Evening star., 1939-06-23
Seven Explosive Elements
In Czech-Gern1un Relations
Bohemia -Morovio Recovering From
Shock, but Worst Is Yet to Come
By WALLACE r. DEUEL..

BY WALLACE r. DEUEL.,
chicaEo Daily News Foreign Correspondent.
PRAGUE, June 23.-Three months
after the Nazis struck down inde-
pendent Czecho-Slovakia and set up
the "protectorate" of Bohemia
Moravia, the Czech people are like
man who has been horribly
mangled by high explosive shell
and who is still badly she'll shocked
but who now is beginning to re-
cover.
The worst of the Czechs' suffering
is still to come. The initial shock,
the political ether which was given,
and the amputations which followed
numbed and paralyzed the people
They still hardly know what has
happened to them and what they
are going to do about it. But they
now are beginning to understand, to
feel the real pain and to react
against it.
Coming months in the protec-
torate are likely to be marked by
sharp and specific tragedies, symp-
tomato of the fundamental tragedy
from the Czech point of view
OF the destruction of Czecho-
Slovakia's independent existence.
German Rude Obnoxious.
There are seven main elements of
danger in the present situation here ::
l. The fact of German rule in
itself, no matter how admirably it
might be administered, is danger
GUS. For the overwhelming ma
jority Of Czechs bitterly resent Ger
man mastery and the way it was
imposed on them. They would want
their independence and would
struggle to regain it even if the
protectorate were governed as well
as the Kingdom of Heaven-which
it is not.
2. A second element of danger
is the policy which the Nazis call
restoration of the rights of Ger
many in Bohemia -Moravia and
which the Czechs call wreaking of
revenge on a helpless people.
During the brief 20 years of Czech
independence the Czechs perpe-
trated many injustices against the
Germans-that is, the Austrians-
in the country. the Nazis claim.
These alleged injustices now are
being made good" as the Nazis
put it.
The Czechs describe this process
in different terms: After the World
War, they say, they tried to set up
a sound and truly independent state.
This involved putting an end to
some of the privileges which the
Austrians had arrogated to them
selves during the 300 years they had
imposed their rule on the Czechs.
Now the NaziS are reclaiming all
these privileges, the Czechs say, ar
rogating new ones to themselves,
and taking revenge for their 20
years of mere" equality of status
with the Czechs by asserting with
redoubled force the claim to a
status of mastery over the Czechs.
Czech Nazi-ism" Dangerous.
3. The rise of Czech Nazi-ism"
under German rule has already
caused serious incidents in the pro-
tectorate and is likely to cause
more in the future.
There are at least two Czech
Nazi' factions here: The so-called
Fascists, led by Gen. R. Gajda, and
the Vlajka, savage extremist off
shoot of the Gajda party. The
Czech Nazis" are divided among
themselves and there is some doubt
as to where Gajda himself stands
and how he will emerge from the
present confusion. But the position
of the Blajka faction is clearer-it
has set out to overthrow the present
Czech puppet government and re-
place it with an out-and-out rabid
Nazi regime, and it stops at little
or nothing in pursuit of its aims.
The Czechs claim that the Ger
mans are encouraging Gen. Gajda
and the Vlajka in order to keep the
Czechs divided and provide pre-
text for harsher German rule. The
Germans deny this fatty. They say
that they neither want to divide the
Czechs nor cause disorder. Nor do
they need any pretext to do any,
thing they please here. they say.
At least this much seems to be
true, however: The Fascists were
given extremely short shrift under
the pre-Munich Czech republic and
their present success" is possible
only because the Czech authorities
are so much weaker now under
German rule than they were before,
and because the Czechs themselves
believe, rightly or wrongly, that the
Reich is behind the Fascists and the
Vlajka and will not allow them to be
dealt with firmly.
Won Neurath Not Powerful.
4. A fourth element of danger is
the fact that the protectorate really
is ruled primarily by the Sudeten
Germans and the Nazi secret police,
rather than by Reich-Protector
Baron Konstantin Won Neurath.
The secret police are using essen
TALLY the same methods here as they
used in the Reich itself. They are
not methods which are calculated to
endear Nazi rule to the Czechs.
As for the Sudeten Germans, they
have been catapulted overnight from
q position which they felt to be one
Of subjection to . people they