1942: Czechoslovakia

When this republic in central Europe, a bulwark of progressive democracy and peace, was dismembered in 1938 and 1939, large parts of it were directly incorporated into Germany and Hungary. Out of the rest a 'protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia' and an 'independent' state of Slovakia were formed. The former became a part of the German Reich with a certain, though constantly dwindling, autonomy, the second became a political, military and economic satellite of Germany which guaranteed to 'protect' it for twenty-five years.

Bohemia and Moravia.

The Czechs in this so-called 'protectorate' have never abandoned the hope of national liberation and the rebirth of their democracy. All German efforts to suppress their national spirit and their love of freedom and human dignity have been in vain. In 1941 the dreaded 'hangman,' Reinhard Heydrich, one of the most feared and hated heads of the German secret police, was sent to Bohemia as 'protector' to break the spirit of Czech resistance. In this he did not succeed, in spite of executions of hundreds of Czechs in all walks of life, generals and university professors, officials and workers, peasants and merchants. The terror in Bohemia reached an unprecedented fury when, on May 27, 1942, Czech patriots made an attempt at assassination of Heydrich, who died ten days later. Another dreaded high official of the German secret police, Kurt Daluege, took Heydrich's place and increased the reign of terror. Thousands of Czechs, men in leading positions as well as simple folk, were executed. On June 10 the small town of Lidice, suspected of having hidden the assassins, was leveled to the ground, all its male inhabitants shot, the women and children dispersed in concentration camps and correctional institutions. The name of Lidice became a world-wide symbol of resistance to tyranny. (See LIDICE.)

Special tribunals were then set up throughout Bohemia and Moravia. Despite the fact that an unprecedented reward had been posted for the apprehension of the patriots who had caused the death of Heydrich, the Czech people showed a remarkable solidarity in preserving secrecy. Only on June 19 did the German Government announce that they had found the alleged assailants of Heydrich. They were Czechs who were supposed to have been dropped in Bohemia from a British bomber on Dec. 29, 1941. In the process of arrest they were killed, so that the full truth could not be determined. They had been apprehended in an Orthodox church in Prague. As a result, the Bishop of the Czech Orthodox church, Matthew Gorazd, and several other dignitaries of the church were executed, the church disbanded and its property confiscated. Among those also executed was General Alois Elias, who as premier of the protectorate had collaborated with the Germans, and had been for many months regarded as their faithful and trusted ally.

The protectorate was later forced to adapt its penal code to that of the German Reich, and the death penalty was introduced for all farmers who failed to report their entire crop or to offer it for sale. For minor offenses confiscation of property was to be the penalty. The Jews in the protectorate were even more bitterly persecuted. They were herded together in a small town, Terezin, or Theresienstadt, in northern Bohemia, and those who did not die there were deported under terrible conditions to eastern Europe, where they were exposed to starvation and left to perish.

Slovakia.

In Slovakia the Fascist government of Joseph Tiso carried on the complete coordination of the country with the National Socialist idea and practice. Slovakia declared war on the Soviet Union and on the United States, and units of the Slovakian army fought on the eastern front. In view of the fact that the country produces many important commodities for war, it participated to a certain degree in the general war prosperity. The relations with Hungary remained strained. Slovakia complained about the unfavorable treatment of the large Slovakian minority which in 1938 had come under Hungarian domination, while Hungary continued to regard herself entitled to control of the whole of Slovakia. Jews in Slovakia were persecuted as in other Nazi-dominated countries. Their property was confiscated and many of them were deported.

Czechoslovak Government.

The government of the Czechoslovak Republic continues to function in London under Dr. Eduard Benes as president. The prime minister is Monsignor Jan Shramek, and Jan Masaryk is minister of foreign affairs and deputy prime minister. The Cabinet consists at present of 5 Czechs and 5 Slovaks, thus symbolizing the unity of the two branches of the Czechoslovak nation. This Government represents Czechoslovakia as a member of the United Nations. During the year 1942 two important events of international significance happened, which may well help to determine the shape of the future peace. On Aug. 5 the British Government published a White Paper in which it formally and finally repudiated the Munich pact of 1938, according to which the Sudetenland had been ceded to Germany. Thus it was agreed that the final settlement of the Czechoslovak frontiers after the war would not be influenced by any changes which had been effected in and since 1938. Thereby the British Government not only rejected the German claim to the Sudetenland but also the separation of Slovakia. The Free French Committee concurred in this view on behalf of the French nation.

