PLAN FOR CZECHS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 6, 2 October 1941, Page 7

PLAN FOR CZECHS

Germans Arrest Old Henchihen lIEYDRICHS’ MOVES (Received October 1, 7 p.m.). ' LONDON, September 30. Czech circles in London express the opinion that the arrest p£ the Premier, General Elias, and three members o£ his Cabinet may foreshadow the complete break-up of the protectorate. The President, Dr. Hacha, originally secured some forms o£ autonomy under the Nazis, but the Germans have since cancelled many of them. The Germans have long been planning to dissolve the regime entirely and incorporate all of Czechoslovakia in the neighbouring territories, leaving the centre of Bohemia, including Prague, as a German province without special rights. Members of the Elias Cabinet have been arrested, and this may serve as an excuse to carry'out the plan. Certainly the' arrests suggest that the Germans have completely lost iaith in their collaborators. The arrested Cabinet men were Krejci, Deputy-Premier, Jezek, Minister of the Interior, who was formerly a general in the Czech army, and Dr. Havelka, who was expelled from the Hacha “administration six months ago. General Jezek was regarded as completely subservient to the Germans. Dr. Havelka was an appeaser, who is believed to have inspired Dr. Hacha’s policy. He drafted the Czech antiSemitic laws. M. Krejci was an eminent judge and a Professor of Law in Prague University. A Stockholm report says General Elias is accused of having contacted certain Polish and French circles for the purpose of secret collaboration. Ex-Soldiers and Students. According to the Czech circles in London, the arrests in Prague are only part of brutalities which are being inflicted through the protectorate. Many thousands of Czechs who are being arrested are facing the concentration ctimp or death. . Heydrich’s fury seems to be mainly directed against the 70,000 legionaries who fought on the Allied side in the last war, and who since gained positions of some importance in Czechoslovakia. The former Protector, Baron von Neurath, tried to break them, but did not succeed. Grave concern is also felt for thousands of Czech students who were sent to concentration camps in Germany after the outbreak of the war. Moscow radio said that a bomb was thrown at Gestapo headquarters, and that the Prague prison where the Czech leaders were imprisoned was also attacked. The German news agency, in a statement giving the reason for the shooting of the two Czech retired generals, Bily and Vojta, and others, on September 29, said that the generals were leading members of a Czech group which had tried to re-establish an independent Czech State by cutting Bohemia and Moravia from the protectorate by force. Two of the others who were executed were charged with being members of the group ■which systematically gathered firearms for use against the Germans in the event of a revolution. Other charges against the executed persons were that they were preparing for acts of high treason or were Communists.