German Sudetens protest

In response to the plan put forth by the Czechoslovakian Government, many of the Sudeten Germans who agree with Konrad Henlein, protested. However, what is Plan No. 4?

Plan No. 4 adds both financial and political concessions such as "states rights to minorities in Sudeten. President Beneš offered to lend a billion Czechoslovak koruny ($35,000,000) "on the most favorable terms" to stimulate industry in Czechoslovak districts now suffering from unemployment, with 700,000,000 koruny earmarked for Sudeten districts. Britain and France stood ready to lend this money to Czechoslovakia, it was understood in Prague, and Dr. Beneš clearly hoped many observers of the Sudeten Germans had been right in reporting recently that what they want is a return to prosperity, not Germany.
Plan No. 4 went further than Plan No. 3 in offering Sudeten Germans and other minority peoples State jobs (including "irremovable judgeships") in the same proportion as their numbers bear to the total population of Czechoslovakia. Moreover, each ministry of the Czechoslovak Cabinet would have a separate "section" corresponding to each minority, and each section would be headed by a member of that minority to guard its interests. As the most fateful concession of Plan No. 4, Dr. Beneš offered that in each minority canton the preservation of order should be "divided" between Federal gendarmerie in the countryside and town police of the Sudeten German or other minority faction.

In Germany, every paper printed atrocity stories describing how a Sudeten German Nazi Deputy had been "horsewhipped" by a Czech mounted policeman at the industrial town of Moravská Ostrava. Mounted police had tried to disperse a Sudeten German crowd which had gathered to demand immediate release from jail of 82 persons arrested for possessing arms smuggled from Germany. The prisoners were charged with preparing to organize an attack from the rear upon troops defending the Czechoslovak frontier in case of war. One blow from a riding crop was afterward proved to have struck, without injuring, a man who turned out to be a Sudeten Deputy. Next day the Czech mounted policeman responsible and two others were withheld from duty by Police Chief Baca, who then suspended himself for good measure. But by this time, German papers were well started on a flood of stories under such scareheads as SAVAGE HORSEWHIPPING OF SUDETEN DEPUTY BY BESTIAL CZECH OFFICER.

The No. 1 Sudeten, Konrad Henlein, was at Nürnberg with Hitler, but in Prague the No. 2 Sudeten, Ernst Kundt, tersely announced that "satisfactory amends" had been made at Moravská Ostrava and he then withdrew the Sudeten Party's previous refusal to negotiate on the basis of Plan No. 4. Obviously they were tempted by the 700,000,000 koruny—for there are only 3,500,000 Sudeten Germans.

Smart Dr. Beneš, although relying on money to do some talking in a situation basically desperate, fully realized that Plan No. 4 impressed millions of Czechoslovaks, apart from the Sudeten Germans, as offering such extreme concessions that it imperiled the State. If accepted, Plan No. 4 risks turning every Cabinet ministry into a debating club of minority groups. How democratic Czech gendarmes and totalitarian Nazi police can "divide" responsibility for keeping of order in Sudeten cantons was an unanswered question. In an impossible situation, under crushing British pressure to concede without limit, President Beneš had conceded so much that he realized some of his own people were becoming scared. To reassure the nation, Dr. Beneš went on the air with a calm, firm and tactful broadcast, only a few minutes after he learned that in a speech at Nuremberg General Göring had just gone out of his way to abuse the culture and traditions of the Czechoslovak Republic.

Plan No. 3

In Washington, anxious Assistant Secretary of State George S. Messersmith repeatedly crawled out of bed around 4 AM to hear by transatlantic telephone what U. S. Ambassadors in Europe could tell him about whether Adolf Hitler was going to hurl the German Army into Czechoslovakia.

