1938: Czechoslovakia

The year 1938 not only deprived Czechoslovakia of about one third of her territory and of about one third of her population, but changed entirely the course of her foreign and domestic policy. Czechoslovakia would have celebrated, on October 8, 1938, the twentieth anniversary of her foundation by Thomas G. Masaryk, in a spirit of a humanitarian liberalism which in her foreign policy turned toward the Western democracies. At the beginning of the year, Czechoslovakia was still the most liberal and the best-governed country east of the Rhine. At the end of the year the first Czechoslovakia Republic had ceased to exist. The new Czechoslovakia, or the Second Republic, as it is commonly called, has little in common with the first Republic. The spirit of Masaryk, and of his successor and disciple. Eduard Benes, has been banished and their adherents silenced. In her foreign and economic policy Czechoslovakia has become entirely dependent upon and subservient to Germany, and in her internal policy she is turning more and more to the adoption of thinly veiled Fascist principles. The German, Hungarian and Polish minorities of the First Republic seceded from Czechoslovakia in the fall of 1938, and the remaining parts of the country were transformed into a federative state of Czechs, Slovaks, and Ruthenians. Whereas until then the progressive and liberal Czechs had exercised the leadership in the Republic, it now passed to the reactionary and more backward Slovaks.

Before the Crisis.

The occupation of Austria by Germany in March, 1938, and the speech of Chancellor Hitler on February 20 which seemed to establish a German protectorate over the Germans in Austria and in Czechoslovakia, created a sudden tension in the relations between the Czechoslovak Government and the German minority. Until then three German minority parties, the German Agrarians, the German Christian Socialists or Clericals, and the German Social Democrats had cooperated with the Czechoslovak Government, and their representatives had been members of the Czechoslovak Cabinet. Following the occupation of Austria and the increased hopes of the German minority for a similar procedure of Germany against Czechoslovakia, the German parties represented in the Cabinet resigned from the Government majority. Two of them, the Agrarians and the Clericals, joined the Sudeten-German Party which, under the leadership of Konrad Henlein, represented the extreme nationalistic wing in the German minority of Czechoslovakia. The party had adopted, both in its ideology and in its tactics, the principles of the German National Socialist Party. The German Social Democrats also resigned from the Government, but continued to cooperate with it.

The Nazi attitude in Czechoslovakia was much encouraged by Prime Minister Chamberlain's declaration in the British House of Commons on March 24 that Great Britain would not give a prior pledge to guarantee the independence and integrity of Czechoslovakia against any forceful aggression from outside, nor invite other members of the League of Nations to a concerted declaration of assistance to Czechoslovakia. A month later Konrad Henlein presented to the Party Congress of the Sudeten German Party in Karlsbad eight demands which aimed not only to bring about the complete autonomy of the German minority, but also full sway for Nazi principles within democratic Czechoslovakia. In addition to these eight points the Party demanded a complete reorientation of Czechoslovakia's foreign policy: she was not only to abandon the Pact of Mutual Assistance with the Soviet Union, but also her long-standing alliance with France. The Czechoslovak Government declared itself ready to discuss certain of these points with the Sudeten-German Party, but only under the conditions of the main tenets of the democratic Constitution and the territorial integrity of Czechuslovakia. At the same time it strongly repudiated any change in its foreign policy.

On May 13 the Sudeten-German Party established officially a militia, which, in its uniforms and in general appearance, resembled closely the Nazi S.A. and S.S. in Germany. The tension grew so rapidly that on May 21 it was generally expected that German troops would march into Czechoslovak territory to be welcomed there by the Sudeten Germans. A partial mobilization of the Czech army, which, accomplished with astonishing swiftness and precision, gave ample evidence of its high quality, cut short all these expectations and reestablished complete civic order in the Sudeten-German territory.

