NO OPTIMISM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 September 1938, Page 6

NO OPTIMISM

GLOOMY ANTICIPATIONS IN PRAGUE INVASION AND AIR ATTACKS AT ANY MOMENT PEOPLE RESOLUTE TO FACE WHATEVER MAY COME (Recd This Day, 1.3 p.m.). LONDON, September 16. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Prague correspondent says it would be criminal to disguise the fact that whatever optimism there may be elsewhere, Prague expects an invasion and violent air attacks from Germany to begin at any moment. The temper of the Czechs at present is such that the Government dare not consent to the plebiscite proposal. As attempt to do would result in a military dictatorship, temporarily superseding the Parliamentary system. Czechoslovakia feels that the time for further concessions is past and is determined to face whatever may come resolutely and courageously. The situation is considered so grave that official circles, believe that only a public and unequivocal warning by England, France and Russia will restrain Germany from an act of aggression for which all preparations have now been completed. Germany has now enclosed Czechoslovakia’s frontier with a girdle of troops. The German Ambassador has ostentatiously left Prague for Berlin. Cabinet is considering arresting Germans as a reprisal for the German arrests of Czechs in Austria and Germany. The “Telegraph’s” Berlin correspondent says the possibility of Germany taking action at the weekend to “protect” the Sudetens, if the situation is regarded as intolerable, cannot altogether be excluded. The Press emphasises that Hitler gave no pledges to Mr Chamberlain, and does not intend retreating an inch from his Nuremberg position,' nor will German pressure on Prague slacken pending the next Chamberlain-Hitler meeting.