RIOT ORDERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 September 1938, Page 5

RIOT ORDERS

ISSUED BY SUDETEN PARTY SOME TIME AGO DISCOVERY OF DOCUMENTS AT GORKAU. ORDER COMPLETELY RESTORED BY POLICE. LONDON. September 15. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Prague correspondent says that documents found at the Sudeten headquarters at Gorkau prove that orders to start rioting on September 13 were issued some time ago, and adds that the Henleinists, during their brief enjoyment of control in different areas, ordered all non-party members to leave within six to 24 hours.

Martial law, which has now been extended to three more provinces, has completely restored order in the Sudeten areas. The police have regained control at Schwadesbach and have again taken possession of the police post. No arrests were made as the rioters fled to Germany.

It is officially stated a policeman, a railwayman and two civilians were killed by shots from the Hotel Victoria at Eger in which the Sudeten headquarters had been set up. Police stormed the hotel and arrested several men.

Anxiety is expressed in Government circles regarding the fate of 20 Czech gendarmes in Schwadesbach. It is understood that several were captured and taken to a town across the German frontier.

A woman, a policeman and four civilians were killed in the four hours’ fighting at Eger yesterday. The Sudetens used rifles and machine-guns of German manufacture. The police brought up armoured cars and mach-ine-guns. Two of those killed were journalists of the local Sudeten paper who strayed into the affray. While dispersing sporadic revolts, the police have arrested numerous Sudeten ringleaders, who will be tried by special tribunals and, if found guilty, sentenced. The emergency provisions governing these tribunals provide that, if guilty, the death sentence should be obligatory, except in very rare instances.

HENLEIN ON THE AIR DENUNCIATION OF “CZECH OPPRESSION.” DEMAND FOR REUNION WITH GERMANY. (Recd This Day, 10.45 a.m.) PRAGUE, September 15. In a broadcast proclamation, Herr Henlein said: “Realising my responsibility, I declare before the world that Czech oppression has reached its zenith with the use of machine-guns and tanks, showing the impossibility of living with the Czechs. Twenty years of terror, plus the heavy blood sacrifice of the last few days, compels me to declare: — 1 Firstly: That we were forced into the Czech State against o‘ur wills, regardless of the right of self-determin-ation. “Secondly: Without renouncing that right, we attempted, under heavy sacrifices, to secure our existence. “Thirdly: The Czech people’s efforts to reach an honest and just solution failed because of their uncompromising will to destruction. “We want to live as free Germans. We want peace to work in our home. We want to go back to the Reich.” Two classes of reservists have been called up in the last two days to strengthen the frontier garrisons.

SUDETEN RHETORIC “MURDERING AND PLUNDERING HORDES” (Recd This Day, 10.50 a.m.) BERLIN, September 15. The Sudeten German leaders at Asch have issued a manifesto stating that the Czech Democracy has finally let fall its hypocritical mask. “Defenceless women and children and hundreds of dead,” the manifesto adds, “seriously accuse it. Under the guise of humanitarian phrases it plunders and murders in a manner only comparable with the Bolshevist atrocities in Spain. The Sudeten Germans tell the entire world that they sought a peaceful solution to the last minute but the Czechs rejected all Herr Henlein’s demands. In view of these conditions, it is selfevident that every Sudeten German will defend, with every means, his life-, and the l\ves- of his family against murdering and plundering hordes.”

PLOT exposed EGER AS REBEL CAPITAL. SECRET TUNNELS FOUND. (Recd This Day, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, September 15. The British United Press Prague correspondent states that the police allege that they frustrated a Sudeten plot to make Egei’ the capital of a State within the State. They discovered a number of secret tunnels connecting the Sudeten headquarters and hotels, with others, a mile long, for the purpose of bringing up reinforcements or facilitating escape.

PRAYERS FOR PEACE

ABBEY OPENED FOR THREE DAYS. TOMB OF UNKNOWN SOLDIER HONOURED. (Recd This Day, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, September 15. A remarkable feature of the opening of Westminster Abbey for three days of continuous prayer for peace was the persistence of the queue filing past the Unknown Warrior's Grave, beside which many preferred to pray. Mrs Neville Chamberlain was one of the earliest to attend, just after the entire night staff of nurses of the Westminster Hospital.

QUIET IN PRAGUE

BUT GAS MASKS IN DEMAND

(Recd This Day. 10.50 a.m.) PRAGUE, September 15. The city is quiet, but there are long queues at shops selling gas masks.