Of similar importance was the agreement reached on Jan. 24, 1942, between the governments of Poland and Czechoslovakia regarding their postwar collaboration. Detailed plans were drawn up for a common policy in the fields of foreign affairs, military defense, economic and financial matters, social questions, and finally transport, post and telegraphs. It was declared that the two Governments would welcome other states of central and eastern Europe to the confederation. The confederation will have a common general staff and, in the event of war, a unified supreme command. It will coordinate foreign trade policy and customs tariffs with the view of concluding a customs' union. It will also establish parity of the various national currencies and a uniform system of taxation. All the means of communication by land, water and air will be coordinated and passports and visas between the different members of the confederation will be abolished. Most important for the future democratic character of the peace was the declaration that each member state of the confederation must guarantee to all its citizens equality before the law and free admission to the performance of all state functions, freedom of conscience, organization and association, of the spoken and written word, independence of the courts of law, and finally control of the government by democratically and freely elected national representative bodies. A similar pact of confederation called the Balkan Union, had been concluded on Jan. 15, 1942, between the governments of Greece and Yugoslavia. The Governments of Czechoslovakia and Poland expressed the determination that their confederation should closely collaborate with the Balkan Union, for they felt confident 'that only cooperation of those two regional organizations can assure the security and develop the prosperity of the vast region stretching between the Baltic and the Aegean seas.'

1941: Czechoslovakia

During 1941 the Czech people continued to resent violently the German occupation of their lands and their ruthless deprivation of all liberties and law. In the so-called 'protectorate' the Czech puppet government lost the last vestiges of autonomy, the whole administration of the country being directed by the Germans. Czech resentment showed itself in a tenacious underground struggle and in acts of sabotage, especially after the Germans had dissolved all important Czech organizations, like the famous gymnastic Sokol confederation. The situation in Czechoslovakia came to a head at the end of September when the Germans suddenly recalled the Reichsprotector Constantin von Neurath and replaced him by Reinhard Heydrich, one of the most feared heads of the German secret police. Under his leadership a ruthless policy of stamping out all Czech resistance was begun. The prime minister of the autonomous Czech government in the protectorate, General Elias, was arrested and condemned to death for alleged treason. Hundreds of Czechs in all walks of life, generals, university professors, officials, merchants, peasants were executed. But this terror was unable to break the spirit of Czech resistance, and all their hopes were centered upon the Czechoslovak government which had been constituted in London under the leadership of Dr. Beneš.

This government was officially recognized by Great Britain and later by the Soviet Union. It represented all Czech and Slovak parties, from the Catholic Clerical Party to the Social Democrats. It acted in cooperation with Great Britain in building up a Czechoslovak army to take full part on the side of the Allies in the war of liberation and democracy. It also laid the foundations for the reconstruction of an independent Czechoslovakia after the victory. In that respect its negotiations with the Polish government for future collaboration between the two peoples were of greatest importance. The Czechoslovak-Polish agreement became the nucleus of a wide federation which was to embrace the Czechoslovaks, the Poles, the Yugoslavs and the Greeks, and thus establish a strong bloc of 100,000,000 people in the heart of Central Europe, pledged to mutual cooperation in all political, economic and cultural fields, and to the common defense of their security and their democratic liberties.

Slovakia.

Slovakia meanwhile continued her existence as an 'independent' state. She had officially joined the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo alliance in November 1940, and as a result, at the end of June 1941 sided with Germany in the war against the Soviet Union. Although Slovak divisions fought against the Soviet armies, not very much was heard of them, and most of them seem to have been withdrawn in view of their opposition to a struggle against their Slav brethren, the Russians. After Germany declared war on the United States in December 1941, Slovakia did likewise. Internally, Slovakia followed the Nazi policy entirely. The Slovak army under the command of the minister of defense, General Catlos, was completely adjusted to the German model, and Slovak economic life completely integrated into that of Germany. Jews lost all property rights, and were not only dislodged from all economic positions, but also ordered to leave the cities and to settle in a limited number of small villages. See also GREECE; HUNGARY; POLAND; YUGOSLAVIA.

