Evening star., 1925-04-12
PRAGUE, STORM CENTER
OE EUROPE, is UNSHAKEN
Her Factories Busy, Czech Capital Pre-
sents Solid Front to British
Boundary Maneuvers.
BT FRANK m. sIMONDs.

NJ FHANh n SGMONDS.
~ @RAGUE.-Perhaps on the sam,
principle that insures calm a.
the heart of a cyclone, Prague
i in the very center of Europe
is impressive in its lack OF
disturbance. On every side of this
relatively tiny state, in area r. little
moro than New York State and In
population still a, shade more. there
is trouble. On the north there is
Germany, with still unknown pur-
pose; on the south Hungary, with the
determination never to accept the
treaty decisions as final; on the west
2. tattered remnant of Austria, sink
ing perhaps to German annexation
finally, on the east there is Poland
with many of the same dangers as
Czechoslovakia, but also with certain
grievances, which separate the two
Slav nations.
Geek Factories Busy,
To add to the problems of Czech
craftsmanship, there are various
3 minorities, German, Hungarian. Ru-
thenian, to say nothing of the Slovak
partner, who pun anything but evenly
at times. Yet the Czech, who is run
ming affairs, is calm. He is not only
calm, but he is busy. His factories
which once constituted so per cent
of the machine power of the old Haps-
burg empire, are going strong; his
currency has remained stable for
nearly two years; his unemployment
IL sv no means excessive. And his
CapIiaI city has all the air of being
the center of a prosperous and quite
settled community.
All things considered, Czechoslo-
vakia owes much to the possession OF
. ha Mt
who, in a certain sense, made the
Czech dream of independence a real
ity, and to Benes, the foreign minister
VINO has been the outstanding figure
In Geneva sessions for several years
and could. perhaps, be accurately
described as the largest statesman
any small country has produced since
the war. And to the possession OF
these two men is due, too, some
thing of the confidence with which
this small state looks over wide
strung frontiers upon a troubled
continent.
BeRes' Views Clear.
The moment when 1 was in Prague
was interesting, because 1t coincided
with the close OF the Geneva citing
and the high point in the European
discussion OF the German offer of Sc
curity to France, which had set all
Europe by the ears and opened the
sharpest kind of discussion of the
whole question of European from
tiers, of Eastern and Western guar
rantees, and, above all, of the ques-
tion of French relations with her two
allies, Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Now what was the Czech view at
the moment? Benes was at Paris,
but the views he was presenting
were singularly well known at his
capital In the first place Czecho-
slovakia looked with certain
amount of academic disapproval on
the German proposals, which were
identified with Britain quite 8 much
as with Germany. The protocol which
Chamberlain had just rejected was
In considerable degree Benes' own
creation. He had presented 1T at
Geneva last September and displayed
no little pride of authorship. More
over the protocol was, after a man
ner, a sort of new charter for all
Europe; it gave a collective guaran-
tee of all nations to the security of
each, without regard to locality.
But the German proposal, made as
IL was with British appreciation,
raised anew the question Of East and
West. The Germans, in effect, Of
takings TO regard a. final the deci-
sions of the peace conference so far
as they affected all the country from
the German Ocean TO Switzerland
that is, all the frontiers which Ger
many had in common with Holland,
France, Belgium, Luxembourg and
Switzerland. Italy, too, was invited
TO join the arrangement, so that 1t
might be assumed that Germany was
also prepared to guarantee Italian
frontiers, which might become in
annex Austria.
Had Designs on Border.
BY the same token. however, Ger
MANY limited herself to proposing g
more treaties of arbitration with Po-
land and choslovakia, which
might, and indeed would, have to be
Interpreted as meaning that Germany
had decided expectations of one day
modifying Polish frontiers and of
escaping the existing veto of Aus
trian union with Germany-it might
even be regarded as a suggestion
that some day the matter Of the
German minority in Czechoslovakia
might be reopened.
warsaw Saw Threat.
have already described in ar
earlier article that this German
gesture, which was emphasized by
direct German proposal to Poland fol
remaking of frontiers, excited great
apprehension and excitement in War
saw, since Poland felt itself menaced
by new partition. Prague was
much Calmer because, in the frs1
place, II did not regard the mat
ter of Austria as of present impor-
tance. Austrian union with German!
would be dangerous thing for
Czechoslovakia, because 1t would al
most encircle the little Slav state
with German territory, but the
Czechs considered the whole project
as impossible of present realization
And the same was equally true OF
the issue of German minorities within
their own frontiers.
As to Poland, the Czechs look with
certain skepticism upon the ultimate
ability of the Poles to hold the cor
rfdor against Germany or the east
ern frontier against Russia. AS tc
the latter, they are not Interested
although they would doubtless advise
tho Poles to make sweeping con-
cessions when the time should arrive
that there was a real Russia AS to
the former, the Czechs recognize thai
PolAnQ Will not yIclO, b'ihb NSA iii ON'a :
sannot take the corridor without
a war, in which she would have tc
raise an army far in excess of what
is permitted under the treaty of Yer
saiHes, thus insuring French inter
Vsntion.
Thus, to put the thing quite badly
the Anglo-German project-for. as
say, the responsibility is thus divided
tho project of permanence in the