DOGGED BY SECRET POLICE

Hokitika Guardian, 28 January 1928, Page 4

DOGGED BY SECRET POLICE

A TRAVELLER'S EXPERIENCE IN CZECHO-Si A) V AKIA.

(SIR ROBERT DONALD', the well known English journalist, who has been studying conditions in Czechoslovakia, here describes the persistent spying and other annoyances that travellers have to endure in that country).

The independent inquirer into conditions in Slovakia- lets himself in iol an adventurous time. Czech officials believe that there is only one source of information —themselves. I committed the initial mistake of thinking that the better way of getting at the facts was from the aggrieved people, not from those responsible for their (alleged) oppression I would have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had accepted offers of official guidance. In that case I would have seen a smiling country and me., a contented people. Mow some of the outstanding grievances would lane vanished I Schools? Classes <ff Hungnri;in children would have welcomed me in Czech. Citizenship ? I "ouUI have been assured that, there was no case: only some short-sighted Hungarians did not opt in time for tin* precious privilege of becoming ( zeebs. Colonists? I would have seen them living happily in one community with iheii Hungarian blathers. A few weeks hi.lore my visit an Englishman, gathering material lor lectures, was boar-led through Slovakia. He was impressed —by the absence of grievances. In the rich Sehutt island, formed by the bilcreation of the Danube between Pressbnrg (Bratislava) and Komarno, where 90 percent of tlit; population are Hungarian, the inquirer, when visiting a Czech colony, was introduced to a Hungarian workman and asked him, through an interpreter, how lie liked to live among the Czechs.

“Like it,” he replied, “I have never known for a long time such freedom as I now enjoy.”

Quite true; he was a Hungarian Communist who had recently been ieloased alter serving a term of imprisonment in Hungary. (Czechs are strangely hospitable to Hungarian Communists.

f did not visit Hungary before entering Czcclio-Slovakia, and avoided Hungarian officials iust as 1 hold aloof from Czech officials until the first part of my inquiry was finished. T had numerous introductions to business men. foreign residents and non-poli-tical people, so that 1 did not rely on one source of information. T was one of the early supporters of the Czechs when they fought for nationhood;! had admired the superb confidence they had in their destiny and their passionate devotion to democratic ideals. For file last nine years T bate followed their heroic efforts to build up a democratic State on the foundations ol an effete empire. I was prepared to find some reaction at this juncture, but no going hack on the fundamental principles enshrined in the Peace Treaties and confirmed by the most democratic Constitution in Europe.

I have been bitterly disillusioned. Tb - Czechs have lost their confidence; they are apprehensive. suspicious, scared. Following historic precedent miff in defiinnee of their most solemn pledges, they are resorting to tlm worst methods of the had - Id days of K a iseri loin.

Something like a wave- ol terror has sweot over Slovakia. People art' arrested for unknown crimes and detained in prison for indefinite periods. Freedom of the Press does not exist : newspapers are censored -sometimes out of -existence; freedom ol speech is conditional. Public meetings are held under pm live supervision ; police spies dog public men who are opposed to the Government and slaidow visitors. Travellers are liable to personal search on the Hungarian border. Men meet in out-of-the-way places to discuss their affairs. Tlio Cabinet Noir is a department of State reminding one of the clays of Louis NX I. Agentsprovocatenrs sock to entrap the unwary. Telephone conversations are taliped and various other methods employed for intimidating, penalising, and victimising political op|>oneiits of the Government and all known Hungarians. These ire sweeping statements; I proceed to substantiate them from my personal experiences, from incidents which came under my observation, and from evidence which T tested and found trust wort by. ’lire state ol thin v; which I found in Slovakia is reriiiniscnt of the days of Czardom ; it renroduccs the atmosphere of wartime. f fmd not been long in Pressbnrg (Bratislava) before the police became interested. An agent was posted in the lounge of the Carlton Hotel ; another sat in the cafe. I was shadowed everywhere; mv visitors were watched My secretary, who was also followed, turned on a detective and said: “M,v good man. why don’t vot). ,ivi!'; with me instead of following: von may lose me?” The detective bolted back to the hotel. One characteristic of the Czech secret police is that they ore not. secret ; they are obvious watchers.