Evening star., 1937-02-07
D. FEBRUARY 937-PART TWO
FEAR OF WARS START
In PRAGUE DISPELLED
Materials for Rebellion on German
Model Simply Do Not Exist,
Saws Visitor.

But dismissal Of these rumorS does |
not dismiss the problem Of the Ger |
mans in Bohemia. Even Henlein |
admits that the Germans of Slovakia |
are better of than they were under the
Hungarians who ruled them till the |
end Of the wary In Bohemia the Ger
mans are only third of the popula.
tion. For 800 years they were on top
and the Czechs were underneath, and |
they could hardly be expected to enjoy |
a reversal Of the situation. For some |
years after the war they all refused
to cooperate with the new government,
but since 1925 some Of the German
parties have been represented in the
coalition cabinets which must always |
be formed, in this land of small parties.
There remained German radical Ma.
tionalists who refused to cooperate,
election Of May, 1885, when the
SdP, which had superseded the older
parties, won A of the 800 seats in the
Chamber Of Deputies.
A leader of one of the German gov
ernment parties has observed: Three
things made the SdP-Hitler, hard
times and the mistakes Of the Czechs."
Hard times were particularly hard on
the Germans of Bohemia because most
Of them live in industrial districts pro-
ducing for the export trade, which has
just lately begun to pick up again after
years Of decline. dGermany's policy
Of self-suff1ciency was partly respon-
sible for the decline, but the SdP
does not say much about that)
Situation Badly Handled.
The government was not to blame
for this, but it handled the situation
badly. German districts seem to have
got their fair share Of relief funds,
but German firms got few Of the
government contracts which helped
to keep business going; and when the
government started q public works
program to relieve unemployment.
most of the contracts in German dis
tricts went to Czech firms, which
were able to underbid by employing
Czech workmen at lower wages.
These are genuine grievances. even
if the SdP has exaggerated them.
It has not been able to make out q
case in the matter of minority cul'
tural rights; German Language schools
in districts with a German ma iority
are supported by the government. as
is q German university. Wherever
there are 20 per cent of Germans in
a community they may use their own
language in the courts, and their
votes naturally control the city and
communal governments in. districts
where they have a majority.
In proportion to their numbers,
however, they are badly underrepre-
sented in the civil service (Which in
cludes railroads.. This is partly their
own fault; at first their refusal to CO.
operate compelled the government to
use Czechs everywhere, and German
disinclination to learn the difficult
Czech language has made it hard for
them to qualify. But the presence Of
Czech postmen and ticket agents in
German districts is the sort Of an
noyance that can make more trouble
than more serious grievances.
The SdP makes much of these COM
plants, but just what 1t proposes to
do about them is still obscure, even
after you have talked to its leaders by
the hour. Henlein has denied any de-
sire to import Fascism, any hostility
IN ln,,,orro ~, or m fbo Cfota Ye IN.
sists that the Germans do not want
to be treated as "second-class citi-
zens," which is reasonable enough.
But his more recent speeches echo a
good many Hitlerite phrases, and he
says the state should be federation
Of nationalities, not q society OF in
dividuals. His demand that "our
racial frontiers must be respected"
seems to mean actual political au-
tonomy for the predominantly Ger
man districts.
No State Within a State.
But this would cure few Of the
Germans real grievances and would
be impossible anyway. A map of the
districts with German majorities,
mostly along the northern and west
ern borders of Bohemia. looks like
slice Of orange peel. They could never
be organized as single State, and
even If they could be, what would
happen to the half million Czechs who
live among these Germans, and to the
million Germans WHO live outside in
districts with q Czech majority?
President Benes put his foot down
hard on this demand in Q recent
speech at Liberec (Reichenberg) de-
claring he would not tolerate q state
within a state, and adding that the
government could not give responsible
posts in its service to Fascists or to
Communists, whether they were
Czechs or Germans.
Like all radical parties, the SdP
draws good deal Of its strength from
people who had been so hard hit by
the depression that they were ready
to try anything; better times may cool
them down. Last November's local
elections, in about one-third of the
country, showed slight recession in
the SdP vote. If this Is trend it Is
still a faint one; but If the govern
ment continues its present policies,
it LOOKS as if the SdP has passed its
peak.
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Newspaper Alliance. Incl