HEALING RIFT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19886, 13 March 1939, Page 5

HEALING RIFT

PRAGUE EFFORTS NEW SLOVAK CABINET HOPES OF COMPROMISE APPEAL FOR LOYALTY AUTONOMY SUGGESTIONS (Eire. Tel. Copyright—United Press Asan. (Reed. March 13, 10 a.m.) LONDON, March 12. A radio broadcast from Bratislav yesterday announced the overthrow o the provisional Slovak Governmen after an existence of 12 hours and als< the retreat of Czech troops am gendarmes. The Czechs were accuse; of attempting to install an unconstilu tional military dictatorship. M. Sidor has 'been released and it i anounced he is acting in the forma tion of. it new Government, enablin; a compromise. It is announced in Prague that Dr Hacha has appointed a Cabinet unde: the premiership of M. Karol Sidor. It is reliably stated in Prague tha a plan to declare an independen Slovak State existed but was drop ped when Germany approved of thi new Government and a Cabinet h which M. Sokol would be Minister o the Interior, and M. Sival Minister o Education. M. Sidor had earlier declared tha the crisis between the Czechs an( Slovaks would be settled in 24 hour on the basis of autonomy for the Slovaks. M. Tiso, the deposed Pre-

mier, and the Slovak Parliamentary executive had submitted a list of a Slovak 'Cabinet to the Czech President, Dr. Hacha, and M. Sidor had appealed to the Hlinka Guards to accord him loyalty. Czech troops are reported to be concentrating in East Moravia, near the Slovak border. Bratislava was reported quiet this morning and life was proceeding normally. 'Hlinka Guards seized a small ammunition depot. 'Martial law was enforced in two communes. A Slovak delegation is going to Prague from Bratislava to discuss the question of a new Cabinet.. Herr Kundt has issued a statement that Germany's advice to Prague is to step carefully. Ten thousand people gathered in Bratislava in order to celebrate the anniversary of the Anschluss. Herr Karmasin, the leader of the German minority, declared his solidarity with the Slovaks. The city was restless. Shots were fired and Jewish shops were raided. M. Sivak cabled from Rome refusing the Slovak Premiership and demanding the withdrawal of Czech troops from Bohemia and Moravia. Slovak extremists and Germans regard M. Tiso as the only possible Premier. German sources report that Czech soldiers occupied the Nazi headquarters at Kaesmark. Notification of dismissal and warrants for arrest were simultaneously presented to the Slovak Ministers on Friday. Czech troops confiscated thousands of rifles and huge quantities of ammunition at the Hlinka Guard headquarters at Bratislava on Friday afternoon. WATCH IN BRITAIN CZECH CABINET'S ACTION DAILY PRESS COMMENT (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Mar. 11 The situation in Czechoslovakia is being closely watched in London. The Times says that the firm manner in which the Czech President, Dr. Emil Hacha, has dealt with the separatist movements seems significantly to show that he is master of his own house and capable of dealing with the disaffection without any need for foreign assistance in his task. The Daily Telegraph says that '<~ the onlooker, it is not easy to understand what Slovakia can possibly hope to gain by separatism. Whatever grievances she may have had under the pre-Munich regime must have been removed, it would have been thought, by the grant of complete autonomy which she now enjoys. As a small country with 2,000,000 inhabitants, she can have no prospect of standing alone. Complete independence would expose her to exploitation, if not absorption by one or the other of her powerful neighbours from whom she could expect none of the benevolence moled out to her by her Czech elder brother. The Czechs have given \inmistakoablc proof 'of their determination to keep order in the house left them by the Munich agreement.