Evening star., 1938-09-04
SUDETENS NEVER
PART OF GERMANY
Region Was Included in
Ancient Kingdom of
Bohemia.
BY HARRY T. MONTGOMERY,
Associated Press Stan Writer.

Associated Press Stan Writer.
NEW YORK, Sept. 3.-The Sudeten
Germans Of Czechoslovakia. for whose
protection" many in Europe fear
Adolf Hitler may resort to armed force,
never have been a part of the modern
German state.
But neither have they been willing
citizens of the Czechoslovak republic,
to which the World War settlement
allotted them. Restive ever since that
settlement, their claims have come to
be Europe's greatest anxiety since Hit
Ter and his Sudeten lieutenant, Konrad
Henlein, rose to power.
The Sudeten Germans assert nearly
all the 3.500,000 German-speaking
citizens Of Czechoslovakia follow their
banners.
They are Germanic people who
have lived for centuries around the
horseshoe which now is the German
Csechoslovak border land. Both Ger
mans and Czechs assert they were
there first. Germans says they came
even before the Slavic migrations of
the 5th and 9Th centuries; Czechs say
the Germans came merely as colonists.
Formerly in Bohemian Kingdom.
The Sudeten region was in the an
cient kingdom of Bohemia and at the
outbreak of the World War Bohemia
was a part of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. The war provided the Czechs
with an opportunity to attain inde-
pendence after being subject people
for nearly 300 years.
The Czechoslovak republic was pro-
claimed in the United States in 1918
by Czech and Slovak exiles working
together. N October of that year
Czechs and Slovaks in Europe severed
relations with Austria and Hungary
and the frontiers of the new state were
fixed by the peace treaties Of st. Ger
main, Versailles and Trianon.
At the peace conference the Czechs
and Slovaks claimed the historic
frontiers of the Bohemian crown
Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian
Silesia. The conference granted the
claim for strategic and economic
reasons.
For strategical reasons the boundary
was fixed at the Sudetic Mountains
in the north and the Ores Mountains
on the south, two halves of today's
horseshoe The peace conferees
thought this mountain barrier neces-
sary for protection against invasion.
Rich industries There.
An economic consideration was that
the Sudeten German region were rich
industries the statesmen at Versailles
felt necessary for the new country's
existence.
The Germans of the region unsuc-
cessfully tried to attach themselves to
the new Austrian republic-now part
of Germany-protesting against what
they termed violation "of the Will
sorian principle of self determination
They demanded a plebiscite or sub
mission of the matter to international
arbitration, but the peace conference
turned them down.
The conference did require the new
state to promise ito protect the in
terests of inhabitants of that state
(Czechoslovakia) who differ from the
ma jority OF the population In race,
language or religion"
The Germans did not participate
in the drawing up of the new states
constitution on February 20, 1920. The
constitution promised equal civic and
political rights, liberty and respect OF
religious confession and freedom OF
the press and public assembly.
The constitution further guaranteed
minorities complete liberty in use of
their own language in private and
business concerns and equal cultural
and educational rights.
Often Complained to League.
Since then the Sudeten Germans
often have complained to the League
of Nations that their minority rights
had been violated.
In 1922 the German parties in
Czechoslovakia split into two groups,
working front" including German
Agrarians and Christian Socialists,
VINO favor cooperation with the gov
ernment, and fighting front" COM
posed of German Nationalists and Ma
tional Socialists who held to a policy
of non-co-operation.
This latter group, called negatlVlsts,
in 1884, year after Adolf Hitler had
come to power in Germany, formed
the Sudeten German party of today.
They merged with the new German
Heimatfront, cultural association
headed by Konrad Henlein, until then
leader of the German turnverband, or
gymnastic federation.
At the next election, on May Is,
1885, the party surprised the country
by polling 674 per cent Of the total
German vote. The party continued to
grow and in municipal elections, last
May and June, it polled more than
80 per cent of the German vote IN
Czechoslovakia.
The 3.500,O00 Germans in Czecho-
slovakias population of 100000
form, except for the Ukrainians in
Poland, the largest minority in Europe.
No Racial Boundary.
There is no exact lingual or racial
border between the Sudeten German
regions and the rest of Czechoslovakia.
Wherever the line between Germany
and Czechoslovakia might be drawn,
there would be a minority on one or
both sides of the border. The Peace
Conference after the World War
thought the mountain range the best
answer.
But Germany and the followers Of
Henlein do not agree with this. They
want autonomy for the Sudeten Ger
mans, putting forward a long list of
cultural, economic and political griev-
ances.
The fight is old and deep-rooted.
Last February 20 Hitler told his
Reichstag he was the protector" of
100000 Germans" neighboring on
Germany's borders-''those people Of
German origin who are not in a posi-