RESOLUTE CZECHS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1938, Page 11

RESOLUTE CZECHS

AND GERMAN MENACE

BRITISH ARMAMENTS

A POTENT FACTOR

As recently as May last, Sir Alfred Zimmern, one of the United Kingdom delegates to the British Commonwealth Relations Conference, which is to open in Sydney next week, was in Czechoslovakia. He found the inhabitants cool and determined in the face of the delicate situation confronting them, and it was his belief, he stated in an interview, that the Czechs—men, women, and children—would resolutely resist any German agrgession. The German manoeuvres, said Sir Alfred, were being conducted for the purpose of intimidation. The defence forces of Czechoslovakia were well armed and well trained, and the determination shown by the Czechs had resulted in Germany losing face in Europe. No one realised that more than Hitler: hence the manoeuvres. "I would like to know the nature of the strong diplomatic representations made to Germany on May 20, when she threatened to move against Czechoslovakia," added Sir Alfred, "but I have no doubt that it .was those representations that prevented hostilities." It was probable, he thought, that Great Britain's rapidly increasing armed strength would be a potent factor in making counsels of prudence prevail in regard to Hitler's threatened policy, although the Czechoslovakian question had to be regarded as a source of great potential danger to the peace of Europe. There was no doubt that the world situation was extremely dangerous. One could not say from day to day when a grievous crisis would arise, but personally he believed that peace would continue. Britain's interest in the integrity of Czechoslovakia, Sir Alfred pointed out, was vital. Czechoslovakia' in German hands would mean Germany in the Baltic, and from the Baltic Germany would find it easier to launch an air attack against England. This would be easier for Germany to do than for England to attack Berlin from the air, but while England's alliance with Czechoslovakia persisted, Berlin would be threatened, in the case of hostilities, with an air attack launched from Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovakian air force was a powerful one, and it was really one of the air defences of London. There was danger, too, in Spain, Sir Alfred went on to say. Prestige was of great importance to dictators, and Mussolini and Hitler had committed themselves so deeply in Spain that he could not see them willingly retreating from the stand they had adopted. He did not think that international repercussions were likely to result from the fighting in the Far East, unless Japan won the war, and- that did not now seem likely. Japan, it was apparent, did not want to fight Russia. Sir Alfred Zimmern, who is Montague Professor of International Relations at Oxford and Director of the Geneva School of International Studies, has been spending a day or two in Wellington prior \o returning to Auckland, whence he sails on Monday by the Maunganui for Sydney.