FEUD ENDED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23163, 8 October 1938, Page 15

FEUD ENDED

SLOVAKS' DECISION PLAN FOR AUTONOMY NEW FEDERAL STATE PARTNERS WITH CZECHS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received October 7, 7.5 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 6 The Slovaks, at a conference at Zelina, are reported to have decided in favour of autonomy within a federated State, says a message from Prague. By. that plan Czechoslovakia would be a federal State with two equal partners. Acceptance of this plan by the Czech Government is said to be certain. A Slovak Government has already been formed and th« leader of the autonomists, Dr. Joseph Tisot, has been elected President. It includes Dr. Sokol and M. Fidor, formerly violent autonomists and Agrarian Nationalist representatives. Slovakia will have its own Diet.

Internal political cross-currents are likely to flow less restlessly as the result of the agreement reached at the conference to form an autonomous Slovak Government under the Premiership of Dr. Tisot, who is a deputy of the National Chamber. He is a priest and also for years has been vice-chairman of the Slovak People's Party. His simultaneous appointment by Prague as Minister for Slovakia is regarded as ending a 20 years' feud between the Czechs and the Slovaks, and as paving the way to a workable federation. The Zelina conference, which was representative of all the Slovak parties, agreed to work to obtain the adoption of an autonomy law before October 28. Also it agreed that foreign affairs, defence and national finance be left to the Central Government. It demanded that all five Slovak Ministers sit in the Prague Cabinet.

NEW GERMAN ZONE FRENCH PRESS COMMENT i ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ SURPRISE AND INDIGNATION GODESBERG DEMANDS EQUALLED (Received October 8, 12.20 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 7 The Czech Geneva delegation states that the International Commission lias granted Germany all the territory comprised in Herr Hitler's Godesberg demands by using the pre-war census 1 figures of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire as a basis for the population calculations for Zone 5." • The Germans are demanding a plebiscite in regions in which Germans form only: 2 to 7 per cent of the population,, and thus some districts of .100,000 Germ&ns will rule 1,000,000 Czechs. Czechoslovakia's ."waistline" will be squeezed to only 40 miles in width, and railways and roads will be bisected by German "islands." The Munich agreement has now been converted into the Godesberg demands. A German economic mission is going to Prague to discuss close co-operation and possibly even a German-Czech customs union, says a message from Berlin.

The Paris press reactions to the International Commission's decision range from surprise to deep indignation, and all the newspapers agree Germany receives more than the Munich agreement. Le Petit Parisien says: "Germany obtains complete economic and industrial control of Czechoslovakia. Germany and Poland are co-operating in the wicked work of dismemberment. Doubtless Poland is compensating herself for the future loss of the Corridor to Germany.;'

COMBINED DEMANDS POLAND AND HUNGARY MUTUAL ' ARRANGEMENT ■ LONDON. Oct. 0 The Polish Foreign Minister, Colonel Beck, to-day had-a lengthy conference with Count, Csakv, of the Hungarian Foreign Office, says a message from Warsaw. It is understood that as a result Poland will support Hungary's claim to Ruthenia, which would give Poland and Hungary a common frontier. . It was also agreed that Poland and Hungary should respect the Slovaks' desires regarding the future, subject to. the restoration tn Hungary of the Southern strip of Slovakia, in which the Hungarian minority numbers 1,000,000 people. Pol arid 5 arid "Hungary will then be willing to guarantee the new Czech frontier. It is understood that Germany is markedly disinterested in the Hungarian request for support of hor minority claim, says the Berlin correspondent of the Australian Associated Press. It is learned that Britain communicated with Warsaw, pointing out her disapproval of further demands on Czechoslovakia beyond those defined on an ethnological basis.

DEMOBILISATION STEPS PARIS AND PRAGUE LONDON, Oct. 6 Demobilisation in Franco will be completed by Tuesday, says, a message from Paris. A message from Prague states that tw,o classes.are to be demobilised immediately and others progressively.