1940: Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia, a former republic in Central Europe, was partitioned in the fall of 1938 and in the spring of 1939. The so-called Sudetenland was annexed by Germany, whereas Eastern Slovakia became a part of Hungary. The remaining rump republic was further divided half a year later, when the parts inhabited by the Czechs, under the official name of 'Bohemia and Moravia,' became incorporated into the German Reich under a statute which granted them some outward remnants of internal autonomy; Slovakia became a state of its own, under a German protectorate; and the Carpatho-Ukraine, the most eastern part of the former republic, was annexed by Hungary. During the year 1940 the Czech people in Bohemia and Moravia continued to resent bitterly the German occupation of their country. The Germans curtailed the rest of the Czech autonomy, and for all practical purposes the country was directly controlled by the German administration.

Hand in hand with the economic spoliation of the country by the occupying army and the authorities went the closing down of all higher institutions of Czech learning and Czech culture. The Jews in Bohemia and Moravia who in the first months of occupation had escaped the full scope of Germany's anti-Jewish laws were reduced to the same state of impoverished helplessness as in Germany, and all Jewish shops and business enterprises were either closed or taken over by the Germans. On Sept. 15 the customs border between Germany and the Bohemian-Moravian protectorate was abolished, and the Czech territory was completely incorporated economically into the German Reich. That brought about a transfer of most salable products to Germany on account of its superior purchasing power and of the lower prices prevailing in Bohemia. At the same time, all exchange restrictions between Germany and the Czech territory were removed and the official parity of one Reichsmark to ten Czech crowns was established. As the Czech fascist party, called Vlajka, did not make any headway in spite of German official support, most of the leading members of the Czech National Solidarity party were arrested in September by the Gestapo, the German Secret Police, and a new committee was appointed to lead this party, to which over 90 per cent of all Czech men had voluntarily adhered. The new committee appointed under pressure of the National Socialist government received from National Socialist sources the task of 're-educating the Czech people to the new order.'

Slovakia.

Like Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia came more and more under direct German control during 1940. The last vestiges of the democratic past were removed. The president of Slovakia, Monsignor Josef Tiso, combined the offices of the head of the state, of the Slovak People's party and of the supreme commander of the Hlinka Guard, which corresponded to the German Nazi S.A. The Slovak Parliament was destroyed, and instead of that a State Council with purely advisory functions was created. During the year 1940 George Durcansky, Minister of Foreign Affairs and of the Interior, was removed from office. Prime Minister Bela Tuka took over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sano Mach, the most devoted supporter of National Socialist ideology, became Minister of the Interior and Karol Murgas became Chief of Propaganda. As a result of these new appointments Slovakia followed, from the beginning of August on, an even more intensified course of cooperation with National Socialist Germany and of persecution of the Jews in Slovakia.

Slovakia's foreign relations with Hungary were strained throughout the period. The Hungarians complained of Slovak oppression of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, and Slovak authorities countered with similar reproaches of an even more violent oppression of the large Slovakian minority in Hungary. On the other hand, Slovakia, in spite of its Catholic fascist régime, entered into friendly relations with the Soviet Union. On Nov. 24 Slovakia was invited to join officially the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis, after Hungary and Rumania had signed the pact.

Carpatho-Ukraine.

Carpatho-Ukraine, which had become part of Hungary in March, 1939, in the spring of 1940 lost the last traces of its autonomous life. The members of the Hungarian Parliament who represented Carpatho-Ukraine under the name of the United Upland Party decided at a meeting in Kaschau to dissolve the party and to unite unreservedly with the party of Hungarian Life, the government party in Hungary. The special Ministry created for Carpatho-Ukraine was dissolved. A new emphasis was placed upon the Magyarization of the whole province.

Provisional Government in London.

