TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1938. Lord Runciman’s Job

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 180, 2 August 1938, Page 6

TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1938. Lord Runciman’s Job

Notwithstanding the frequent * and. somewhat querulous outbursts from the ►Sudeten Germans and their supporters in the Reich, the decision to send Lord Runciman to Prague to act as mediator between the contending parties gives a more hopeful appearance to the situation than it has shown for some time past. Undoubtedly the position has at times been grave during the last month or so, for it cannot be doubted that Germany would have repeated her Austrian coup in Czechoslovakia had she been sure of a free hand. Herr Hitler may covet the German districts of Czechoslovakia, but not at the cost of a European war, and it was made plain to him that the Czechs, even without the help of their powerful friends, would have fought for the integrity of their country, and once the war dogs were unleashed it "would have been difficult to confine the quarrel to the countries immediately concerned. The situation, therefore, has resolved itself into a war of diplomatic wits, and no doubt the Sudeten Germans will be well backed by their powerful compatriots in their endeavour to extract the maximum of concessions by peaceful means. The main negotiations begin in Prague this week with Lord Runciman acting as an advocate of moderation from both sides, and it has already been stated that Dr. Benes and his Ministers are prepared to go to the full limit of the counsels he may give, so long as the sovereignty of the Czechoslovak State is safeguarded. Herr Henlein for his part declares that he absolutely rules out war as a means of solving the Sudeten problem. There will be no war so far as his party is concerned. “We do not want homes converted into battlefields/' Herr Hitler, seeking an agreement with Britain which he will have no difficulty in obtaining when his policies no longer cause alarm to Europe, has laid it down also that his Government is anxious for a peaceful solution, and convinced that, with goodwill on both sides, a working arrangement can be reached If Herr Hitler is resolved to keep his countrymen calm there should be no doubt of a satisfactory issue from the negotiations. The Germans in Czechoslovakia have had grievances, but they’ have not been caused by the policy of the Prague Government, but rather by reaction from the days "when they were masters and exerted an authority which too many individual Czechs do not forget. Few have a better knowledge of Czechoslovakia than Mr. Wickham Steed, who was formerly editor of The Times. He was closely associated with the late Dr. Masaryk when his plans were built up for forming the new republic. In a letter to The Times he points a contrast. He recalls that Herr Hitler, in his book, 4 ‘My Struggle/' denounced in vigorous terms those “traitors to Germanians” who “betrayed’' the Germans of the Southern Tyrol to Italy. He goes on to say that, given a plebiscite fairly conducted • —that is to say, without pressure from Nazi propaganda—it is unquestionable that a far higher proportion of the Southern Tyrolese Germans would vote for incorporation in Germany than would be the case, under similar conditions, among the Germans of Czechoslovakia. Yet in Rome, on the occasion of liis spectacular visit there, Herr Hitler declared it to be his “political testament” that the Alpine frontier of Italy should be inviolable. In other words, he threw over the principle of “self-determination” in its application to the Southern Tyrol, “though their treatment by Italy has been and is incomparably worse than the treatment of Sudeten Germans by the Czechs/' Mi*. Steed asked why had Czechoslovakia, as the one remaining democratic country of Central Europe—the one Central European country, moreover, which had “always treated its minorities better than they have been treated elsewhere”—been singled out as the object of hostile German propaganda and denunciation. The explanation that appeared most probable was that the disruption or “neutralisation” of Czechoslovakia was an indispensable preliminary to the extension of German sway throughout the Danubian region as far, at least, as the Black Sea. But if that object is not attainable at the present time without too much resistance Herr Hitler can afford to wait for it.

Herr Henlein has pronounced that his party does not ask for annexation to Germany. It is prepared to leave defence and foreign affairs in the hands of the Central Government, provided that everything else is included in a system of autonomous nationality groups. That falls in closely with the conditions which, it has been forecasted, the Government is willing to grant. On the views that have been expressed the way should soon be open to a peaceful settlement.