Evening star., 1939-03-15
Hitler Marches On

IL Tile alCIllCeCCS OF Cne peace OF
Munich" fancied they were sowing
the seeds Of appeasement in Central
and Southeastern Europe, breath
taking developments of the hour are
bringing them swift and devastating
disillusionment. AS they survey the
map today, they are brought to the
painful realization that what they
planted in September were, in fact,
dragons teeth-teeth which have
over night sprouted to the destruction
of Czecho-Slovakia and enthroned
Adolf Hitler as master of the Cont
nent from the Baltic to the Black
I Sea-
Moving with the stealth and rapid
ity which characterized the seizure
OF Austria, almost exactly one year
/ previous, Germany has decreed the
secession of Slovakia from the CEN
tral government at Prague, ordained
its establishment as an ''independ-
ent" state, taken over Bohemia and
Moravia, and in effect annexed to
the Nazi Reich all of the country that
was supposedly insulated against
further spoliation after Germans,
Poles and Hungarians in turn helped
themselves generously at its expense
last fall.
While these cyclonic events were
crystallizing,. Hungarian, Polish and
Rumanian troops invaded Car
patho- Ukraine, easternmost flank
of Czecho- -Slovakia. Then, as the
final link in an incredible chain of
coups, Emil Hacha, president of the
disintegrating republic, turned up in
Berlin, cap in hand, to plead with
Hitler for German protectorate
over nation suddenly fallen apart
step equivalent to asking that Bo-
hemla and Moravia virtually be ac-
cepted as German colonies, for Hitler
to have and to hold as Nazi vassals.
AS a result of Hacha's proposals, Ger
many planned today to carry out
military occupation of the Czech
provinces. Who will be permitted by
Hitler to retain Carpatho- Ukraine is
not yet clear.
Until there is time to fathom the
magnitude of this supreme Nazi grab
for territory and power, speculation
over its consequences is idle. That
these are bound to be far reaching is
undeniable. That the only powers
that could possibly upset them
Great Britain, France and Russia
will risk war to balk Hitler is un-
thinkable. Indeed, Prime Minister
Chamberlain has, hastened to assure
Parliament that. the breakup of
Czecho-Slovakia calls for no action
by Britain. Automatically that ap-
plies to France, too. The Soviet re-
mains incalculable and apparently
paralyzed The democracies offered
at Munich to guarantee the frontiers
OF the truncated state, provided
Germany and Italy joined in the
undertaking, but the dictatorships
for reasons of their own never took
steps to implement such a pledge.
The result is that the little free
nation brought into the world at
Versailles twenty years ago under
the godfatherhood of the United
States, among others, is today in
ruins, friendless, forsaken and
helpless another captive harnessed
to the Nazi chariot.
Hitler seems once again to have
caught Europe asleep at the switch.
Apart from his Systematically pro-
noted program to expand the
Reich toward the East-the grain
and oil of Rumania, the food
stuffs and raw materials of the
Ukraine-the Fuehrer is said to
have determined to move aggres-
sively in the 1des of March for yet
another reason. To him is attributed
the desire to show the democracies.
including this country, that they
indulge in self-delusion in thinking
Germany is over-awed by British and
French rearmament, plus American
moral support and material aid. To
the Fuehrer, too, is ascribed the wish
to convince the Central European
states, notably Rumania and Hun
gary, which recently ventured to
suppress Nazi subversive forces,
that far from having hauled down
the flag of aggression, Germany "has
just begun to fight; and that demo-