Evening star., 1938-08-14

spondent. The 1Driter is on q leisurely
automobile trip enabling him to study
the people and. underlying social and
political forces, that started in the
Italian Tyrol and that ,piH take him
through Csechoslopakia. Germany, Po-
land. the Baltic states and Russia.)
BY JUNIUS B. WOOD.
~ RAGUE. Aug. 13 (N.AN.A).-As my
- car approached the former Austrian
frontier, now German, looked for
soldiers ready to invade Czecho-
slovakia. I was on the German side. None
was there, on roads or lettering - the viii
lagos, as always is the case when troops
are in a neighborhood That means moth
ing, as Germany. with its motorized equip
ment, could bring thousands overnight and
have them pouring over the border before
daylight.
On the Czech side, it was different
platoons marching on the roads, wagon
trains of supplies soldiers in the nearby
villages and officers with maps penciling
and squirting as if they were planning a
campaign. Big piles of brush and occa-
sionally dozen stumps on alternate sides
of the road obstruct the view and force a
car to wind slowly in and out. but these
would not stop tank. Concrete pill boxes
on the hills and other camouhaged de-
fenses are less noticeable, but more busi-
nesslike. The car rolls on toward Prague,
the soldiers become fewer and fewer
On the palace-crowned hill in the capi-
tai. President Eduard Benes and Prime
Minister Milan Hodza are meeting daily
with the cabinet and hearing delegations
from the country's numerous nationalities.
The French minister drives up twice day
to give advice. London sends a special
envoy Lord Runciman, to offer more adj
vice The Soviet Union, the Czechs' de-
pendable ally must be consulted. Poland
and the Little Entente are also factors, and
Germany lets hardly day pass without
speech or radio warning of what must be
done for its Sudeten party in Czechoslo-
vakia.
Populace Wakes Fat.
The newspapers print the turgid fulmina-
tons from Germany and 'it Is believed"
reports of what is developing on the hill.
The public sits in the cafes and reads
voraciously. but appears no more excited
about the low-hanging war clouds than are
readers in Denver who have the same re-
ports. Fat men and women are not get
ting wrinkles in anticipation of wartime
food rationing. Prague has more food
shops. restaurants and book stores than
any other city of its sze-"eat, drink and
read" Is the local credo-and its sidewalks
quiver with ponderous, slow-moving testi-
monials to Pilsner beer and abundant food.
The open air coffee shops are crowded
every afternoon and the all-night cafes
start to fill up at 10 o'clock. A gypsy or
chestra is playing in one cafe while Czechs
and Sovaks sing their folksongs The Or
chestra swings into "Tipperary," the near
est I've heard to warlke note in Prague.
The capital may be gay but the serious
question is whether the Czechs will fight.
Even Germany admits that they will. The
Czechs will keep their frontiers where they
are or perish in the attempt If the Soviet
Union, France, Great Britain. the other
two members of the Little Entente or any
other nations help them, so much the bet
ter. If nobody makes stand with them,
they will do it alone, stubborn as a con-
crete post by nature, well-quipped and we'll
trained as soldiers.
The only permanent solution of the prob
rope into a general war is either to let the
Csechs keep what they have or to extermi-
nate 100000 Czechs. The latter method
was tried 300 years ago. and the crisis to-
day proves how it failed.
Differences Go Deep.
No matter what solution is reached by
the savants in Hradjany Palace on Prague's
hill or by the long distance deliberations of
Berlin. Paris. London and other capitals
1t will be merely temporary. working
agreement can relieve the tension, but the
differences go deeper.
Czechosovakia has two problems-first
its situation as the bridge between the
nations of Western and Eastern Europe
and, second, its own internal condition
The country's role on the world stage
goes back to the treaties of Versailles, Saint
GERMAN and Trianon, which charted a
path in which it should walk At that time
the new state was seen as a bulwark
against Bolshevik Russia and a counter
weight to France in keeping Germany pros
trate. How poorly the treaty makers saw
where this path would lead through the
pitfalls of changing world is shown by
the fact that Czechoslovakia. France and
the Soviet Union now are allies, and Ger
many is far from PROSTATE When I
IVES here 10 years ago, midway between
Versailles and today. Prague and Moscow
were snarling at each other, while Germany
and the Soviet Union. trade fourishing
were loving brothers. Friendships change
rapidly.
Czechoslovakia came into being not only
because the Czechs had dreamed, plotted
and fought for three centuries that their
Bohemia should be q nation again, but also
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