HITLER’S DIATRIBE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 September 1938, Page 5

HITLER’S DIATRIBE

DENUNCIATION OF CZECH CONSTITUTION “TROUBLE MUST BE ENDED ONCE FOR ALL” NO THOUGHT OF ATTACKING BRITAIN OR FRANCE LONDON, September 19. The Berchtesgaden correspondent of the “Daily Mail” states that Herr Hitler said in an interview today that the Czech constitution seemed to provide only one thing, namely, the suppression of 8,000,000 minorities by 7,000,0()u Czechs. Herr Hitler went on: “This trouble must be ended once and for all and be ended now. It is a tumour poisoning the .whole European organism. Its continuance would infect international relations until they fatally collapsed. “The existence of Czechoslovakia as Russia’s ally in the very heart of Germany has forced me to create a new air force, which in turn has led France and Britain into increasing their own air fleets. If we failed to settle the crisis now, Field-Marshal Goering would soon ask me to order that our air force be redoubled. Then France and Britain would redouble theirs and, the mad race would continue. “Nobody in Germany dreams of attacking France, against whom we harbour no resentment, but, on the con trary, a strong feeling of sympathy. No German wants war with Britain.' INCONSISTENCY ALLEGED Herr Hitler argued that the French Ministers’ promise to stand by Czechoslovakia was a contradiction of their own past actions. France had allowed the Saar to vote itself from her control, and England, in the same way, had let the southern Irish have complete autonomy. “Holland,” went on Herr Hitler, “gave the Belgians their independence a century ago. The Czechs were never independent until the peace treaties raised Them to an undeserved mastery over minorities more numerous than themselves. The creation of the postwar Czech Republic was lunacy. The Sudetens will never accept Czech rule.” Herr Hitler resented the warrantfor Herr Henlein’s arrest. He declared: “If Henlein is arrested, I myself shall become the leader of the Sudetens. I would be glad to see how flong after that Benes could issue decrees. I hope he would not issue a warrant for my 3 r rest. “If the Czechs had possessed a great statesman he would long ago have allowed the Sudetens to join the Reich, thus assuring autonomy for the Czechs themselves. But Benes is a politician, not a statesman.”