CZECH ASSETS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 March 1939, Page 5

CZECH ASSETS

BLOCKING MEASURES TAKEN IN LONDON. steps to Safeguard position MEANTIME. (British Official Wireless! I RUGBY, March 27. A Bill to give the necessary powers to banks to carry out instructions for the blocking of Czech assets in London given by the Treasury, after the German annexation of Czechoslovakia, passed through all its stages in the House of Lords today. A Government spokesman said that the Dominion Governments and the Government of India had been informed of the action taken, but he could not say whether any of these Governments proposed to take similar action. The French Government, he understood, had acted in the same way as Britain.

He could not at present indicate the steps which the Government might have to take to protect British interests in Czechoslovakia. The attitude of Germany on Czechoslovakia’s external obligations was not yet known. They must wait until the situation was much clearer before formulating a policy The present measure, he added, was only intended to safeguard the position in the meantime. BRITISH MINISTER. LEAVING PRAGUE FOR BAGDAD. (British Official Wlrelpcs ' RUGBY. March 27. Sir Basil Newton, British Minister to Czechoslovakia, who is leaving Prague to take iro in the near future his new post of British Ambassador in Bagdad, is expected to come to London this week before proceeding to the Near East. The British Legation in Prague remains in charge of Mr Troutbeck. Sir Basil Newton’s predecessor at the Bagdad Embassy, who was recently appointed Ambassador to the new Spanish Government, is leaving within the next few days for Burgos.