The danger of war was not acute enough to keep Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in London. With his fishing rods and guns sticking ostentatiously out of his limousine, Mr. Chamberlain left for Scotland to play trout streams and shoot grouse with King George. Lloyd's pointed out in London last week that, although they stopped writing war-risk insurance on British property some months ago, and although they have been unwilling to cover either the risk of war breaking out in Europe or of Franklin Roosevelt announcing he will seek a Third Term, they were still quoting cargo insurance at far below "wartime rates." Thus, although the rate on South African copper shipped to Germany was raised last week from .025% to .125% the latter figure spells "Peace" in comparison with the 42% premium charged on shipments bound for war-torn Spain.

Up and down Europe a new factor working for peace was sighted by anxious millions in the behavior last week of U. S. Ambassadors. In London, after the British Cabinet had reviewed the Czechoslovak situation for nearly three hours, U. S. Ambassador Joseph Patrick Kennedy was invited in for an hour's conference. Next day Mr. Kennedy was back in Downing Street, conferring this time with Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax, and red-ink London placards shrieked this as good news. Mr. Kennedy, interviewed by transatlantic telephone, told the Hearst Boston American, ''No war is going to break out during the rest of 1938."

The Soviet Union and the French met and discussed the situation, while in Prague the British mediator, Viscount Runciman, at last had ready a third series of proposed concessions to the Sudeten Germans known as Czechoslovak Premier Dr. Milan Hodza's "Plan No. 3." This had been secretly flown over for the inspection of the British Cabinet and secretly flown back to Prague by Mr.

Frank Trelawny Arthur Aston-Gwatkin, Lord Runciman's Man Friday. It was taken by Sudeten German Führer Konrad Henlein to Berchtesgaden last week and there laid before the German Führer. Details were kept secret but it was understood that Plan No. 3 embodied these main points: 1) a three-month truce to be declared, to give time for much further negotiation between the Sudeten Germans, the Czechoslovak Government and other interested parties; 2) Czechoslovakia to become after these negotiations a Federal State composed of Gaue or "Cantons" modeled on the Swiss Federal State, whose structure has often been compared to that of the U. S. The Sudetens complain this would give their Gaue only a rough equivalent to American States' rights, whereas they have demanded "autonomy" comparable to British dominion status.

Viscount Runciman's entourage began complaining fortnight ago that they have found Konrad Henlein nothing but a "straw man," and last week the Sudeten Führer went to Berchtesgaden only to take the orders of his boss, Führer Hitler—for the fourth time this year.

Present with the No. 1 Nazi were No. 2 Nazi Göring, No. 3 Nazi Goebbels and Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, who arrived from Berlin with what was said to be a personal piece of advice to Adolf Hitler from Neville Chamberlain.

This had been verbally delivered in Berlin by the British Ambassador, Sir Nevile Henderson, who brought it by air from London. As Sir Nevile was leaving Croydon, he added an E. Phillips Oppenheim touch by portentously remarking to cameramen : "You had better be quick—this is the last chance you'll get."

Henlein, after four hours' conference with Hitler, returned to his home in the village of As. Three days later one fact seemed obvious: the "strawman" had been instructed to reject Plan No. 3, to compromise on nothing, to hold out for full, unqualified Sudeten autonomy. The Czech Cabinet then met with President Benes and drafted its "last" offer to which a response was expected from Dictator Hitler this week in one of his numerous speeches at the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg.

Meanwhile, local bigwigs of the Sudeten German Party were reported from Czechoslovakia as be ginning to show signs of fear lest they be thrust aside by Nazis from Germany, much as in Vienna the Austrian Nazis have lost all the biggest plums to German Nazis. Supplementing cables to this effect was a statement by pro-Czech Chairman George Boochever of the American-Czechoslovak Chamber of Commerce, who stepped off the Dutch liner Nieuw Amster dam in Manhattan. "In my talks with Sudeten Germans," said Mr. Boochever, "I gained the impression that they had no real wish to be annexed to Germany. . . . I think Henlein is but the mouthpiece for Hitler's views and if it were not for the propaganda and subsidies from Germany received by Henlein and his group there would be no agitation. . . ."