Czechs and Slovaks outside of their homeland formed a provisional Czechoslovak government, which was officially recognized by the British government on July 21. The new Cabinet under Monsignor Jan Sramek, a Catholic priest, as Prime Minister, and Jan Masaryk as Minister of Foreign Affairs, comprised eleven members of whom six were Czechs and five were Slovaks. The former president of Czechoslovakia, Dr. Eduard Benes, who had resigned after the Pact of Munich in October 1938, was again recognized as president of the Czechoslovak republic. The status of this government was similar to that of the Norwegian, the Dutch and the Polish governments in exile in Great Britain. Czechoslovak military formations under their own officers and general staff had fought in France during the first days of the war, and this army had been successfully evacuated without any major losses after the defeat of France. It was reconstituted in Great Britain, and on Oct. 25 a military agreement was signed between the British and the Czechoslovak governments, according to which the Czechoslovak troops were organized under the command of their own generals for cooperation with the British and allied armed forces.

This Czechoslovak government concluded an agreement with the government of Poland regarding close cooperation in the political and economic reconstruction of Europe after the war. In a joint declaration published on Nov. 11, 1940, the two governments declared that, closing once and for all the period of past recrimination and dispute, they were determined to enter into a political and economic association which would become the basis of a new order in Central Europe and a guarantee of its stability. On Dec. 10, the Czechoslovak government completed its administrative machinery by the formation of a State Council of forty members, consisting largely of former deputies and senators of the Czechoslovak Parliament, under the presidency of Rudolf Bechyne, a former leader of the Czech Social Democrats. The full resources of Czechoslovakia held in London prior to the country's destruction were placed at the disposal of this State Council. See also WORLD PEACE.

1939: Czechoslovakia

Dismemberment; the Hacha Government.

The year 1939 saw the disappearance of Czechoslovakia. The pact of Munich at the end of September 1938 had reduced the territory and the number of inhabitants of the former Czechoslovak republic, as created on Oct. 28, 1918, by about one-third. It had replaced its formerly staunch democratic régime, which had relied upon the western democracies, by a pro-Fascist régime which tried to cooperate with National Socialist Germany and to coordinate its domestic and foreign policies with those of the powerful neighbor. At the same time the country was transformed into a federation consisting of three parts, of which the western part, consisting of the remnant of Bohemia and Moravia formed the most advanced and largest element; whereas the eastern parts, Slovakia and the Carpathian Ukraine, reorganized their administrations under outright Fascist clerical governments.

The new government in Prague under President Dr. Emil Hacha and Premier Rudolf Beran tried very hard to revive the economic life of the country, which had been completely destroyed by its dismemberment. By the various territorial concessions Czechoslovakia had lost about one-third of her industries. Of what remained, about 80 per cent were concentrated in Bohemia and Moravia, about 16 per cent in Slovakia and about 3 per cent in the Carpathian Ukraine. The Ministry of Transportation worked hard on the enlargement and readaptation of the country's communication network to the new frontiers: a program involving the expenditure of nearly $50,000,000 was earmarked for the replacement of tracks and stations affected by the frontier changes. Whereas formerly Czechoslovakia had been a country largely exporting coal, her coal supply was now cut by the new frontiers from about 3,000,000 tons monthly output to about 900,000 tons monthly output, and she had become dependent upon large importations of coal from her former mines now found in foreign territory.

It soon became apparent that the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia on alleged ethnographic lines had destroyed a unity which had existed for many centuries and which was based on the strongest economic and strategic considerations. It became clear that the Sudetenland, with its preponderantly German-speaking population, was absolutely necessary to Czechoslovakia if she wished at all to survive as an independent nation, if she wished at all to lead her own economic life and to feel strategically secure against aggression and interference.

German Interference.

The racially more homogeneous character of the new Czechoslovakia did not shield the Czechs from constant interference by Germany. The tiny scattered German minority left in Czechoslovakia continued to claim not only an autonomous organization as a state within a state, but also the right to influence decisively Czech political and cultural life. In the eastern parts of Czechoslovakia, the Germans supported actively the disintegrating influences of Slovak extremists who wished to undermine the new state. A Slovak extremist leader, Tuka, became the head of a Slovak-German association and was appointed honorary chief of the Hlinka Guard which was organized in Slovakia after the plan of the Nazi S.A. and S.S. The Czechoslovak citizens who were of German descent were exempted from military service, were allowed to fly the swastika and received the right to organize a complete state within a state.

