Foreign News: Maximum Concessions

Citizens of Prague finally began stocking their private larders against war last week, quietly and without panic made larger & larger purchases of canned meat, condensed milk, sugar, candles, in the historic old capital’s famed delicatessen shops.

Every Czechoslovak knew that each day masses of Germans at Nürnberg, as many as 250,000 in a single audience, were bellowing cheers at each fresh threat by a German leader against the Czechoslovak Republic (see p. 19). So hot was this roaring menace that all over Czechoslovakia it drove political opponents to take refuge in a common patriotism.

At Prague, the whole Catholic clergy and a surging procession of more than 10,000 escorted through the streets their 300-year-old palladium, a sacred portrait of the Virgin which by tradition protects the nation. As all the church bells of Prague pealed, the Catholics chanted, “God preserve our Fatherland!”

Czechoslovak Communists staged their Prague rally on a tiny island in the Vltava. So many thousands went that people who found no room on the island stood in overflow masses on each bank. In ringing tones No. 1 Czechoslovak Communist Klement Gottwald denounced “Swastika Imperialism!” and quite ignored the fact that Czechoslovak Reds were once sworn foes of the Republic. “We will defend our Republic until the last!” keynoted Comrade Gottwald. “You may all be sure that you will never see the Swastika banner waving above Hradcany Castle!”

In Hradcany Castle, ancient stronghold on the heights of Prague, Czechoslovak President Eduard Benes faced the crisis of his career. Fortnight ago the “maximum concessions” which the Czechoslovak Government believed it possible to make to Sudeten Germans without shattering its own sovereignty were offered in Premier Milan Hodza’s “Plan No. 3,” which Hitler promptly had the Sudetens turn down. The President then took over from the Premier, drafted and released:

“Plan No. 4.” Premier Hodza in Plan No. 3 offered to reshape Czechoslovakia into a federation of Gaue or cantons like the Swiss Federal State, thus giving the Sudeten Germans and other minorities “states’ rights.”

Plan No. 4 added to this last week both financial and political concessions. President Benes offered to lend a billion Czechoslovak koruny ($35,000,000) “on the most favorable terms” to stimulate industry in Czechoslovak districts now suffering from unemployment, with 700,000,000 koruny earmarked for Sudeten districts. Britain and France stood ready to lend this money to Czechoslovakia, it was understood in Prague, and Dr. Benes clearly hoped many observers of the Sudeten Germans had been right in reporting recently that what they want is a return to prosperity, not Germany.

Plan No. 4 went further than Plan No. 3 in offering Sudeten Germans and other minority peoples State jobs (including “irremovable judgeships”) in the same proportion as their numbers bear to the total population of Czechoslovakia. Moreover, each ministry of the Czechoslovak Cabinet would have a separate “section” corresponding to each minority, and each section would be headed by a member of that minority to guard its interests. As the most fateful concession of Plan No. 4, Dr. Benes offered that in each minority canton the preservation of order should be “divided” between Federal gendarmerie in the countryside and town police of the Sudeten German or other minority faction.

“Horsewhipped” Nazi— In Germany, every paper printed atrocity stories describing how a Sudeten German Nazi Deputy had been “horsewhipped” by a Czech mounted policeman at the industrial town of Moravská Ostrava. Mounted police had tried to disperse a Sudeten German crowd which had gathered to demand immediate release from jail of 82 persons arrested for possessing arms smuggled from Germany. The prisoners were charged with preparing to organize an attack from the rear upon troops defending the Czechoslovak frontier in case of war. One blow from a riding crop was afterward proved to have struck, without injuring, a man who turned out to be a Sudeten Deputy. Next day the Czech mounted policeman responsible and two others were withheld from duty by Police Chief Baca, who then suspended himself for good measure. But by this time, German papers were well started on a flood of stories under such scareheads as SAVAGE HORSEWHIPPING OF SUDETEN DEPUTY BY BESTIAL CZECH OFFICER.

The No. 1 Sudeten, Konrad Henlein, was at Nürnberg with Hitler, but in Prague the No. 2 Sudeten, Ernst Kundt, tersely announced that “satisfactory amends” had been made at Moravská Ostrava and he then withdrew the Sudeten Party’s previous refusal to negotiate on the basis of Plan No. 4. Obviously they were tempted by the 700,000,000 koruny—for there are only 3,500,000 Sudeten Germans.

Benes Talks. Smart Dr. Benes, although relying on money to do some talking in a situation basically desperate, fully realized that Plan No. 4 impressed millions of Czechoslovaks, apart from the Sudeten Germans, as offering such extreme concessions that it imperiled the State. If accepted, Plan No. 4 risks turning every Cabinet ministry into a debating club of minority groups. How democratic Czech gendarmes and totalitarian Nazi po-ice can “divide” responsibility for keeping of order in Sudeten cantons was an unanswered question. In an impossible situation, under crushing British pressure to concede without limit, President Benes had conceded so much that he realized some of his own people were becoming scared. To reassure the nation, Dr. Benes went on the air with a calm, firm and tactful broadcast, only a few minutes after he learned that in a speech at Nürnberg General Göring had just gone out of his way to abuse the culture and traditions of the Czechoslovak Republic.

“Our democracy is proud of having always been a disciplined democracy,” President Benes told the nation. “I am talking to all of you—Czechs, Slovaks, Germans and all other nationalities . . . I believe the German people, as well as the Czechs, Slovaks and all others, desire to work together in quiet. . . . I have always been an optimist and my optimism today is greater than ever. I have an unshakable faith in the State, in its health, in its power, in its ability to withstand pressure, in its splendid army and in the unshakable spirit of the whole people. . . . I believe that on the basis of new proposals the Government will come to terms with all nationalities and will guarantee the Republic a future of prosperity. . . . Let us, then, stand firm.”