CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 234, 15 September 1939, Page 1

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

A GERMAN , COLONY ItI'THLESS I'JJLI’LUITATION SJavia has been so plundered by tbe Germans that less than livemonths after she was “liberated” from Czech “domination” the ' country is ruined, wrote, the diplomatic correspondent of the .M*anohoster Guardian on August 3'. Under Czech “domination” the “races,” religions, and political parties of Slovakia had rights ahdi liberties such as they; never had before, and-the Slovak Budget was balanced with the help of subsidies granted by the Government in Prague. The rights and liberties, are gone, expenditure amounts to 1,533,000,000 crowns, and the revenue to 1.229,000,000, so that there is a.'deficit of 300,000,000, a huge sum for a poverty-stricken population of only 2,656,000. 'The Germans have robbed'' Slovakia of all her war material; they are depleting her forest? and even her timber yards-j'-they-have taken -away foodstuffs in great quantities, the stocks ‘if entire factories, a mil a vast amount of machinery and industrial 'plant. The resulting scarcity has raised the cost of living and thus spread distress throughout the country. Slovak workmen have been sent to Germany in multitudes-*—most of them are now employed in the neighbourhood of Hanover. A German Market Slovakia is becoming an exclusively German, market. Germany alone is supplying the country with industrial products, Slovak firms that cannot compete with the German firms arc doomed ; those that can compete are taken over—whether directly or .indirectly—by the Gormans. The German minority (about 150,000 in all) behave as though they were masters of the countrv.

The region lidundedi by the borders of Moravia and Poland and by a line extending' from Bratislava to Pi stymie and along the River Waag and: the ciests of tlie Tatra, has been declared a special area, by the Germans. It is officially known as “the region, occupied by Gorman troops and under German sovereignty.” These words are printed on the permits issued to persons who wish to enter thy area, the existence of which is a violation of the statute under.which Rome Rule was granted! to Slovakia by the Reich. Two Cwlcniss Slovak “home, ride” is a, fiction. It is untrue that .Germany has no’colonies. Belli the “protectorate” of JJo-liomia-Moia via and the “autonomous’-’ Sievak State are ooilonies in the full, or rather in the worst, sense of the word. Monsignor Tiso, the Slovak Premier, is Hitler’s lieutenant, without a will or policy of his own, while the Slovak people are like cattle who. have to accept the decisions- arranged between the Premier and the Fuehrer as carried out by Monsignor Tiso, though these orders are sometimes preceded by discussions, for which Monsignoi Tiso is summoned to. Berlin. The Genua n s take no interest in Slovakia except- as an ybject of economic exploitation, as a. source of cheap labour, and as a military base for further contjuests. Slovakia is im fact not governed at all, blit administered despotically by the Fuehrer aiglf his .lieutenant, by the .Gestapo, aiul by the German military authorities.