Evening star., 1938-10-11
By JOHN T. WHITAKER,

day period allowed to Germany by
the Munich time table, which arranged
the four zones of Nazi occupation,
Czechoslovakia today remains a state
fighting in last effort for independ-
ence
With the four frontier zones once
entered, the Germans completed yes
terday, the occupa ton of other regions,
including those in which. according to
the Munich plan, plebiscites were to
have been held.
These regions which are auphemis-
tically called the fifth zone, are larger
in area than the original four zones
together. They give Reichsfuehrer
Adolf Hitler much more than twice
what Prime Minister Neville Chamber
lain proposed.
BY arbitrarily using the 1910 census,
the Germans were able to draw the
fifth zone so that, after devastating
the Notifications systems and taking
over coal and other mines, and per-
haps half the timber, Hitler has now
cut IA of the principal railways Of
this little country whose only exit now
Is through Germany.
Only 116 Germans.
The occupation of Policka, the
southernmost German seizure. above
Brunn, is typical. Policka has only
1l6 Germans, most Of them Jews, out
of a population Of 1000. Yet by in
voking the 1910 census and by their
military might the Germans were able
to take the whole town except less
than 100 workers homes, a cemetery
and theater. What is more important
than the 116 Germans, who are des-
tined for concentration camps, Po-
licka has a munitions factory, and its
heights command the valley toward
sNrunn
This is the kind of German ad-
Sance which is being dictated to the
Nechs, whose three delegates, who
;$sw to Berlin on Sunday, are not so
much negotiating as receiving orders
which all Czechoslovakia now knows
must be carried out, whether they be
mere demand for the dismissal of
President Eduard Benes or for the
cession of further areas.
Hemmed in now so that no mill
tary resistance would be possible even
if Hitler drove on to Prague, the
people wait in grief which is truly
tragic. Soldiers who never had a
chance to fight are being demobilized
Soldiers Are Bitter.
have given rides to dozens of such
soldiers, and some of them pointed
contemptuously to their shiny new
rifles-the Czechs had the best
equipped army in the world-others
asked me if it was possible that the
Americans could have behaved as the
French and British. All agreed that
they now had become the slaves of
Germany when they could have won
the war they were willing to fight,
though the whole country would have
been destroyed. One said: Better
to rebuild a destroyed country, in
liberty, than to be choked to death
in slavery"
While the military are coming back,
the roads also are full Of the saddest
spectacle which has endured through
the centuries-the slow, prodding pro-
cession of refugees which trails after
all conquerors, whether they be Alex
anders or bloodless Hitlers. But here
are refugees with no place to 60.
Believing that there would be
plebisctes as agreed upon by Cham
berlain and Hitler, the Czechs sent as
many refugees as possible back into
the areas now embraced by the fifth
zone. Their police even now are told
to turn them back when they try to
slip past the Germans into Czecho-
sovakia again.
Large concentration camps already
have been established by the Nazis,
1t is understood. at Fischern, near
Karlsbad, and also at Thun Castle.
near Teschen. and nothing Is more
pitiful than the refugees 1 have seen
here in Prague, pleading with the
Czech authorities that If they return
to German areas they will summarily
be executed, beaten to death or i'm
prisoned for life.
Helpless Before Germans.
ran over such mana Sudeten
al-Democrat-whos stepped in front
of my car. His head was badly cut,
but when l insisted not only in taking
him to hospital but in giving the
police full record of the accident he
pleaded "the police will be compelled
to send me back and l will be beaten
to death" He explained, this mild,
reasonable little Socialist, that the
Czech authorities had no choice. IF
too many Sudeten German refugees
collected in Prague Hitler would use
that as an excuse to take the capital
city over, too
Helpless before any German de-
mands, the Czechs are terrified by the
necessity to clear the country of Aus
trian and German refugees. This has
led to wild reports such as that the
Germans have given the Czechs until
noon today to hand over all Austrian
and German political refugees.
For this reason the Czechs were
much encouraged on Monday when
Neill Malcolm. refugee commissioner,
arrived. They hope that instead of
being compelled to hand over thou
sands of political foes of Nazism who
are certain to be killed, they can
explain that the refugee is an inter-
national problem and that the Ger
mans must treat with an international
commission.
The arrival of the Lord Mayor OF
London and members Of the British
Legion, which was to have supervised
the plebiscite which is now preposter-
Gus, brings no equal enthusiasm, how
ever. These tall, sleek, well-groomed
Englishmen dominate two hotel lob
bies. The Czechs look at them with
narrowed eyes, and though the most
courteous Of people, they now speak
with frank dislike of what they call
the Britishers' patronizing airs.
tCopyright, 1888, Chicago Daily News)
Mercury Off for Natal.
CAPETOWN, South Africa, Oct. II.
The British pickaback seaplane Mer-