CZECH LIMITS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19701, 5 August 1938, Page 7

CZECH LIMITS

CONCESSIONS TO NAZIS RETAINING INDEPENDENCE QUEST FO.lv SETTLEMENT RUNCIMAN'S MISSION (Elee. Tel. Copyright—United Proas Assn.) (Reed. Aug. 4, 2.40 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 3. Reports from Prague state that the Czech Prime Minister, Dr. Hodza, has postponed the negotiations with the Sudeten Germans pending working out a programme with Viscount Runciman. Parliamentary experts are taking up minority questions with the Sudeten Germans to-morrow. Lord Runciman, at a press conference in an hotel hall, decorated with national emblems from the swastika to the hammer and the sickle, appealed to the press for assistance in the very difficult talks to help make the world understand the Central European difficulties. He said that he was convinced, from 40 years of experience, that permanent peace, security and tranquility was only possible on a basis of mutual content. The Prague correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says it is authoritatively stated that the Czechs are prepared to make big concessions at cost to Czech interests, but it was useless to ask the concession of territorial autonomy, which would mean the loss of the Sudeten German area to Germany and the end of Czechoslovakia's independence, militarily and economically. The Czechs would rather fight against most terrible odds than Jose the independence, recovered after four centuries. A Berlin message states that the sensational headlines and angry comment accompany reports in the German press that two Czech military planes flew over the fortified town of Glatz. The Diplomatic Correspondent comments that Lord Runciman's primary task is to penetrate "Czech trickery and camouflage" anrl see things as they really are. "British history offers examples of peace being saved by timely recognition of the right of' self-determination," says the journal.