Hodza Resigns

Premier Milan Hodza has stepped down and the cabinet has been dissolved. This is a reaction to the capitulation to Germany's demands for the Sudetenland.

Hitler's New Demands are Rejected

The French and British Governments have rejected Hitler's demands for Polish and Hungarian territorial transactions.

Hitler makes new Demands

Prime Minister Chamberlain met with Chancellor Hitler in Bad Godesberg yesterday. It seemed Germany had finally gotten its demands: control of the Sudetenland and union with the German peoples there. However, Hitler has said that the conditions of the capitulation are no longer acceptable. He has added to the demands. He now wants the Poles and Magyars within Czechoslovakia to be united with Poland and Hungary, their respective nations.

Czechoslovakia Capitulates

Even after the USSR made war talk at the League of Nations yesterday, Czechoslovakia has capitulated. Late last night, the government agreed to Germany's demands.

Despite this, crowds of Czechs gathered in Prague demanding Czechoslovakian troops remain in the Sudetenland. This seems all for not since the presence of German troops on the border and a promise of invasion would bring a very swift war.

The Soviet Union talks War

Today, at the League of Nations, the Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinoff accused the French and British governments of appeasement. He further accused the two nations of using Czechoslovakia to forestall war and also predicted that a larger war would result from their current actions.

Litvinoff included in his speech that the Soviet War Department was ready to discuss military plans with France. The Soviet Union it seems is ready to back up its ally Czechoslovakia.

The Czechoslovakian Response

Today the Czechoslovakian government gave the governments of France and Great Britain a note at 2.45 PM Eastern Time. In this note they expressed their point of view. It became apparent to both the French and the British that what they said was unacceptable.

At the same time, Prime Minister Chamberlain travelled for his second meeting with Hitler in BadGodesburg. A joint declaration has been issued by both the French and British governments telling Czechoslovakia to capitulate to the German demands in 24 hours else face invasion.

Details of the Agreement

Edward R. Morrow of CBS radio reported what many in London believe to be the consensus Hitler and Chamberlain arrived at during their meeting in Bertesgaden. He said "First, the Sudeten majority districts are to be turned over to Germany. Some newspapers mention that those areas having more than 50% Sudetens will be turned over. Second, Britain is to take part in an international guarantee of what is left of Czechoslovakia. And third, the Franco-Czech and the Russian-Czech Alliance is to be abandoned."

This would effectively end the Czechoslovakian nation as we know it.

Hodza talks tough

Earlier today, the Premier of Czechoslovakia Milan Hodza announced on Czechoslovakian radio that if a plebiscite were agreed between Germany and Great Britain, it would be unacceptable to his government. He also said that if it did indeed come down to it, Czechoslovakia would go alone against Hitler and the Nazis.

Italy's own Benito Mussolini also chimed in that if there were to be a plebiscite there should be one for all races within Czechoslovakia.

At that time, Chamberlain had returned from Bertesgaden meeting with Hitler. Many assume there was a plebiscite agreed upon between Hitler and Chamberlain. Chamberlain is now discussing the situation with French Prime Minister Deladier in London.

Lord Runciman returns from Prague

Lord and Lady Runciman returned from their five-week-long trip to Prague on yesterday, September 16th. Lord Runciman's report is anticipated by the Prime Minister as soon as he is able.

The situation in the Sudetenland remains as untenable as possible.

Chamberlain visits with Hitler; Henlein's Flight

The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Neville Chamberlain met with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler in Bertesgaden, near Munich in Southern Germany on September 15th. There the two leaders will discuss ways to end this crisis before it erupts into war.

But not before all talks between Henlein and the Czechoslovakian Government completely end. Sudeten Party leader Konrad Helein had laid out an ultimatum to rescind Martial Law, recall the reserves to their barracks, withdraw the state police from the territory, and accept this by midnight or all negotiations would be called off. When his demands were not met, he fled to Germany.

