The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-02-24

re1chStag speech, III Wnlch ne arl- nounced a protectorate over 10,000,- 900 Germans who live in continental nations outside Germany, was high ly disagreeable.
 Outwardly all is peaceful and calm here in the capital of the last democracy in the Balkans. We'll dressed crowds promenade on the broad thoroughfares in the winter sunshine. Motion picture theaters and cafes are crowded. But the Czechs know that at any time the blow may fall on them just as it did on Austria.
 The government makes no attempt to minimize the gravity of the sit- uation. Gen. Ludwig Krejci, chief of the general staff, called ill the military correspondents of Prague newspapers and told them that the nation had to be prepared for "a brutal, quick attack without warn- ing, by motorized forces, assisted by an air force." He added that Czechoslovakia had to be prepared to fight alone for the first few days of the struggle, to give her allies time to mobilize.
 The German government has made no diplomatic representations to CZechoslovakia since Hitler's Reichstag speech, but the German minister did call at the foreign of- flee and inquire about the reaction of this government. He received the straightforward reply that the speech had made disagreeable im- presSion.
 Heretofore, the strongest the gov- ernment has gone in revealing it's policy, is an editorial, officially in- spired, which appeared in the gov- ernment newspaper, Prager Presse.
 It read:
 Not only Czechoslovakia but all other countries, whether close or distant neighbors of Germany, will resist with all means available the theory whereby Germany could claim the right to interfere in an- other country's internal affairs just because a German minority lives within its borders. Only one insti- tuition is competent to intervene in that respect and that is the League
 "It would certainly be wrong to assume that application of foreign intervention is a suitable means for bringing about the peaceful solution of the minorities problem and gen. eral political appeasement. The basis Of universal peace and inter- national law embodies the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of nations. Abandonment of that principle would be the end of law and order and the beginning of revolution. It would disorganize the relations between states and ul- timately lead to chaos in interna- tional relations"
 Disregarding the 3,500000 Czecho- slovakian citizens of German birth -60 per cent of whom are Sympa- thetic to the Nazis-there is pas sionate attachment to the tenets of democracy in this nation. More particularly, it is an attachment to the American conception of demo- cracy.
 In Prague, the principal railway station, hotel and street are named for Woodrow Wilson. Other streets are named for Washington and Herbert Hoover. You can buy 'Lindbergh Cocktail" in the cafes
 Czechs have made the Central Flu ropean crisis the principal topic o1 conversation in the cafes where they sip their beer. Newspapers post their front pages on bulletin boards and crowds always are clus- tered around them.
 I learned that the government is watching with considerable anxiety the change in the British cabinet fearing it means 8 weakening oi British moral support for Czechoslo. vakia in event of German pressure There have been significant signs in the last few months that Great Britain's attitude is changing anc that London would like to see Cze. choslovakia show more compliant attitude toward Hitler. Some ob. servers here interpret these signs t( mean that the British government thinks if Germany's sphere of in. fluence is permitted to expand east. ward through Danubian Europe Berlin's demands for return of Afri. can colonies would be less inSistent Tomorrow:-How the Czechs ari handling the 3,500,000 Germans ir their country)