SUDETENS’ RIGHT TO ARMS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22510, 19 September 1938, Page 9

SUDETENS’ RIGHT TO ARMS

VOLUNTEER CORPS ON

FRONTIER

SECRET HEADQUARTERS IN

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

RUMOURED SPLIT IN PARTY DENIED (UHITED PE ESS ASSOCIATION— COPTEIGNT.)

(Received September 18, 10.30 p.m.)

LONDON, September 17,

A Berlin message reports that the Sudeten leaders, having issued a manifesto denouncing Czech hostility against non-Czech institutions, uphold the right of the Sudetens to take up arms, because “a state of extreme need has arrived.”

Herr Henlein, according to the Official News Agency, has ordered the formation of a Sudeten volunteer corps along the frontier. Reuter’s Berlin correspondent says it is stated that the Sudeten headquarters, which is now located secretly in Eger, will shortly be moved to another town. German sources do not confirm the Sudeten Party split. The German Official News Agency asserts that the Sudetens were not dissolved, but merely ceased to function.

Sudeten Party badges and uniforms are now illegal.. The Prague correspondent of “The Times” says there is no news of the German reactions to the dissolution of the Sudeten Party or the plans of the Henleinist leaders, who are known to have crossed to Bavaria. There is popular bewilderment in the Sudeten * areas over what is called the flight of the leaders.

The only incident during last night was the shooting of a Sudeten who failed to obey an order to stop his motor-car.

Ar official Czech news agency has issued the following: “Proceedings have been instituted against Herr Henlein under Paragraphs One and Three of the law for the protection of the republic, which deals with threats and attempts against the security of the State. The report that a warrant" was issued for the arrest of Herr Henlein is untrue.” Herr Henlein is reported to be still in Germany. The Prague correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” again confirms that a .warrant of arrest was issued against. Herr Henlein.' If is officially declared that order , has -been., restored throughout Czechoslovakia. The German press mostly continues to subordinate Mr Chamberlain’s mission to columns of lurid stories of Czech atrocities, while the denunciation of Czechs is unabated. The latest banner line in “Volkischer Beobachter” reads: “Criminal Benes prohibits Sudeten Party.” The German ..Official News Agency reports that a fugitive mother and five children were all shot by Czech frontier guards. I The “B’orsen. Zeitung’’ declares that Czechoslovakia is in her death agony, and is morally dead already.

Six thousand distressed Social Democrats have fled to Prague from Sudetenland. Official circles in London confirm the extension of martial law in Czechoslovakia. The quiet, steady calling up of reserves has a similar effect to partial mobilisation. Dr. Benes received a delegation from the Slovak Party. It reported that they had broken away from the Sudetens and offered conditionally to co-operate .with the Government in a coalition. Fifteen influential Czechs have been arrested, in Vienna, including the editor of the Czech newspaper and the. secretary of the Czech Traders’ Association. Four were released after the Consul-General’s intervention.

The Government decree ordering 63 districts to surrender arms has been extended to 33 additional districts in Moravia and Silesia, some of which are wholly Czech. Hungary has protested against the partial Czechoslovakian mobilisation near her border as unwarranted.

A message from Prague says the Government is including three more districts, among which is Pressburg, in its proclamation demanding the surrender of arms.

APPREHENSION IN BRAZIL

PRESS MORE CRITICAL OP GERMAN POLICY

(Received September 18, 10 p.m.)

RIO DE JANEIRO, September 17. Because more than 1,00p,000 Germans live in South America, Brazilians are considering the possibility of friction with the Reich if Herr Hitler is determined to act as protector of all of Germanic blood.

The press declares that if Germany to-morrow revives the old dream of an Antarctic German Empire, Brazil may be forced to defend her soil. The press hitherto has been moderate on the Sudeten question, but it is now critical of German policy, and is urging -the closer union of all the Americas.