THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 171 No. 5117

LONDON JUNE 4th, 1938

SIXPENCE

IN T i n s ISSUE WHITSUNTIDE “THE SPIRIT OF HIS SON”

By R. H. J. Steuart, S.J.

THE EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS AT BUDAPEST

An Eye Witness’s Account and Impressions GERMAN AIMS IN CENTRAL EUROPE

By Robert Sencourt

A LETTER FROM SPAIN

From Our Burgos Correspondent

ON STATISTICS

By Hilaire Belloc

Full List o f Contents on page 728.

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The Second Sunday

French Views on Czechoslovakia

The second Sunday of the Czech elections passed off quietly. As a result of the union of German parties previously in competition with each other, the German vote now united behind Herr Henlein gives his party some 85 per cent in the German areas. The negotiations between the Premier Hodza and the German minority continue, and from an interview which he has given to a Hungarian newspaper, Herr Hodza envisages changing the term “ minorities” into “nationalities.” It becomes increasingly clear that the policy of conciliation upon which Prague, with the advice and support of the British and French, has seriously embarked, will involve a transformation of Czechoslovakia, but a transformation which offers far the best prospects both for the Czechs and for Central Europe. A country of different races living together under the understanding that they will leave each other alone in all affairs that can be treated separately, and will seek to agree for their common advantage in essential matters, will be a new model in the Danube valley, and one that may be increasingly copied. It should serve to suggest, to the much preoccupied statesmen of countries which have never really found their feet economically, a new type of organization. After the peace these States, though small Powers, sought to model themselves on the great Powers with large armies and tariff walls. They felt the strain, and equally their foreign policies separated them sharply into those who had done well out of the treaties and those who had done badly. The Czechs will have to extend to their Hungarian, Polish, and perhaps their Slovak and Ruthenian minorities what they extend to the Bohemian Germans, and if the concessions are far-reaching they should abate the age of revisionist fervour in their neighbours. Above all the effect of these measures would be to remove Czechoslovakia from the Paris-Prague-Moscow alignment. No country can conduct a foreign policy which is only congenial to one element in the State.

The French Left is taking, on the whole, a calmer and more optimistic view of the dangers of the situation in Czechoslovakia than the Press of the Right. Even Mme Tabouis, the foreign correspondent of PCEuvre, is impressed by the orderly voting in the second elections, and by the results, which show a thirty to forty per cent gain for the Henlein Party in some districts, which is offset by the gains of the Agrarian Party in the country districts. The question now, in this writer’s view, is simply one of the interpretation of the phrase “ administrative autonomy” —a problem which the Czechoslovak Government “ believes—quite rightly— to be simply that of balance, for the central Power must never be inferior to the local Power, either in power or in resources.” Germany, she says, has been able to use the situation in order to work “ from inside” rather than “ from outside.” The firm action of the British and French Governments has clearly warned Germany what would be the results of any precipitate action, and “ all those who, during this period of flux, have been disappointed to find the voice of blood relationship stronger in Czechoslovakia than the principles of democracy, may today be perfectly content. ’’

M. Bailby, on the other hand, writing in the Jour-Echo cle Paris, maintains that the solution along federal lines similar to the Swiss constitution would be unworkable in Czechoslovakia, because, whereas the Swiss cantons are in perfect harmony so far as foreign policy is concerned, in Czechoslovakia there would be antagonism between the pro-Nazi German canton and the Czechs’ traditional policy “ inclined towards the Western Powers.” All that we have gained, according to M. Bailby, is time. “ We are forcing the German Government to consider that the operation will not be as easy as it imagined. That is our only chance. We must hold on to i t .” Both writers emphasize the importance of Mr. Cordell Hull’s declaration of America’s interest in the results of the struggle in Czechoslovakia.