A GERMAN CAMPAIGN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 217, 13 August 1937, Page 6

A GERMAN CAMPAIGN.

The Manchester Guardian has again drawn pointed attention to the campaign Germany and her allies are pursuing against Czechoslovakia. The intention, it is alleged, is to make this State a second Spain, and it is being taken up by other countries which pivot on the BerlinRome axis. Earlier this year the Permanent Council of the Little Entente, which embraces Czechoslovakia, Rumania, and Yugoslavia, met at Belgrade and issued a statement showing that neither the unity of jhe three States nor their devotion to the League of Nations’ principles had been shaken by the Berlin-Rome axis or Yugoslavia’s recent pact with Italy. In commenting on the official report a commentator observed that such clear and definite language in support of the League had not been heard for some time, and must be considered a distinct rebuff to Germany and Italy, who profess to laugh at it. “The statement,” it was further said, “strongly suggests that neither .Yugoslavia’s political ties with Italy nor her economic ties with Germany are quite as binding as had been feared in some quarters, and that the present rulers of Yugoslavia would like best to see all the small countries of Central Europe at peace and united against the interference of the Great Powers.” Czechoslovakia is the backbone of the Little Entente, and her policy has been to court friendly relations with the revisionist States, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Austria. With political reconciliation, as the Czech Prime Minister has said, Central Europe would be strong enough to withstand all shocks. But this does not suit Nazi Germany and, as the Manchester Guardian points out, she is pursuing a serious . campaign against Czechoslovakia, which contains an aggressive and considerable German minority, m the Nazi element of which lurks an enduring germ of trouble. Germany wants an Italo-German protectorate over South-Eastern Europe and in the process is trying to isolate Czechoslovakia. The situation is not without its disturbing elements.