PUNS OF GERMANY

Evening Star, Issue 22988, 20 June 1938, Page 11

PUNS OF GERMANY

FOR CZECHOSLOVAKIA DESTRUCTION AIMED AT BARRIER TO THE EAST Czechoslovakia is now under pressure from five Powers Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Poland, wrote the diplomatic correspondent of the ‘ Manchester Guardian ’ recently. The article sets out to throw some light on Germany’s use of the minorities in the country for her own ends.. The severest pressure, of course, comes from Germany. Relations between Prague and Rome have been rather cordial recently, but Italy, too, has begun to exercise pressure by advising Czechoslovakia to give the Sudeten Germans Home Rule and to abandon the Russian alliance. In other words, two Great Powers are dictating both the foreign and internal policies of a smaller and allegedly independent Power, although that smaller Power is an ally of France and of Russia and is on friendliest terms with Great Britain, not to speak of the United States. Poland, which is much interested in the Polish minority that inhabits a small corner of Czechoslovakia, has asked the Czechoslovakian Government to suppress alleged “ Communist activities ” on the Czech-Polish frontier a request that may also be inspired by a, desire to loosen the ties between Prague and Moscow. Great Britain and France, as was made known here after it had been known abroad for nearly a week in advance, have urged the Czechoslovaks to go to the “ extremist limit ” compatible with the “ integrity ” of Czechoslovakia iti making concessions to the Sudeten Germans. VARIOUS MOTIVES. The motives for all this jircssure are various. The British and French demarche in I'iague is meant to ease the pressure that comes from Germany. It is possible that the advice given by Italy to Czechoslovakia may have the same purpose. In any case Czechoslovakia is expected, both by her friends and by her potential foes, to carry out far-reaching political measures that canot fail to weaken her at a time when her existence as an independent State is threatened. Some time before the Anglo-French demarch the Czech Government has prepared a memorandum for the British and French Governments on the concessions that might he made to the Sudeten Germans. The contents of this memorandum are not revealed—had they been, Herr Henlein _ would no doubt have rejected them in advance and as a matter of course—but it is certain that the memorandum outliens concessions that do go to the “ extremist limit.” What is the “ limit? ”

Proposals for giving the Sudeten German and other minorities in Czechoslovakia Home Rule have been made by a number of people who seem to imagine that the whole problem is one of abstract justice. The point is not whether the Sudeten Germans have a “ right ” to Home Rule, but whether it is in the interest of European peace and of Europea]] order, and more particularly of the Western Pow-

ers, that Czechoslovakia shall survive as a sovereign Power or whether she is to be broken up and the Checks are to be reduced to vassalage. WHAT HOME RULE MEANS. Home Rule in the full sense of the words for the Sudeten Germans means the further extension of the Pan-Ger-man hegemony in Europe. It means the end of Czechoslovakia, whether in a formal sense or not. It means that not only the Czechs, but also Hungary and later on Rumania and Poland will become subservient to the Greater Germany. For Germany, the Sudeten Germans are an instrument of foreign policy. As long as they remain an organic part of the Czechoslovak State they are a barrier in the way of German expansion that may not even stop at the-- shores of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. It is with the object of destroying this barrier that Germany keeps the question of the Sudeten Germans alive. The Czechs are fully prepared to make “concessions,” but there are no conceivable “ concessions ” —at least none compatible with Czechoslovak “ integrity ” —that will satisfy the Sudeten Gormans, who in these matters are made to wish what Berlin wishes. Nor do the Sudeten Germans stand alone. There are the Hungarians, Slovaks, Poles, and Ukrainians, who also form minorities in Czechoslovakia, and can also be used to serve the same purpose as the Sudeten Germans—namely, to destroy Czechoslovakia as an independent State. “CONCESSIONS ” NOT WANTED, It is true that an Anglo-French demarche has been made in Berlin and Germany is urged to accept the settlement which will go “ to the extremist limits ” compatible with Czechoslovak “ integrity,” but that is precisely what Germany docs not want—concessions of that kind are not of the slightest use to her. What she wants is a settlement that goes beyond these “limits”— a settlement that will make it possible either for the Sudeten Germans to secede from Czechoslovakia or to make them an instrument of German domination over the Czechs. It is true that if Germany resorts to war she may also find herself at war with France, and if with France then with Great Britain. It is very likely that a German armed attack on Czechoslovakia has been averted by the Western Powers. But Germany need not go to war to get what she wants —the gradual coercion of Czechoslovakia is possible without war, and that coercion is going on all the time. The Western Powers have imposed a certain cautiousness on Germany, but they have not in the least succeeded iu arresting Pan-German expansion in Central Europe. Nor is Czechoslovakia in any less danger of ceasing to exist as an independent Power than she was before, and it is doubtful whether she —or rather the Czechs—will find much consolation in the prospects that her extinction will come about by so-called “ peaceful " methods. Nor can abstract justice be satisfied if home rule for the Sudeten Germans means vassalage for half a dozen other Central, Eastern, or South-eastern European peoples; a vassalage, too, that is likely to be very much more onerous than the present status of the Sudeten Germans within the Czechoslovak State, which has, in fact, become one of equality with the Czechs. THE BALANCE OF POWER. What does the extinction, whether formal or not, of Czechoslovakia as a sovereign genuinely independent Power "mean to the Western Powers?

It means a further and very formidable shifting of the balance of power against the west. It enables Germany to prepare for the next step—namely, the subjection, whether open or covert, of Rumania and the seizure of Rumanian supplies of oil and grain. It means that the Western Powers will have to make far greater efforts than they are making even now so as to be in a state of preparedness such as will be necessary to restore the' balance. By slow pressure and gradual penetration, but with relatively little effort and sacrifice, Germany, as things are now, has every prospect of immensely augmenting all her warlike resources and being able, in course of time, to impinge on vital British and French interests in the Mediterranean and the Near East, not to speak of the direct menace which a powerful Germany in control of rich vassal States would be for the Western Powers. It is certainly desirable that the Czechs should make “ concessions ” to the Sudeten Germans and their other minorities, concessions that might include an even greater measure of local self-government than these minorities have at present. Anything beyond that, anything that would, for example, remove the police from the control of the Central Government or that would give the minorities the possibility of secession in any form, would have consequences profoundly disturbing to the European status quo and to the security of Great Britain and France.