Anschluss

Today, Austria united with Germany. Adolf Hitler desired having all German speaking peoples united in one Germany. The last time this was fact was in 1806 under the Holy Roman Empire.

The turn of events started as far back as February. On the 12th of that month, German Chancellor Hitler met with Kurt Schuschnigg, the Chancellor of Austria, in Berchtesgaden. That's Bavaria to you and me. At this meeting, the German Chancellor demanded that Austria allow full freedom for political parties and release all political prisoners, notably the Nazi ones.

Mr. Schuschnigg complied with these demands and even appointed Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Interior Minister and Edmund Glaise-Horstenau as Minister without portfolio. Both men are Nazis.

After the release of political prisoners who've not known freedom for four long years after Austria's own civil war, the Communists sided with the Austrian government. The Socialists demanded more concessions from the government before offering any support.

Schuschnigg decided to put the vote on Austrian independence to a vote. On March 9th, he set the minimum voting age at 24. The youth of the Alpine nation have been inflamed with Nazi ideology. For this referendum to pass, Schuschnigg could not have Nazi sympathizers participating.

Germany didn't take this lying down. The Ministry of Propaganda issued reports that riots were occurring in Austria and the Austrians were pleading for Germany to come in and restore order. These were false.

Hitler demanded that control of the country be handed over to the National Socialist Party by noon on the 11th. He extended the demand two hours. It mattered little. Nazis were quick to take over Vienna.

The Chancellor resigned in the evening hours of the 11th at around 7:30 PM. He told his people and the world by radio that he had to this to avoid bloodshed.

The President of Austria, Wilhelm Miklas, though, refuses to recognize Seyss-Inquart as the new Chancellor. As long as he did this, Seyss-Inquart was unable to send a telegram under the government for German troops to enter Austria.

After much frustration, Hitler and Hermann Göring, who was waiting with his troops at the border, decided to forge a telegram, at about 10 PM, allowing them to invade Austria. At midnight, after many of the government officials had been arrested and many places in Vienna were in Nazi control, Miklas conceded and decided to appoint Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor.

The German army has slipped across the border without any resistance. There have been reports that the German soldiers have been welcomed with salutes and flowers.

Military Guard adds to Olympic pageantry

There are three companies of the military guards marching around the Berlin streets daily during the Olympics. Normally, only Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, as War Minister, rates a guard company for his military. It stages a parade with bands daily when the guards change.

But the procession down Unter den Linden has proved such an attraction to the crowd that two more guard changes now are put on for the satisfaction of the Olympic visitors.

The second of the three companies is a guard for the headquarters of the Berlin command which is at the foor of the Unter den Linden opposite the old imperial palace. The third id Colonel-General Hermann Göring's own gray-coated company for the Air Ministry, called the Luftwaffe here.

To see not only little boys but their daddies, rotund, solid burghers, all marching alongside the soldiers is to gain a little understanding of the Third Reich.

Germany's Air Force

Yesterday, Germany announced the existence of the Luftwaffe. Unofficially, this has been known since February 26th.

In clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the government of Germany has been producing planes for two years. There has been no reaction from Great Britain or France.

At this time, Great War Ace Pilot and President Hermann Göring is the Minister and Oberbefehlshaber of the Luftwaffe.

Bürgerbräukeller Crisis

A Political Party declared a revolution in Germany at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich, Southern Germany. A leader of the party, Adolf Hitler, said, shortly after firing a single shot into the ceiling of the beer hall that

The national revolution has broken out! The hall is filled with six hundred men. Nobody is allowed to leave. The Bavarian government and the government at are deposed. A new government will be formed at once. The barracks of the Reichswehr and those of the police are occupied. Both have rallied to the swastika.

They did not allow people to leave, even to use the facilities. Some were able to escape using the kitchen.

There have been many speeches made by Hitler's associates such a Herman Göring, Joseph Goebbels, Rudolf Hess, Max Amann, Ulrich Graf, Wilhelm Adam and Ernst Hanfstaengl.