CZECH DEBTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 101, 29 March 1939, Page 9

CZECH DEBTS

OFFICIAL DECLARATION. GERMANY TO TAKE OYER. SLOVAKS’ SHARE OE GOLD. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, March 28. Dr Sans Thomsen (German Charge d’Affaires), interviewed, said that Germany accepts in principle the obligation for the Austrian and Czech debts to the United States. “Because we have not a favourable trade balance we have been unable to make payments on the Austrian debts. My proposals for a discussion on the subject with your Government have met with no response. The matter will be adjusted in time,” he said. Dr. Thomsen added that 25 per cent. of Czechoslovak gold would be turned over to the new Slovak Government for the support of its indejiendent currency. This was considered the Slovak share in the Republic’s monetary reserve. Asked about the Czechs’ share, he replied: “The assets as well as the liabilities of the Prague Government were naturally taken over by the Reich. Moreover, after Slovakia’s secession the Munich Pact ceased to have binding and legal validity.” He commented that Germany’s assumption of the protectorate was a strictly legal proceeding. It was the result of a formal request to Herr Hitler by the Czechoslovakian President on a voluntary visit to Berlin. “It is not a throwing down of a challenge to battle to the democracies,” he declared. “If war results, it will be the French and British who will have to attack Germany, directly or through their allies.”