Evening star., 1945-08-27
Letters to The Star
Differs With Correspondents

View of Sudeten Germans
To the Editor Of The Star:
Thomas r. Henry, your foreign corre-
spondent, has cheerful and fippant
way Of describing tragedy whose pro-
Europe's Jewry under the Hitler regime.
Three and half million Sudeten Ger
mans, that is more men, women and
children than there were in the United
States at George Washington's time.
are, to use Mr.. Henry's dignifed express
sion. clicked back into the Germany
from which they, or even their ancestors
many generations ago, came"
The Sudeten Germans are just as
native in Bohemia and Moravia as are
the Czechs, and those who "immigrated"
many centuries ago did not come from
Germany, which did not exist, but at
the invitation of Bohemian kings from
other parts of the Holy Roman Empire
to which Bohemia belonged.
After the First World War, those three
and half million Sudeten Germans
who, as matter of fact, were German
speaking Austrians - unanimously de-
manded to be included in the new Aus
trian republic, claiming the Wilsonian
right of national self-determination.
However they and one million Magyars,
equally kicked back" at present, were
put under Czech rule, forming, together
with Slovaks Ruthenians and Poles,
the majority of the population and re-
IN "A 10 ,hot 1o,
half Of 1t. Yet the Czechs, invoking
the legitimacy Of a. revolution which
had never taken place, set up their DOM
ination, inventing the fiction (only re-
Gently exploded by the Soviets) of the
one Czechoslovak race. The unusual
precautions to protect the interests of
the minorities," to quote Mr.. Henry.
began with excluding the minorities
from the framing OF the constitution,
since otherwise rigid centralization
could not have been put in the place
Of race autonomy of the Swiss type,
which had been promised at the peace
conference.
In the two decades that ensued, Su-
deten Germans and Hungarians enjoyed
the status accorded to Negroes in the
United States. They had political rights,
but were strongly Disseminated against
by the Czech administration. Having
watched those developments as cor
respondent Of Swiss newspapers, I am
amused by Mr.. Henrys discovery that.
whilst the Czechs were split, the Sude-
ten Germans had no factions. In reality
there were more German parties in the
Czechoslovak Chamber than Czech ones.
When Hitler. by seizing little Austria,
had put Bohemia like nut in a crack
ing machine, the idea of collaboration
with the tyrant became rampant among
Czechs no less than among Sudeten
Germans, Half a year later, DR.. Benes
was unable to risk war with Germany
not because the west left him in the
lurch. but because the non-Czech mi
nority was unwilling to die for a state
that had treated them as second-class
citizens. Having nominated collabora-
tionst cabinet, Benes resigned and was
followed by the legally elected Presi-
dent Hacha. whom he telegraphed his
blessings.
At present what is left of Czechoslo-
vakia is a Soviet dependency. 1 say
what is left" because the Russians have
taken away the Carpatho- Ukraine; they
have allowed the Poles to occupy the
region of Teschen; they have authorized
Benes to deport 80 per cent of Czecho-
slovakias former population. During
the second war Benes, renominated
President by few dozen refugees whom
he financed at the expense Of Britain
and America put himself under Stains
protection when Washington and Lon
don had refused to guarantee the un-
conditional restoration of his country's
territorial status quo. Before the Sec
ond war Czechoslovakia was a democ-
racy for the Czechs. Now even that has
gone. Mr.. Henry informs US, quite COR
rectly, that -four parties are recognized"
and that to-day there is no opposition"
Exactly the same situation obtains in
Rumania, Bulgaria and Yugo '-'-'s. 1t
is a thin camouf1age of Com: mist
tyranny.
In an admirable series of articles
Newbold Noyes, jr.. has shown in your
paper the strange and highly effective
blend Of Communism and all-Slavic ma
tionalism which has taken hold of the
Balkan Peninsula. We shall not be able
to understand what is in the offing II
we do not recognize with inexorable
clarity that, if "Titonia" is one prong of
that Asiatic national socialism, the
other prong is Bohemia
DIR. FRANK KLEIN,
New Rochelle, N. Y.