With all this continuing to worsen, Nazi radio and Czechoslovakian radio transmissions have been having their own war of words. Even Hungary has joined in and reiterated Germany's narrative on events. Czechoslovakian radio continues to refute the claims made by Germany.

Martial Law in Sudetenland

It seemed the crisis was averted until Hitler's speech on the 12th. No the Sudeten Germans are up in arms once more. President Beneš has imposed martial law in response to the increased agitation. There has also been a recall of Czechoslovak reservists in light of this change of events.

Hitler rattles more sabres

Adolf Hitler said in his speech to the Nazi Party at Nuremberg that the Czechoslovakian Government was using all of its means possible to annihilate the 3.5 million Sudeten Germans. He claimed that these people were being deprived of their rights, for example, they were not permitted to sing German songs or to wear white stockings. If indeed they went through with any of these crimes they were brutally struck down. Although the tone was ferociously threatening, he gave no examples of atrocities, perhaps because there are none. "The misery of the Sudeten Germans is without end," he declared. He then went on to promise that Germany would take care of her own and put an end to the continued oppression of 3.5 million Germans. "I hope that the foreign statesman will be convinced that these are not mere words," he added ominously.

Hitler has demanded the direct annexation of the Sudetenland by the Reich, hinting that if necessary, he would resort to war. He also has said that the Sudentenland is an internal matter for Germans, and supposedly Central Europeans. It is no place for international statesmen, no doubt referring to Prime Minister Chamberlain.

Pope Pius XI speaks

Pope Pius XI has been increasingly vocal about the Anti-Semitic laws being passed in Central Europe and other countries lack of action on the matter. He has been referring to the inaction as a Conspiracy of Silence. Recently, he made a speech to Belgian Catholic pilgrims at the Vatican in which he said

"Mark well that in the Catholic Mass, Abraham is our Patriarch and forefather. Anti-Semitism is incompatible with the lofty thought which that fact expresses. It is a movement with which we Christians can have nothing to do. No, no, I say to you it is impossible for a Christian to take part in anti-Semitism. It is inadmissible. Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we [Christians] are all Semites".

The Pope has been published in Mit brennender Sorge a German Catholic encyclical last year condemning Nazi Party policies against the Roman Catholic Church and Judaism.

Beneš appeals to the World for Peace

Czechoslovakian President Eduard Beneš made an appeal via Radio Broadcast asking for peace and calm in the face of this crisis. He also told the Czechoslovakian people that they would be "firm and have faith in our state, in its health and its strength, in the indestructible spirit and devotion of its people."

Changes in the German Army Command

Among all the events of this crisis, there has been a change in the command structure of the German Army. General Ludwig Beck was Oberkommando des Heeres, otherwise known as the Chief of the General Staff of the Army. He seemingly is not any longer after August 27.

General Franz Halder has now become the new Oberkommando des Heeres. He began this post on September 1st. These events are just now being noticed due in part because of the tension in the Sudetenland.

Impasse!

Talks between the Czechoslovakian Government and Henlein's Sudeten Party have broken down. Of course, negotiations still continue between Great Britain and Czechoslovakia. Germany is staying somewhat quiet. In the coming days, there will be a Congress of the Nazi Party in Nuremberg.

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. 4

Czechoslovakian President Eduard Beneš submitted a fourth plan to the Czechoslovakian Government on September 2nd. Now, the government has submitted this to the British.

Roughly, the plan would accede the Sudeten to Germany due to the high amount of Germans in the region. Czechoslovakia has said that ceding this land would cripple the country economically and would put the nation effectively under German control.

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. . . ."

Another Nazi Measure against Jews

The German Government is now requiring all Jewish women to add "Sara" to their given first names, and men to likewise add "Israel" to their names. This is to be on all legal documents and passports. This measure is to better identify Jews who have non-Jewish names.

The law goes into effect on January 1, 1939.