CZECH INDEPENDENCE

Evening Star, Issue 23717, 26 October 1940, Page 12

CZECH INDEPENDENCE

TWENTY-SECOND ANNIVERSARY FAITH IN THE FUTURE (Bntisli Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 25. (Received October 26, at 10 a.m.) Monday next will be the twentysecond anniversary of Czecho-Slovakian independence. In an interview. the CzechoSlovakian Prime Minister (M. Sramck) said. “To-day our soldiers are fighting with the soldier's of the British Commonwealth. We know their fighting will not be in vain. One day our soldiers will march in triumph through the streets of Prague and in Czechoslovakia, a country which cannot die. Millions will on Monday pray silently that the day of their triumph may come soon.”

A military agreement defining the principles on which the Czecho-Slovak-ian armed forces will be organised under the supremo command of the Czecho-Slovakian Commander-In-Chief for co-operation with the Allied armed forces was signed to-day. It affirms the determination of the British Government and the provisional Czechoslovak Government to prosecute the war to a successful conclusion and provides that in the task of reconstituting the Czecho-Slovak forces the provisional Czecho-Slovak Government will be assisted by the British Government, which has granted to the Czechoslovak Government the necessary credits to finance the cost of maintaining the Czecho-Slovak military effort. GERMANY’S OIL RESERVES OFFICIAL'S ANALYSIS LONDON, October 19. Commenting on Germany’s claims that her oil reserves were 1,000,000 tons more than when war began, Mr Oscar Tokayer, head of the Petroleum Press Service, said it was possible that Germany would have had this quantity if it had not been for the R.A.F. At least 1,000,000 tons must have been destroyed already. German petrol consumption probably was more than 50 per cent, of normal, because civilian motor transport had almost vanished or was confined to use of liquid gases. Germany probably estimated he.r total present consumption of, petrol at 4,000,000 tons yearly, of which 2,500,000 were for civil use and 1,500,000 for the Air Force, while she counted on 4,000,000 tons of-crude oil aud synthetic . oil extraction, with Rumania yielding another 2,000,000 yearly. However, the R.A.F.’had severely damaged Germany’s production, especially of synthetic fuels. Russian supplies were negligible. Rumania could not send more, because of transport difficulties. Occupied territories would burden Germany, however severely they were starved of petrol. While Germany's chief centres of oil production lay in the west, open to attack from the air, no amount of propaganda could hide the threat to her future supplies, even if at present there was no shortage. DEMOCRACY UNDER TEST PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S FAITH IN OUTCOME WASHINGTON, October 24. President Roosevelt in a speech said that foreign propagandists “ who seek to divide us with their strategy of terror have a reply in characteristically American terms—the preparations for the defence of the Western Hemisphere.” The United States, he said, was not afraid and was resolute in its will for peace. It was simultaneously preparing for the defence of the two American continents and the ocean highway? of those continents. President Roosevelt paid a tribute to Britain’s stand against Germany. Ho said that the democratic system was undergoing a fearful test, but the structure of democratic faith was more enduring than marble and more precious than all men had built. He insisted that democracy was essentially strong and warned that the dictators were quick to take advantage of the weakness of others. PARACHUTE TROOPS CONSIDERATION BY CANADA OTTAWA, October 24, The Air Minister (Mr C. G. Power) said that Canada was seriously considering tlie establishment of a parachute corps. “It is felt that training should begin in preparation for the time when we will take the offensive,” he said. FATE OF THE PACIFIC AMERICA INTERESTED NEW YORK, October 24. The former commander of the navy in the Pacific, Rear-Admiral Yarnell, in the ‘ Herald-Tribune,’ declared; “ Apart from the United States commercial stake in the Pacific we are politically interested in the fate of Australia and New Zealand, and we are interested in the preservation of the Pacific status quo.”