GERMANY ACCEPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 74, 29 March 1939, Page 11

GERMANY ACCEPTS

IN PRINCIPLE ONLY

OBLIGATION FOR AUSTRIAN

AND CZECH DEBTS

ATTITUDE TO U.S.A.

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

(Received March 29, 9.30 a.m.)

WASHINGTON, March 28

Dr. Hans Thomsen, German Charge d'Affaires, interviewed by the North American Newspaper Alliance, said that Germany accepts in principle the obligation for Austrian and Czech debts to the United States.

"Because we have not a favourable trade balance we are unable to make payments on the Austrian debts," he said. "My proposals for discussion of the subject with your Government have not met with response. The matter will be adjusted in time."

He added that 25 per cent, of the Czecho-Slovak gold will be turned over to the new Slovak Government for the support of its independent currency. This was considered to be the Slovak share of the Republic's monetary reserve. Asked about the Czechs' share, he replied: "The assets as well as the liabilities of the Prague Government have naturally been taken over by the Reich. Moreover, after Slovakia's secession the Munich Pact ceased to have binding legal validity." He commented that Germany's assumption of the protectorate was a strictly legal proceeding, made formally, on a request by Herr Hitler, by the Czecho-Slovakian President while on a voluntary visit to Berlin.

"It is not the throwing down of the gage of battle to the democracies," he said. "If war results, it will be the French and the British who will have to attack Germany directly or through their allies."