On May 28 Chancellor Hitler ordered an extraordinary enlargement of the German army and air force and the immediate construction of 'the most colossal fortifications of all times' on the western frontier of Germany. The German press started a most violent press campaign against Czechoslovakia and against President Eduard Benes in which the most responsible leaders in Germany joined. Czechoslovakia was accused by them of disturbing the peace of Europe, of mistreating most cruelly her minorities, and of being an outpost of Bolshevism in the heart of Europe. Encouraged by this press campaign and by the official German attitude, the Sudeten-German Party transmitted a memorandum to the Czechoslovak Government on June 7 asking a complete remodeling of the state on the basis of the Karlsbad demands of April 24. The municipal elections held in Czechoslovakia on May 22, May 20 and June 12 had passed off in complete order. They had resulted, in the predominantly German part of Czechoslovakia, in an overwhelming victory for the Sudeten German candidates. On July 26 the British Government decided to interfere in the Czechoslovak situation and to send Viscount Runciman as mediator on a mission not clearly defined otherwise. Lord Runciman arrived in Prague with his staff on August 3 and started negotiations.

The Czechoslovak Crisis.

Meanwhile the Czechoslovak Government under the leadership of the Prime Minister, Dr. Milan Hodza, a member of the Agrarian Party, had worked out a new statute for appeasement of the minorities in Czechoslovakia which included far-reaching concessions. Even the editorial of the London Times of July 15 considered these concessions as most satisfactory and advised the Germans to accept them. Prime Minister Daladier of France had, in a speech on the eve of July 14th, stressed France's faithfulness to her alliance with Czechoslovakia. In spite of all this the German campaign against Czechoslovakia became more and more violent, with the aim of impressing Great Britain, and of making it impossible for the Czechoslovak Government to create an atmosphere of cooperation which would render fruitful the negotiations with the minorities. The Czechoslovak Government in working out the new nationality statute and the language act amendment was most anxious not to present completed arrangements to the Sudeten Germans or to any other group, but to have all parties take part in the various stages of the negotiations. For this purpose Dr. Hodza had frequent interviews with the leaders of the Sudeten-German Party and other opposition groups. Following the example of the Sudeten Germans, the Hungarian and the Polish minorities had put forward their claims to the effect that all new arrangements concerning the Germany minority should apply to them also, a principle willingly accepted by the Czechoslovak Government. The Czechoslovak Government was most anxious to do everything possible to ensure that neither the German minority in Czechoslovakia, nor the Reich itself, should have any cause for complaint. Czechoslovakia was eager for good-neighbor relations as they had existed between Germany and Czechoslovakia until 1935. But the violent German press propaganda did not allow any atmosphere of reconciliation to develop.

Under these conditions Lord Runciman's mission had little chance of accomplishing any results. Lord Runciman had to acknowledge, in his report on his mission, that the Czechoslovak Government had acted with the greatest moderation and in a spirit of conciliation, forbearance and patience, whereas the Sudeten-German Party had sabotaged every attempt to arrive at a solution. It became clear that the real issue was not the position of the German-speaking minority in Czechoslovakia, but the desire on the part of Germany to change completely the position of Czechoslovakia, and with it the balance of power in Europe, to break the ties binding Czechoslovakia to the Western democracies, thereby isolating France on the continent and forcing the final absorption of Czechoslovakia into the political and economic orbit of Germany, thus making her a link in the German expansion southeastward.

In the middle of August the German army and air force started maneuvers on an unprecedented scale, and more than a million men were called to the colors in Germany. At the same time the civilian population was mobilized for labor on the new fortifications started by Germany on her Western border. This sudden aggravation of the German-Czech relations coincided with the death, on Aug. 16, of the leader of the Slovak Autonomists, Father Andreas Hlinka, in his native Rosenberg. His last words to his closest followers, Dr. Sidor and Monsignor Tiso, were 'Fight on until you have won freedom and victory.' Hlinka, who before the World War had fought for Slovakian autonomy against Hungary and had been several times in prison, had after 1920 continued his fight for Slovakian autonomy against Czechoslovakia. But the opposition of his clerical Slovak People's Party against the Prague Government had been for many years very moderate, and for a time the Party had even cooperated closely with the Government. In February 1938 Hlinka, then a man of seventy-four years, had again come forward with a strong demand for autonomy for the Slovaks. His Party adopted more and more a pro-Fascist physiognomy, and, in her foreign policy, was friendly to Germany and Poland. The death of Father Hlinka increased rapidly the intransigence of his followers and speeded up the growing tendency of his Party towards Fascism.

