EUROPE’S NEW STATE.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 July 1923, Page 4

EUROPE’S NEW STATE.

HOW Til MY ARM’ DOIN';:. A Tlllt I VI NT! AND HAPPY BEAfi.WTRY. (B.v 0. Ward Brice). Of all the new or transformed nations whoso unfamiliar frontiers have alien'd the map of Cent ml Kuropc. (V.ccho Slovakia's is the richest am! bint organised. She has a Budget that I -mi I icdh balances, a id an ext ass of exports over immirts. This > isitioii has brim irbiecd not withmil saerikcc-. for ;ift"i'. (treat Uritain. ilm < y.0.-ho-Sl.iviik.s are (lie mo-t highly taxed mil ion i n Kurupe. I.ih" IVl.'in.l, (lie cntiitlry lias a natianal vitality ilial for years was growing stronger beneath the surface of foreign denomination, and in material resources it has mines, industries and agriculture in proportions ideal for a flourishing national life, since TT per cent, of its l4.lH’o.(’llt) people work on the land, and bo per cent, at its industries.

1 What strikes an Englishman most in ' a journey through both Poland and ■ Czeclin-Slnvakia. and even a rouses en- , vv in his mind, is their thriving, contented peasantry, growing lb" i nuntry’s food in its own mnlsi, and producing a sturdy stool, of big-lamed rcd-hloudcd ciiildrou. ( cm) a ring the English countryside of pretty, but miprolhahle green holds with tin* great ex onuses ol corn or licet, or potatoes thll 1 si retell to t lie hon'.'.o;; ill tin • Central European Stales, ore realises the price wc have paid for in lustria! supremacy in letting the laud go out of i idlivatioli. lie; ■ is peal lillnge life, witli tradition, ami standard-' its own. None of the yearning fur the towns that unseiti'- our oiliitr,; dwellers ;;l home, l’easanls grow ric h-- they have all made niK'-li money si m ' the war and ere light ! taxed for it is difi'sclt i , n s knii I heir pridit - log 1 o ever mm it 1 hey pros; T they iiave t.u de-ire to Their i Ullages luav he lllnl'.bcl. It!! thev aiv well fiinii.-hed and brightly] juiilil vd : both men ami v. i-mm have ex- < pensively embroid: ", .!. pici • pie inlii.lt':l dresses to !;: win'll V.'i'li pi'ide el! j Suii'htys of when thev go to !■.;■> o : their lo id of the I- • -mm o, t'i oai I,an bl o I horses to d i e. nod i m't.v a I "a sail!'- s m goes lo i he university end ' com - hack to tl. • fern. 'i Id "lenient s ihe ... ii ia 1 pi lin r o' | (In t'il'ii'. It is lh" 1,0.1 possiMe glam j am ee against I! "-he. is: info, t ion. I In, a i:i Poland, where half the land [ st ill h -loin;, to I ig proprietor!-. I lie ioi - | lor inl ::u Ilioir cwit proncrl ies and so j la; ■ ""lunion egblo.d mi reus w >ih j id- o '.'is.iiitry. A.in'i in enicrprisiug j ho. Slovakia agrieiilture! pis -rerity | I hat !he pi'iKiill w hile ivoig;rin oil tin laud, are oiyiuised into , o. mera- ('*-• i It!.:-' 1 hr 'V. "lies : i d sil- cl' U till u'i'. , under their own i on l rol. Titer care no fewer I bag. liddl of t in iipri gill oral co-.iperali\ a iei ic .. m lied into a rent ral union. I law i auge it: bind I’i'oiii savings and loan hanks to co-opera I ive d iirieg and (list iilerigs .••ml so, mi it-, f :r the put' In- • in a«Hum of maoliinery and elegiiu al nkm:. The intensive tillage of the ground in (. V.oehn-Shn a kin. the oh>. ion., iirosp.-r----itv ot iis villages, and tho good uj.l." u of its roads are evidetie" of the efiicieiioy ol this svs'fem. which seeiuvs M tile farmer the llifi value til" s ; .|o <,f "his produce withnui subt r.n t.i..it l.y middlemen. The prosperity of <'/ecim-Slovak nji'iculinre is paralleled l.y the thriving

condition of the other branches of national industry. The 130,000 unemployed in the country result, ns in England, from the fact- that the international value of ozerho-Slovak money is so niin 'i above that of its neighbours that export trade is thereby hampered. Given a eontiiinniieo of peace in Europe however. Czcho-.Slovakia cannot fail to heroine one oi wealthiest nations for its size in the world, and a buttress of the new Europe which the Allied victory brought into being. The gravest problem before the nation lies in the I'oel that one in four of ils papulation is German by race, the proportion being highest in the richest industrial organisations from German intrigue among them, and they form a disall'eeted element in the new State. Nevertheless, the Czclio-Slovaks believe that they will eventually settle < own into citizenship as Hernia ns do in the i'nited States. Dr Bones, the Foreign .Minister, explained to me that there is no movement among them for ruiiiting with Germany. For one thing, the German Government regards them as potentially mure useful to it in the capacity of a strong minority in a neiglib.iU'ing State, anil the Cz.eelio-Slmak Germans themselves furthermore realise that economically they are better oil where they are. Meanwhile the Czeelio-fMovnks are patiently and wisely treating them on a footing of absolute equality, and although their leaders refuse tn co-oper-ate in the Government, the young Germans do their service in vhe Czecho Slovak army, and. according, t". it. t< its French instructors, do it very ve.h