Evening star., 1936-09-04

premier are not guarded by soldiers
or police.
The heavy wooden gates are opened
by porter dressed in a pair of baggy
trousers and a has been" sky-blue
frock coat. When asked about the
whereabouts of his excellency, he re-
plies grufly, He must be upstairs on
the first floor"
On the landing of the first floor a
tall servant, who either does not pos
sess tie or wears 1t only on special
solemn occasions, meets you with a
grin. The most pleasant and friendly
grin ever saw. sit down and read
paper. He has gone out, but he
won't be long" And a few minutes
later he re-enters the waiting room
with the same pleasant smile: There
he is: I knew he would not be long"
Like Benes, Hodza speaks good Eng
lish, He has the face of a fighter.
Dark rk-complexioned and square -jawed,
he does not care about formaltieS or
Introductory conversations. He ad-
mires President Roosevelt because he
believes he is sincere in his desire to
help the underdog; and, strangely
enough, although he is not minister
of foreign affairs, he knows all about
Mr.. Hull'S life ambition to bring about
peace in the world by facilitating the
exchange of goods between countries
and by starting again the much
clogged wheels of international trade.
Evolution Best Way.
THE world is in full revolution just
at present." said Hodza. The Span
1ards are having theirs in a bloody
way because they did not have it in
1789. You, like us, are having it by
way of economic and social evolution.
1t is the best way, but it requires in
telligent and patient nations to do it,"
The Czech premier does not conceal
his concern over the possibilities Of
international complications as a re-
suit of the Spanish trouble. The pres
ent European tension, he believes. is
the inevitable consequence OF years
of short-sighted policies on the part
of the so-called statesmen of Europe.
ing every available cent and are de-
voting their energies and their in
ventive spirit to war preparation, are
now on top and it would be unwise not
to recognize this fact.
But the premier does not believe
that the Central Powers intend or
will have to fight in order to achieve
whatever purpose they may have in
mind. He is inclined to believe that
the present aggressive attitude of
Italy and Germany is prompted more
by diplomatic than military purposes
and that before the strength of the
guns and the airplanes of the COM
bined Italo-German forces the other
European powers will meet at another
conference to examine some new de-
mands of the two fighting partners
Hitler and Mussolini.
Czechoslovakia might manage, if
she minds her own business and keeps
in the shadow as much as possible,
to escape the consequences of Europe's
political troubles. Small nations as a
rule have to pay in the end for the
broken glass.
3,5O0,000 Germans Problem.
And Czechoslovakia has plenty Of
trouble of her own. Leaving out the
economic and the financial troubles
over which her leaders have no con-
troll, the present administration is
confronted with the question of the
3,500,000 citizens of German origin.
When the republic was definitely
established in 1919, the Slavs, who did
not have all the liberties they wanted
under the Hapsburg empire, became
drunk" with liberty. And possibly
because they remembered the hard
ships they had to go through when
they refused for several centuries
to be Germanized, they applied
the same methods to the Ger
man elements in Czechoslovakia. As