CZECH DENIAL OF BRITISH LABOUR CHARGES

Chronicle (Levin), 8 March 1948, Page 5

CZECH DENIAL OF BRITISH LABOUR CHARGES

Received Sundav, 7..'!() p.m. , ' LONDON., AJuivli (5. Houto r *s Prague eOi'responrienf strites that tho OzeMioslovuk Social' Demoeratic Partv lia.s i.ssuoil a cluilleuge rejeeting tho Hritish Lahour Partv \s statement oonilemniug tfio ntnv Czrndiosluvak ( 'o voi;niiiOHt . Tho Czn-k statuniont c.laimed that tho events -oi' Fohiuary wero "a njattor oi suppnwxing an Uttempt at roaotioji from aliroad to stop f urt hor progross towards Soeialism. A ou spoak of au attuok from witliout and treason from within. It is true that t lio.so faotor.s existed hero but tliey

wero on the other side, not as might appi'ar from your statemeiit. "The view that a minority foreed a dictatorship upou the nation does nol conform with reality. The Go vernmept was reconst ructod accordiug to parlia meulary usages and with the participa tion of President Benes wlio, not only tlirough his oonstitutionai position hui aiso t ti rough his moral authority and philosophic leadership, personilies the demoeratic metliods and the basis of the Czeehotdovak Republic. " Dr. Bones was kept eoinpietely isolat ed and was more a prisoner than head of tho ,Stnte, said Dr. Pavel Tigrid, fornierlf editor of the Catholic Peojjle's Purlv paper Lidova Deniooraeie in Prague, and Edvard Haur, formerly a inemher of tho party 's foreign policy comnuttee, who lled from Czeelioslovakia to (formany. The nows agency Dena reports more than (>()) Czech refugees orossed the frontier into Davaria since the crisis iiogan in Prague. Reuter's correspondent in Prague says Cabinet decided to sot up couuts in Prague, Brno, Bratislav and Kosiee to try people accusod of -serious offences against the Kepublic't security. Reuter's Bucliarest correspondent states that Kuniania will nationalise ihe mines, trausport, oil and telegraph, lolephone and radio services under the new republican constilution tO" be put before the ('onstituent Assembly on Apri! (5. Jteligious bodies will lose the right to maintain their own schools.