But even the greatest concessions on the part of the Czechoslovak government, and its willingness to transform the national life entirely in accordance with Nazi principles and demands, did not help to preserve the remnant of Czech independence. In view of its coming plans of expansion into Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the German government had made up its mind to incorporate Czechoslovakia entirely within the orbit of Germany so that all the strategic and economic resources of the country would be at its disposal for the purposes of the coming wars. See also GERMANY.

Revolutionary Movements; Slovakia Proclaims Independence.

The German government took the initiative by fomenting a revolutionary movement in Czechoslovakia. Autonomy had left Slovakia, with its lack of economic resources, in very strained financial circumstances and had cut off the financial support which it formerly got from the richer western parts. Some ambitious Slovak politicians tried to instigate an independence movement with National Socialist support. Under these circumstances the Prague government decided to take a strong stand. On the morning of March 10 it reestablished its authority by arresting a number of Slovaks who were plotting to overthrow the new constitution, among them Dr. Tuka and the Slovak propaganda minister, Sano Mach. The Slovak Premier, Joseph Tiso, was put under house arrest. A similar action had been taken a week before in Carpathian Ukraine where the Minister of Transportation, Julian Revay, was dismissed and General Prchala was appointed as Minister of the Interior. Both actions aimed at maintaining the unity of the new state, as created at Munich, and to prevent the degeneration of autonomy into treason.

But this time the central government did not succeed because the Slovaks immediately found the support of Berlin. A last minute effort to create a new Slovak ministry under Karol Sidor as Prime Minister, and with other members of the younger Slovak generation, did not materialize. The official German radio broadcast reports of Czech troop movements along Germany's border, and from March 12 on, the Viennese broadcasting station openly took the side of the Slovak independence group against the Prague government. The Czech effort to consolidate the new state and to insure Slovak loyalty failed through German intervention. The Slovak leader, Dr. Durchansky, broadcast from Vienna an appeal to the Slovaks to prepare for the historic hour which might come at any moment. The official press in Germany started a vehement campaign against Czech 'atrocities.' On March 12, it was generally expected that the German troops would march into Czechoslovakia. On March 13, the former Slovak Prime Minister, Tiso, visited Chancellor Hitler in Germany. The press campaign against the Czechs grew hourly in intensity; on March 14, the Slovak parliament met and declared the complete independence and the severance of all connections with Czechoslovakia. Dr. Joseph Tiso, backed by a promise of military aid from Chancellor Hitler, was elected Prime Minister, with Dr. Bela Tuka as Vice Premier and Dr. Ferdinand Durchansky as Foreign Minister.

Final Liquidation of Czechoslovakia.

On the evening of the same day Dr. Hacha, President of the second Czechoslovakian republic, arrived in Berlin and in the early morning hours of March 15 he signed an agreement according to which Germany effected a protectorate over Bohemia and Moravia and incorporated them as an autonomous part of Greater Germany. Meanwhile German troops had already crossed the Czech borders and proceeded with greatest haste to complete military occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. At the same time Hungarian troops crossed into the Carpathian Ukraine and occupied this most eastern part of the former Czechoslovak republic. On March 15, Chancellor Hitler himself arrived in Prague and spent the night in the ancient residence of the Bohemian kings. The liquidation of Czechoslovakia was accomplished by Germany, contrary to her promises and agreement at Munich, with the utmost speed, showing the careful preparation with which this coup had been plotted. With one stroke and without any great expense Chancellor Hitler had acquired the economic resources and the excellent military equipment of Czechoslovakia.

Bohemia-Moravia Protectorate.