On Aug. 19 the Czechoslovak Government submitted the new nationality statute to the Sudeten-German Party, a statute which granted complete autonomy to the national minorities, but tried to preserve the democratic character of Czechoslovakia and to protect the minorities within the minorities, on the principle of complete equality for all Czechoslovak citizens irrespective of creed, race or language. English and French public opinion, and official circles regarded the statute as a most propitious basis for successful negotiations. But a number of incidents provoked by Sudeten Germans, and the official advice given by the Sudeten-German Party to its followers to abandon restraint and 'to act in self-defense when attacked,' created an atmosphere most unfavorable to successful negotiations. Sir John Simon repeated officially on Aug. 27 Prime Minister's Chamberlain's declaration of unwillingness to pledge in advance support for Czechoslovakia in case of her being attacked; and on Sept. 3 Konrad Henlein visited Chancellor Hitler in Berchtesgaden. On Sept. 7 an editorial in the London Times which the British Government disclaimed officially proposed, as the best solution, the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and the cession of the Sudeten territory to Germany. It should be noted that until then this claim had never been raised explicitly either by the German Government or by the Sudeten-German Party.

Dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.

From now on the German official attacks against Czechoslovakia knew no bounds. They were repeated on Sept. 10 in a speech by Field Marshal Goering, and on Sept. 12 by Chancellor Hitler himself at the Party Congress in Nuremberg, where he demanded the right of 'self-determination' for the Sudeten Germans, at the same time denouncing President Benes in most violent terms. These speeches were followed by Sudeten German riots in Czechoslovakia which seemed calculated to provoke incidents that might serve as a pretext for Germany to restore 'order.' The Czechoslovak Government proclaimed martial law in some of the districts where the incidents had occurred, and from that time on the most complete order ruled in all parts of Czechoslovakia. The Sudeten-German Party then issued an ultimatum in which they demanded the lifting of martial law within six hours. Naturally the Czechoslovak Government refused to accept the ultimatum, declared itself alone responsible for the maintenance of order and perfectly able to secure it.

From this date, events succeeded each other in rapid succession, until it was not only Czechoslovakia but the whole of Europe which was involved. The British and the French Governments urged the Czechoslovak Government to grant plebiscites which Mussolini demanded in an open letter to Lord Runciman. Chamberlain had his famous interviews with Hitler at Berchtesgaden on Sept. 15, and at Godesberg on Sept. 22. The French and the English Prime Ministers and Ministers of Foreign Affairs conferred in London. Lord Runciman returned to London and advised not only the cession of the Sudeten territory to Germany, but also the removal from power and influence within Czechoslovakia of all elements inimical to or critical of Nazi Germany, and the establishment of as close as possible a political and economic coordination between Germany and Czechoslovakia.

Meanwhile Konrad Henlein proclaimed the desire of the Sudeten Germans for incorporation in the German Reich, but the Czechoslovak Government dissolved the Sudeten-German Party and ordered the arrest for treason of Henlein who had fled to Germany. In Germany. Henlein formed the armed Sudeten-German Frickorps, and issued a call to arms for his followers to join the new military formation for forceful liberation of the Sudeten-German territory. The Czechoslovak Government proclaimed on Sept. 17 a state of emergency throughout Czechoslovakia. The crisis was made more intense when the Polish Government demanded the annexation of the Silesian province of Teschen which had a population of about 250,000 inhabitants of whom about 100,000 were Poles and which contained very important mineral resources and steel works. Prime Minister Mussolini demanded in a speech in Trieste that the plebiscite should be extended to include the Hungarian and Polish minorities and the Slovaks in Czechoslovakia. On Sept. 20, the Hungarian Prime Minister and the Polish Ambassador to Berlin visited Chancellor Hitler in Berchtesgaden to urge the claims of the Hungarian and Polish minorities.

