CALL TO CZECHS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20112, 5 December 1939, Page 5

CALL TO CZECHS

PLEA FOR CALMNESS DEMAND FOR JUSTICE REPARATION FOR WRONGS DR. BENES' BROADCAST (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Dec. 3. .To-night, 24 hours after the Czechoslovak Committee in Paris ,had ordered the general mobilisation of all Czechoslovak citizens abroad, Dr. E. Benes, former President of Czechoslovakia, who is head of the committee, broadcast from London a warning to his countrymen in the protec- ; torate to remain calm and not .to fall i into the traps set by the Gestapo. “Do not allow yourselves to be pro- . voked,” Dr. .Benes said. “All the Nazis ! do is of a temporary character, like the April weather. Not a stone will remain where they put it. “We do not want revenge; we only : want justice and full reparation for all they have done to us, our men, our property and our cultural life.” A further .authoritative denial of the German insinuations that prominent Czechoslovaks outside their own country have been inciting the Czech people to revolt against their Nazi oppressors, was given in a recent letter to The Times from the son olf a famous former President and himself the late Czechoslovak Minister, M. J’an M'asaryk. jn London. :He said: “We are pleading daily with the people at home to bide their , time and to avoid by all means unnec- ; essary ‘bloodshed. It is established beyond dispute that the protector and his henchmen do everything in their power to exhaust and undermine the magnificent patience and discipline of ■ my people.”

“He attributed the recent revolts in Bohemia and Moravia . entirely to a spontaneous rising against the indescribable cruelty and oppression of the German authorities. .