A decree published on March 16 declared Bohemia and Moravia a protectorate within the German Reich. German inhabitants of the protectorate became German citizens and were put under the jurisdiction of German laws and courts. The protectorate was put under a supreme head of the protectorate who must enjoy the confidence of the German Fuehrer. Dr. Hacha continued in this function. He was surrounded by a government whose members were in office subject to the will of the Reichs Protector, a new office created by Germany. This Protector, who resides in Prague, is the guardian of the Reich's interests and has to see to it that the protectorate follows in every detail the policy laid down by the German Chancellor. He may override at any moment decisions by the Czech government and can issue his own orders. The foreign affairs of the Czechs were entirely taken over by Germany; the Czech army was disbanded; Germany maintained garrisons and military establishments in the protectorate, which, however, may organize for safeguarding domestic order its own formations, the organization and strength of which are determined by the German government. Bohemia and Moravia became a part of the customs territory of the German Reich, their communications and postal telegraph and telephone services were put under German supervision, and generally the German government was empowered to take over any part of the administration and to put into effect any measures deemed necessary for its interests. The Protectorate preserves some autonomy, but only on sufferance and for as long as it pleases the Reich. The whole economic and cultural life is entirely subordinated to German requirements.

The fate of Czechoslovakia caused a profound change in the attitude of Great Britain and France who, after having gone to greatest lengths to preserve peace, became now determined to resist any further attempts at aggression in Europe. Meanwhile on the eastern border of former Czechoslovakia clashes occurred between the Hungarians who had occupied Carpathian Ukraine and the new Slovak army. Polish troops had occupied a few villages at the Polish-Slovakian border. The definite frontier between Slovakia and Hungary was fixed on April 3, 1939. By this agreement about forty villages were ceded to Hungary.

The new political units, carved out of former Czechoslovakia — the German Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia and the nominally independent state of Slovakia — began in April to lay the foundations for their new existence. The Czech people organized themselves into a newly founded party of National Unity which accepted all male Czechs of over twenty years. On April 27, the first government of the German Protectorate was constituted with General Alois Eliash as Premier. Baron Constantin von Neurath, who had been German Foreign Minister until February 1938, was named Reichs Protector for the Protectorate; and the former Sudeten German leader, Karl Hermann Frank, became Secretary to the Protector and concentrated all real power in his hands.

Meanwhile Czech resistance abroad against the new status of Bohemia and Moravia was organized. The democratic governments of the world did not recognize the German occupation of former Czechoslovakia, and the Czech diplomatic representatives continued in their offices in Washington, London and Paris. One of the leading Czech Generals, Leo Prchala, escaped to Poland where he started to organize Czech legions, and a former cabinet member and leader of the Catholic Party in Bohemia, Monsignor Jan Sramek, succeeded in going abroad, where meanwhile Czech resistance had organized around Dr. Eduard Benes, the former President of Czechoslovakia, who at that time was teaching in America and, later in the summer, went to Great Britain and France.

Slovakia.

In Slovakia the new state was built on Fascist authoritarian principles. The new constitution adopted on July 21 provided for a Parliament of eighty members elected for five years, which in turn elects the President of the Republic for a seven-year term. The whole political life of the country is concentrated in the hands of the only party admitted, the Slovak People's Party, founded by Father Andrew Hlinka. The population is organized after the model of the corporate state in seven vocational associations. A far-reaching autonomy is granted to the German and the Hungarian minorities. The flag of the new state is a Tricolor of white, light blue and red in even stripes. Its coat of arms is a shield showing on red ground three mountain peaks in light blue, the central peak crowned with the double cross of Saints Cyril and Methodius. On Oct. 26, Rev. Joseph Tiso was elected first President of the Slovak Republic. He was succeeded as Prime Minister by Dr. Bela Tuka, the leader of the radical pro-Nazi wing of the People's Party. Dr. Ferdinand Durchansky, another pro-Nazi extremist, became Foreign Minister and Minister of the Interior. By a military agreement made on Aug. 18 between Germany and Slovakia, the whole Slovak army was put at German disposal, and the German army received the right of military operations along Slovakia's border with Poland. Germany was entitled to keep a number of garrisons in certain parts of Slovakia. These new measures were motivated with the alleged danger of a Polish aggression against Slovakia.