On Sept. 19 the British and French Governments urged Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudeten land to Germany for 'the maintenance of peace and the safety of Czechoslovakia's vital interests,' and proposed to guarantee 'the new boundaries of Czechoslovakia against unprovoked aggression.' The Prague Government proposed instead of outright cession an arbitration of its dispute with Germany under the still-existing German-Czech Treaty of Arbitration of 1926. The British and French Governments rejected this proposal, demanded immediate and full acceptance of their own proposals by Czechoslovakia, and declared that they would not be willing or able to extend aid to Czechoslovakia in the event of her attack by Germany. The Russian Foreign Minister Litvinoff declared in Geneva that the Soviet Government had been ready to aid Czechoslovakia, but that her offer of aid had been ignored while London and Paris granted 'bonuses for saber rattling.' Under these circumstances the Czechoslovak Government accepted, on Sept. 21, under pressure from Great Britain and France, the principle of the cession of the Sudeten-German territory, and on Sept. 22 the Government of Dr. Hodza resigned and a new Czechoslovak Government was constituted under General Jan Syrovy, Inspector General of the army, as Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense.

After Chamberlain's talk with Hitler at Godesberg on Sept. 22 the Czechoslovak Government informed the British Government that it could not accept the enlarged Godesberg demands. The British Government had declared itself unable to press these demands upon Czechoslovakia or to continue the responsibility of advising the Czechs not to mobilize. In their note rejecting the German demands of Godesberg, the Czechoslovak Government declared: 'The Czechoslovaks have shown a unique self-restraint regardless of the unbelievably coarse and vulgar complaints against them and their leaders. We agreed under most severe pressure to the plan for ceding parts of Czechoslovakia. The proposal is a de facto ultimatum such as is usually presented to a vanquished nation and not a proposition to a sovereign state which has shown the greatest possible readiness to make sacrifices for the appeasement of Europe. The proposals go far beyond what we agreed to. They deprive us of every safeguard for our national existence. Our national and economic independence would automatically disappear with acceptance of Herr Hitler's plan. The whole process of moving the population is to be reduced to panic and flight on the part of those who will not accept the German Nazi regime. We rely upon the two greatest Western democracies, whose wishes we have followed much against our own judgment, to stand by us in our hour of trial.'

The Czechoslovak Government then rejected entirely the Godesberg proposals, and ordered the general mobilization of the Czechoslovak army. In spite of that, in the course of events. Czechoslovakia was forced to accept all of the Godesberg demands with all the consequences which they implied and which the Government of Czechoslovakia had foreseen. The Four-Power Agreement of Munich of Sept. 29, arrived at without the participation of Czechoslovakia or any consultation with her, sealed the fate of the country. On October 1 German troops crossed the Czechoslovak frontier and began the occupation, which was completed by October 10. At the same time Czechoslovakia surrendered to Poland the territory of Teschen, and agreed to negotiate a territorial settlement with Hungary.

Czechoslovakia was placed at the mercy of Germany, having been deprived of all her frontier defenses. With the International Commission appointed at Munich to determine the conditions of the evacuation and the final territorial adjustments, all points were decided against her. As a consequence, Czechoslovakia decided to change her course entirely. The first Government of General Syrovy resigned on October 4 and was reformed on October 5, again under General Syrovy. But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had passed from the hands of Dr. Kamil Krofta, for many years the closest collaborator of Dr. Benes and a warm supporter of the League of Nations, into the hands of Dr. Frantisek Chvalkovsky, former Minister to Rome and a convinced adherent of Fascist orientation. On the same day Dr. Benes resigned as President of Czechoslovakia and withdrew into private life. A short while later he was forced to leave Czechoslovakia and to take refuge in England, before going to America where he had been invited to join the faculty of the University of Chicago. Thus the First Czechoslovak Republic founded by Masaryk came to its end.

