SUDETEN GERMAN PARTY DISSOLVED

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

SUDETEN GERMAN PARTY DISSOLVED

Proclamation Issued by Czech

Government

HERR KUNDT APPEALS TO PEOPLE FOR RESTRAINT

Outcome of Hitler-Chamberlain Talks To Be Awaited

(UfUTED PMKBB ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received September 18, 10 p.m.) LONDON, September 17. The.Czech Government last night issued a proclamation dissolving the Sudeten German Party. Storm troopers were ordered to disband, their property being: confiscated.

Simultaneously the authorities began measures against other “disloyal” organisations whereby future activity will be rendered impossible. Police-have occupied and closed all the offices of the party and the premises of the Henleinist group.

The Sudeten leader in Prague, Herr Kundt, in a proclamation, appealed to the Sudetens to await the outcome of the fateful conversations between Mr Chamberlain and Herr Hitler. He said: “The Czech Government has considered it desirable to suspend the activities of the Sudeten people’s organisations. As leader of the parliamentary group, I say that you, pending appropriate action, should not allow yourselves to be led astray by the suspension of the party, but should remain what yon were, and wait till Mr Chamberlain and Herr Hitler have concluded their fateful conversations.

“Whether or not parties or party organisations are to remain in Czechoslovakia is no longer a decisive issue. What is: decisive is the fate of Sudeten Germanism and the Homeland. Until a decision is taken, remain firm. Let your nerves be as steel. God be with us.”

The Prague correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian” says that Herrn Kundt, Sebekowsky, Rosche, and Nenwirth, the Sudeten German leaders, are remaining in Prague, where they have founded a new party with the' title of the “Bohemia German Party,” apparently replacing the Sudeten German: Party. The founders belong to the moderate wing of the former Henlein group.

ACTION TAKEN BY

HELP FOR CZECHS

CZECHS

URGED

''■ I : State of Emergency

American Senator’s

Proclaimed

Speech

ALLEGED

PLEDGES BY t

BITTER OPPOSITION TO

DEMOCRACIES

PLEBISCITE

(Received September 18, 10 pm.)

(Received September 18, 11 p.m.)

LOS ANGELES, September 17.

PRAGUE, September 17

Mr Key Pittman, chairman of the United Stated Senate’s foreign, relations committee, in a nation-wide broadcast, declared that the governments responsible . for creating Czechoslovakia and, pledging her protection were morally obliged to help her. Stating 'that he was expressing personal views, Mr Pittman added: “The powerful democracies time and again , have abandoned the small democracies. If .Czechoslovakia is abandoned, the small democracies have one alternative—to retreat and surrender with the. soft democracies, or to accept a peaceful slavery under the military dictators. Since it was carved out of Europe by the Allies, Czechoslovakia has carried out the principles of democracy, winning ,the democratic peoples-to acclaim that she has the right to expect and demand protection from the governments which were responsible for her creation and which pledged her support.”’

I The Cabinet has introduced a state of; emergency throughout Czechoslovakia; for. three months, enabling the authorities to control traffic, permit domiciliary visits, and establish the curfew.. : The President (Dr. Benes) resisted more drastic measures, y

: A Foreign Office spokesman said: “There is only one answer to the latest developments. We will fight if necessary. There will be no question of giving up part of our nation.” The Prague correspondent of “The Times” says the strength of Czech feeling is shown in the statement by the Deputy-Premier (Dr. Krofta), “A plebiscite would be the shortest way to war. No government would accept it. If it did the whole nation would sweep them away within an hour. The nation would rather die than have the Homeland crippled.”

Dr. Krofta told the British United Press that a regional pact of nonaggression and mutual assistance, comprising - Czechoslovakia, Germany, Russia, Poland, and perhaps the Baltic States, guaranteed by France, might solve the crisis. The difficulty of a plebiscite was that in the event of Sudetenland becoming German, there was a possibility that the German Social Democrats, Communists, and Jews would go to Czechoslovakia from the Sudeten areas, forming still another island of Germans.

Mr Pittman said that although the United States had no military pacts with Czechoslovakia, she was one of that republic’s principal creators. “No saying has been subjected to greater misrepresentation,” he said, “than Mr Wilson’s, The Great War was fought to make the world safe for democracy.’ Even those with little vision realise that there is an imminent, crucial threat to democracy to-day.

The Prague correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says it would be criminal to “disguise the fact that whatever optimism there is elsewhere, Prague expects an invasion, with violent air attacks from Germany, to begin at any moment. The temper of the Czechs at present is such that the Government dare not consent to the plebiscite proposal. Any attempt to do so would result in military dictatorship, temporarily superseding the parliamentary system. Czechoslovakia feels the time for further concessions is past and is determined to face whatever may come resolutely and courageously.

“That threat existed in 1917 the United States entered the war. By the victory it was postponed. Through the totalitarian governments’ steady advance and the democracies’ equally continuous retreat and surrender of democratic principles, we have again reached a crucial issue.”' Mr Pittman reminded his listeners that the United States had failed, “yes, refused,” after the Great War, to take any part in the advancement and maintenance of peaceful policies based upon the principles of democracy.

The situation is Considered so grave that official circles believe that only a public and unequivocal warning by Britain, France, and Russia will restrain Germany from an act of aggression for which all preparations are now completed. Germany has now enclosed Czechoslovakia’s frontier with a girdle of troops. The German Ambassador ostentatiously left Prague for Berlin.