SUDETEN PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 143, 20 June 1938, Page 9

SUDETEN PROBLEM

CHURCHILL ON PROSPECTS

Mr. Winston Churchill, who talked with Herr Henlein, leader of the Sudeten Party in Czechoslovakia, in London recently, said that he was glad to find the prospects of a friendly settlement between the Government of Czechoslovakia and its German population far better than he expected, reports the "Daily Telegraph and Morning Post." He was addressing a Peace and Freedom meeting in association with the League of Nations Union at Bristol. "I see no reason," Mr. Churchill Stated, "why the Sudeten Deutsche should not become trusted and honoured partners in what is, after all, the most progressive and democratic of the new States in Europe.

"If this happy result should be achieved it will be due to the fact that the pressure by Germany in one direction has been balanced by the firm and Courageous declarations of France, supported to a very considerable extent by Mr. Chamberlain and his Majesty's Government upon the other. "The inhabitants of Czechoslovakia are for the time being in a position to settle up their own difficulties among themselves. How long these healthy, conditions will last no one can foretell. For this reason I trust that both parties in Czechoslovakia will not waste a day in coming to definite settlement by making generous and wise concession! to each other.

"SPARK MIGHT FIRE EUROPE."

"If a good settlement can be reached inside Czechoslovakia it will not remove the dangers which threaten Europe, but it will at least make certain that another area from which a spark might have set fire to Europa will have been damped down."

Mr. Churchill repudiated the charge that the policy we had put forward was hostile to Germany. The Germans, they were told, complained that Czechoslovakia might be used as a base from which Russian air forces or even, in certain circumstances, Russian armies might attempt to invade their Fatherland.

"If Germany were the victim of un« provoked aggression from the East," he said, "she would, according to the Covenants of the League, be entitled to receive the fullest aid from all its members. That is the whole essence of collective security. "Even if Germany had not rejoined the League, I can see no reason why assurances of the most decided charac« ter should not be offered by France and Great Britain to help Germany, in every possible way if she wer« the victim of an outrage."