The Second Republic.

One of the most urgent problems confronting the new state was the establishment of definite frontiers with Germany, Poland and Hungary. The negotiations with Hungary lasted for several weeks. They were finally terminated by the decision of Germany and Italy who were recognized as arbiters, and whose Foreign Ministers at a meeting in Vienna, on November 2, determined that the southern and southeastern parts of Slovakia and Ruthenia, or Carpatho-Russia, should be ceded to Hungary, including most of the larger towns of these territories, even the capital of Carpatho-Russia, but leaving Pressburg (Bratislava) to Slovakia. The Hungarians had demanded the incorporation of the whole of Carpatho-Russia into Hungary, and their claim had been supported by Poland and originally by Italy, but it was denied on the insistence of Germany, who wished to keep Carpatho-Russia for herself as a starting point for a campaign against the Ukraine, whereas Poland intended to bar German expansion eastward by the erection of a common Polish-Hungarian frontier.

At the close of 1938 it is too early to give any exact figures for the population of the new Czecho-Slovakia, as the migratory movement has not yet come to an end. The new state consists of three autonomous territories, Bohemia and Moravia with 7,000,000 inhabitants, Slovakia with about 2,500,000 inhabitants, and Carpatho-Russia with about 500,000 inhabitants. There will be small minorities widely scattered in the new state. Their number can be estimated at about 400,000 Germans and 85,000 Hungarians. On the other hand there will be in Germany about 750,000 Czechs, in Poland about 180,000, and in Hungary more than 400,000 Czechs and Slovaks.

The whole internal life of the Second Republic is dominated by a distinct swing to the Right. Slovakia went faster and further in this respect than Bohemia and Moravia. In the autonomous Slovakia a Government under the leadership of Monsignor Josef Tiso, the successor of Father Hlinka as leader of the clerical Slovak People's Party, was established. All political parties were dissolved, the Slovak People's Party was established as a Party of national unity, democracy was abolished, and a Fascist militia, or Heimwehr, under the leadership of Dr. Karel Sidor organized. From the beginning the new Government started a violently anti-Semitic campaign.

The development in the western provinces pointed in the same direction, but went more slowly and guarded, for the time being, some external forms of democracy. But here, too, no decision was taken without first considering its effect upon the goodwill of Nazi Germany. Czecho-Slovakia knew very well, that with her present frontiers, her political and economic independence was no more than a name and that she had become for all practical purposes a part of the Nazi German system. The Czech people, who had borne the almost unbearable strain of the September and early October days with the most remarkable discipline and spirit, turned away from democracy which had apparently forsaken them, and accepted the practical consequences of the situation in which they had been placed by forces stronger than themselves.

The Czechoslovak Social-Democrat Party, which had always been a most moderate and nationalistic party, left the International Labor Organization and tried to reconstitute itself on purely national lines. The same was done by the trade unions. The Communist Party was dissolved and forbidden and its press outlawed. A strict censorship allowed only the expression of opinions favorable to close cooperation with Germany and to the dominant philosophy of the present German Government. A violent press campaign against Dr. Benes and all the truly democratic forces which had ruled Czechoslovakia during her first twenty years, set in and did not even spare the person and memory of Masaryk. Busts and pictures of Masaryk and Benes were removed all over Czecho-Slovakia, many squares and streets were renamed, postage stamps with the picture of former President Benes were withdrawn from circulation.

The New Constitution.

