined and equipped army in the Balkans has been disbanded. The huge Skoda armaments concern at Plzen, the largest in Europe after the Krupps Works at Essen, are in German hands. So also are the Vitkovice iron works, the largest in Eastern Europe, and the coal deposits of Moravska Ostrava and Kladno. On the other hand, there are economic liabilities. Bohemia and Moravia are primarily manufacturing areas; and their incorporation into Germany, like the incorporation of Austria, will aggravate Germany’s food problem. The agricultural areas of Slovakia are the economic complement of Moravia and Bohemia; and for this reason it seems probable that, whether or not Slovakia retains a nominal political independence, it will become economically a part of the Third Reich. But the political problems which Germany has created for herself by the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia are even more embarrassing than the economic. The “ liberation ” of the Sudeten Germans and Germany’s support of Slovak independence were moves justified by reference to the principle of national self-determination; and it is obvious that Germany hopes, by posing as the upholder of this principle, to break up the remainder of the post-war political structure in Eastern Europe. Already there is an active Ukrainian independence movement with headquarters in Berlin. But Herr Hitler is discovering, as those who redrew the map of Europe after the Great War discovered, that in any international settlement considerations of political expediency and military strategy inevitably cut across the principle of national self-determination. In this instance, the Ukrainian Province of Ruthenia has, without a shadow of ethnic justification, been given to Hungary to compensate her for the disappointments she suffered after Munich. But the most flagrant violation of the principle is the incorporation of the Czechs into the Third Reich. The .German Government is thus faced with a dilemma. If it desires to remain the champion of oppressed minorities, it must honour its somewhat vague promise to allow the Czechs cultural autonomy; and it must at least make some pretence of respecting the independence of the new Slovak State which it has created. The National Socialist regime, however, depends for its existence on a rigid control of public opinion and an insistence on uniformity in political thinking. It will therefore find it both difficult and dangerous to allow even limited autonomy to a compact group of more than 6,000,000 Czechs, passionately devoted to democratic ideals and schooled by centuries of adversity in the technique of resisting tyranny.