CZECH ARMY OF 50,000 MEN

Southland Times, Issue 23922, 14 September 1939, Page 5

CZECH ARMY OF 50,000 MEN

Mobilization Order

In France

DR BENES AT HEAD OF “GOVERNMENT”

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received Septembei’ 13, 10.10 p.m.) LONDON, September 13. The Czech headquarters in Paris is forming an independent national army, under its own flag and its own officers, says the Paris correspondent of The Times. A general mobilization order will be issued to all Czechs of military age; disobedience will be tantamount to desertion.

It "is estimated that 50,000 men can be raised.

General Ingre, a capable soldier who commanded Czech legions in the last war, has been appointed Minister for

War in a provisional Czech Government under Dr Eduard Benes, the former President. M. Osusky, the former Czech Ambassador to Paris, is Foreign Minister, and the Minister of Finance is M. Outrata.

The Paris radio station reports that the Czechs in France are expected to constitute two divisions, and that this is based on a framework of 600 officers and non-commissioned officers who fled from Czechoslovakia in March. CONSUL AT PRAGUE HELD PRISONER AMERICAN NEGOTIATIONS FOR EVACUATION AMSTERDAM, September 13. It is learned that the British Consul at Prague, and members of his staff and their families, numbering 16, are held prisoner in the Ambassadors’ Hotel at Prague. A hotel porter reported that they are all well. It is understood that the American Consul is negotiating for their evacuation to a neutral country.