Whereas Slovakia plunged headlong into a Fascist dictatorship, the transition in the Czech parts of the country was much slower and, so far, has not gone the whole road towards the establishment of a dictatorship. The Czecho-Slovak Parliament met on Nov. 17 for a brief session to set the election of a new President and to lay the foundations of the new Constitution. The first question before the Parliament was the drafting of a bill transforming Czechoslovakia into a federal state of Czechs, Slovaks and Ruthenes, and giving the Slovaks and Ruthenes complete autonomy. The relation between the Czech parts, known as the lands of the Crown of St. Wenceslas, and Slovakia is now very similar to the relation, as it was established in 1867, between Austria and Hungary in the old Habsburg monarchy. Slovakia, although the smaller and weaker component part, plays now the decisive rôle, as did Hungary in the Habsburg monarchy. According to the new Constitution, Slovakia and Ruthenia, or Carpatho-Russia, will be entirely independent in all their internal affairs, will have their own ministries and parliaments, whereas only certain definite subjects, like foreign policy, the army, tariffs, and currency, will be reserved to the Central Parliament in which all the three component parts of the federation will be represented. The Slovakian Cabinet under Prime Minister Tiso fixed the date for elections to the Slovakian Diet for Dec. 18. These elections proceeded entirely according to Fascist lines. Only one party was admitted, the Slovak People's Party, and the voters were asked to vote either 'Yes' or 'No' so that the election had the character of a plebiscite on the new totalitarian policy which was inaugurated on Oct. 6 and legalized by the new autonomy statute for Slovakia, accepted by the Czecho-Slovak Parliament on Nov. 22. Anti-Semitic demonstrations in Slovakia led to the demolishing and plundering of many Jewish shops, and the Slovak Government started to issue stringent anti-Jewish legislation affecting the economic position and the civic rights of all Jews.

On Nov. 30 Dr. Emil Hacha was elected President of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. A well-known jurist of conservative and clerical tendencies, Dr. Hacha had been President of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic. He had never participated actively in the political life of the country. He is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague. and since 1933 he has been regularly invited to the meetings of the German Academy of Law and has kept in close contact with leading Nazi jurists. His legal training and his well-known legal conscience has made him appear as a guarantee for the continuation of legality in Czecho-Slovakia.

After the election of the new President, the Government of General Syrovy resigned. A new Government was formed by Premier Rudolf Beran, the leader of the right wing of the former Agrarian Party, a personal enemy of Dr. Benes, an opponent of alliances with the Western countries, and an old advocate of a Germanophile policy. Dr. Chvalkovsky remained as Foreign Minister.

The Czech Parliament will maintain the party system. But all existing parties will be dissolved by law, and only two parties will be tolerated, one will be the Party of National Unity, which represents the majority and to which the Cabinet belongs. It is composed of the members of the former Agrarian, Clerical, National-Democratic, National-Socialist and Fascist groups. In addition to this party an opposition party will be tolerated, which consists mainly of members of the former Social Democratic Party and which will be called the National Workers' Party. Its leader will be Antonin Hampl. This party will carry on to a certain extent, as far as that will be possible, the tradition of Masaryk's democracy.

Relations with Germany.

Czecho-Slovakia has now come entirely within the political, economic and strategic orbit of Nazi Germany. This fact is well illustrated by the building of a great German motor road across Czech territory to connect German Silesia with Vienna. This road will create a German corridor across Moravia. It will be the property of Germany, constructed under German supervision, on land ceded by Czecho-Slovakia to Germany without any compensation. As German territory, it will be guarded by German police and German customs officials. It is regarded as the beginning of a great auto-highway which will connect Germany with the Balkans and with the Near East, a modern revival of the Berlin-Baghdad Railway. The road will be constructed to provide several traffic lanes.

This road will be supplemented by a new Danube-Oder canal which is to be constructed jointly by Czecho-Slovakia and Germany, and which will provide a direct waterway between the Baltic and the Black Sea of a length of some 1,740 miles. By this canal Germany will be linked directly with Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Rumania. As was said by an official news agency: 'The countries joined materially by this arterial waterway will undoubtedly be brought closer together politically.' The canal will bring the oil, wheat, and other raw materials of Eastern Europe within easy reach of Germany. Czecho-Slovakia will share the cost of this canal to the extent of $65,000,000.