Meanwhile the economic and financial position of the new country underwent a fast and profound deterioration. Slovakia's trade balance became most unfavorable. Lack of raw material brought about the closing of many industries. The dismemberment of Czechoslovakia destroyed, at least for the time being, the prosperity of Slovakia, and made her entirely dependent upon Germany for economic and financial assistance. Some resistance to the growing German influence in the Slovak puppet state found its expression in the rise of an opposition group under the leadership of Karel Sidor who had been one of the most prominent younger followers of Father Hlinka. But Sidor was named Minister to the Vatican, and several leading members of the opposition were arrested. President Tiso defined the aim of the Slovak government as the creation of a special type of National Socialism in closest collaboration with the German Reich, but also in conformity with the Roman Catholic Church to which the large majority of the Slovak population is most devoted.

Germanization of Bohemia-Moravia.

The new government in Bohemia-Moravia issued in May new regulations governing prices, wages, hours of work and the status of Jews, in conformity with the principles and requirements of National Socialist Germany. The government of the Protectorate was forced by Germany into an imitation of Nazi anti-Semitism, but tried to protect the Jewish population against any violent excesses. Thus it was left to the German Protector to issue himself stringent decrees regarding Jewish property. The Protector assumed the right to alter existing Czech law or to make new laws whenever it seemed necessary to him. A number of incidents increased the growing bitter tension between the Czech population and the German authorities. Czech national monuments were removed, the names of historic market places, bearing the names of Czech heroes and leaders, were changed into Adolf Hitler or Hermann Goering Squares; the singing of national Czechs songs was forbidden; in five of the most important cities, in Brno, Ceske Budejovice, Olomouce, Moravska Ostrava, and Jihlava, the Czech mayors were replaced by German Commissars. A German policeman was killed in the mining city of Kladno, and although the investigations remained without result, stern repressive measures were taken against the Czechs. A few days later two German policemen killed a Czech policeman at Nachod. These minor incidents quickly grew into a revolutionary movement after the outbreak of the war between Germany and Poland. The discontent vented itself in great demonstrations on Oct. 28, the day of the anniversary of the proclamation of the independence of Czechoslovakia in 1918.

Suppression of Czech Resistance; Anti-Semitic Measures.

The European war aroused the expectations of the Czech population, their hopes for a coming liberation, and their eyes turned towards the provisional government and the army which Dr. Benes set up in France. There was a small group of Fascists among the Czechs themselves, but it never gained any importance. It was a tool in the hands of the German government, but did not succeed in breaking up the Czech national unity. Anti-Semitism gained no hold on the Czech population, especially in view of the fact that all business enterprises, factories, estates and stock taken away from the Jews were acquired exclusively by Germans, and so served the purpose of the Germanization of Czech economic life. The disorders which had started on Independence Day were repeated on a larger scale in the middle of November. The disorder started on the occasion of the funeral of one of the Czech students who had been wounded seriously during the demonstrations on Independence Day. The German government took stern measures of repression. Nine Czech students were immediately executed, martial law was proclaimed, and at least twelve hundred students and intellectuals were arrested and sent to prison and to concentration camps. All Czech universities and institutes of higher learning were closed for three years, and thus Czech intellectual development was stifled. Towards the end of the year the movement of open revolt subsided, but the situation remained tense.

The process of the Germanization of the Bohemian lands progressed fast through economic and educational measures. The number of schools for the Czech population was constantly diminished. Many of the most promising teachers were dismissed. On the other hand many new German schools were opened, the three German institutions of university rank were kept open, although the number of Germans in the Protectorate did not amount to more than 240,000. German students from the Reich were sent to schools in the Protectorate, and all these German schools had to be maintained by the Protectorate government out of Czech tax money. Czech workers and peasants were sent to work in the Reich and their place was taken by German Nazis. The Jewish population of the Protectorate was to be removed to the newly created Jewish reservation in Southeastern Poland, and by the end of 1939 the first transports had already left for what was considered by many an immense concentration camp where the Jews would face starvation under the supervision of the Gestapo. All concerns in which there had been any Jewish interest were being rapidly 'aryanized' by turning over their interests to Germans — to the exclusion of the Czechs. See also FASCISM; UNITED STATES: Foreign Relations.

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.