CZECHOSLOVAKIA FIGHTS ON!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 122, 24 October 1941, Page 11

CZECHOSLOVAKIA FIGHTS ON!

(Contributed by the

Czecho-Slovak Club

WENTY-THREE years ago — October 28, 1918-the Czechoslovak nation proclaimed its independence. To-day the people of Czechoslovakia are fighting again for independence and freedom. Again they will win the struggle, Life in Czechoslovakia before the occupation by the Germans was that of a free nation in a free country. The democratic system was not new to the people, Throughout the centuries of their long history the Czechoslovak people were striving to obtain more happiness for a greater number of people. This is the Czechoslovak conception of demecracy. Another is that a nation lives through its children. So Czechoslovakia started to build hundreds of new and beautiful schools as soon as it was free. The children in these schools were taught to hate nobody and to love their country and their freedom. To make those young citizens truly happy they had to live in happy families, which means in a wider sense a sound economic life. So this in turn meant a modern network of communications. Under the Austro-Hungarian rule this, like everything else, was neglected. The Czechoslovak State had to build and modernise thousands of miles of roads, railways, and canals for shipping. Airlines started to spread all over the country to connect it with its neighbours. The Land Problem While these steps were being taken another big problem had to be solved without creating disturbances in the economic life. Belonging to a subdued nation, the farmers in Czechoslovakia did not possess enough land of their own. They were therefore compelled to work for the foreign landlords who lived mag-

nificently in Vienna or Budapest from the work and labour of the Czechoslovak farmers, This state of affairs had to be altered, and that was done by the " Land Reform Act." This Act was a typical example of democratic Czechoslovak legislation in comparison with laws issued under the "New Order" now in force since the German occupation. The Act abolished injustices, and in less than ten years transformed a semi-feudal country into a country possessing a class of small peasants. Half a million families obtained a plot of land of greater or smaller extent. The communes acquired land which permitted them to develop freely. The State nationalised the great forests that bordered the frontiers. But. in spite of all that the former land owner still retained sufficient land to live in comfort.

Let us turn our attention now to the cultural life in Czechoslovakia. Although it was a comparatively small country it possessed a literary production which brought it to the level of the largest countries in the world. The opera and the theatres supported by the State had international fame. Czechoslovak music was well known all over the world, as well as the names of Smetana, Dvorak, and many others. Universities and technical schools were centres of research equal to the best in Europe. The first university in Central Europe was founded in_the year 1348 in the Czechoslovak capital of Praha (Prague). The Republic saw also to physical education of the citizens. Life in Czechoslovakia was, as it appeared to visitors, happy. Everybody lived according to individual taste and possibilities. No State authorities could force the citizens to belong to a certain political party or to think according to a plan worked out by a Gestapo. But the prosperity and the principles of the country were not tolerable for Czechoslovakia’s totalitarian neighbour Germany. They knew very well over the frontier that as‘ long as Czechoslovakia existed the way to dominate Europe or the world was barred. An artificial political crisis was therefore created, and in Munich the world was made to believe that, by sacrificing Czechoslovakia, peace would be secured. Germany gave the usual guarantees and Hitler his word of honour that no further demands would be put forward. The consequence of that "word of honour" was, as in so many cases before

and after, that the German army occupied a defenceless Czechoslovakia, That happened on March 15, 1939. But although it has been occupied Czechoslovakia has not been conquered. The fight will go on. There will again be a free Czechoslovakia in a free world.

BoTe# the National Broadcasting Service and the Commercial Broadcasting Service will pay a tribute to Czechoslovakia on Tuesday, October 28, which is the national day of the Czechs. The programme which 2YA will present includes part of a speech broadcast from the BBC by Dr. Ladislay Feierabend, Czech Minister of State in London, and the | story of President Masaryk’s journeyings around Europe prior to the setting up of the Czechoslovak Republic. Station 2ZB has a programme of Czech recordings interspersed . with a reminder of the significance of the anniversary, descriptions of social and economic life in the republic during its 20 years’ existence, and an account of the changes which have taken place since its inclusion in Hitler’s Reich. There are over 200 Czechs in New Zealand, and their club in Wellington will celebrate the national day with a function at which addresses will be given by E. J. Hyams, honorary Consul for Czechoslovakia, and Dr. K. A. ~ Wodzicki, Consul General for Poland in New Zealand.