Thus the control of Czecho-Slovakia means an immense advantage to Germany in her effort to expand eastward. Her strategic advantages on the road eastwards were strengthened by Czecho-Slovakia's cession of Theben to Germany on November 24. Theben is situated in Slovakian territory to the east of the confluence of the March and the Danube. The place had been the highly-fortified head of a bridge of utmost strategic importance for the control of the Danube in Czecho-Slovakia. Germany thus controls Slovakia which at present is strategically better situated than what remains of Bohemia and Moravia since the loss of the frontier mountains. Most of Czecho-Slovakia's armament industry has also been transferred to Slovakia.

The remaining German minority in Czecho-Slovakia received full cultural autonomy and the right of organization on Nazi lines. The German University in Prague and the German Institute of Technology in Brno, which originally were to be transferred to Reichenberg and to Linz, are to remain in Prague and Brno, but exclusively under Nazi administration, so as to be a spear-head of Nazi cultural propaganda in the new Czecho-Slovakia.

The future economic and industrial policy of Czecho-Slovakia depends entirely upon Germany's goodwill, as all the roads out of Czecho-Slovakia lead through Germany. Therefore Germany can easily by her railroad rates stifle and control Czecho-Slovakia's imports and exports. Czecho-Slovakia's industry cannot exist without the vast coal deposits which are in the territory ceded to Germany. The new territorial frontiers have brought with them a situation in which Prague and all the industries around the capital depend for their electric supply upon a plant situated now in German territory. Thus Czecho-Slovakia's whole economic life has to undergo a fundamental reorientation.

The Ukrainian Problem.

The rump of Carpatho-Russia (Ruthenia) which remained after the cession of its more fertile plains to Hungary has become the spear-head of Pan-Ukrainian propaganda under Nazi Germany's direction. The first Premier of Carpatho-Russia nominated in October, Dr. Andrew Brody, was later arrested by the Czechs, as he was suspected of sympathy for Hungary. He was succeeded by Monsignor August Volosin, a Greek Catholic priest and professor at the Teachers' Training School. The capital of Carpatho-Russia was transferred to Hust. A new Ukrainian Fascist organization, the SIC, was formed. It has adopted a resolution to make Carpatho-Ukraine, as it is now called, a Piedmont from which, with Germany's support, the Ukrainians now living in the Soviet Union and in Poland can be united. Prague had become at the end of 1938 the seat of organizations and propaganda centers for the creation of an independent Ukrainian state to include 40,000,000 Ukrainians in the Soviet Union, in Poland, and in Carpatho-Ukraine. The creation of the envisaged Great Ukraine would mean the loss to Czecho-Slovakia of Carpatho-Russia. In an interview with the press, Father Volosin declared on Dec. 11: 'Ruthenia owes her freedom to the German Reich and she will be eternally grateful.'

Slovakia and Carpatho-Russia have succumbed even more than the lands of the Crown of St. Wenceslas to Nazi influence. They may be considered definitely as stepping stones for the expansion of Germany into Hungary, Rumania and the Soviet Ukraine, the Ukrainian policy not only threatening the Soviet Union, but also Poland. Should the lands of the Crown of St. Wenceslas with their old democratic traditions not follow the lead of the more backward and reactionary Slovakian and Ruthenian parts, these parts could always threaten to break away and to constitute themselves as entirely independent states with the help and under the control of Germany.

Thus the fateful year 1938 did not see the end of the transformation of Czecho-Slovakia. The Pact of Munich settled nothing, nor did it inaugurate an era of order and peace in Central and Eastern Europe. It has unleashed forces which have only barely started their work of destruction and of reshaping frontiers and conditions. Events may move with great speed, in which not only the different parts of Czecho-Slovakia will be involved, but also Hungary and Poland, the Soviet Union and Rumania. Nobody can foresee the developments in detail, but one thing is certain, that, at least for the time being, the dismemberment of Czecho-Slovakia has meant not only the end of democracy in that country, but also the end of an era of progressive consolidation and evolving order throughout all Central and Eastern Europe.