18 NOVEMBER 1938, Page 2

The New Czechoslovakia The new federal State of Czechoslovakia is

at length taking its final form, and the boundary commission is being urged by Germany to complete its work. The Czechs have suffered yet another serious loss of population in the area of Domazlice. Here the railway between Furth, in Bavaria, and the Sudeten German town of Tachau runs across a Czech distract, and, self-determination or no self-determination, its to,000 Czech inhabitants are handed over to Germany. But the Czechs' most serious loss is not of territory or population but of liberty. The political institutions of the new State are now agreed on. In Bohemia-Moravia the six Czech Right-wing parties have formed a single Governmental party, the weak Left-wing groups forming a National Opposition. In Slovakia a single authoritarian party has been created. The Czechs, Slovaks, and Ruthenes in their new State will have in common their President, who is likely to be M. Chualkovsky, and Finance, National Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communications ; in other matters they will be autonomous. These changes are inevitable if Germany's desires are to be met, as they must be. The Czechoslovaks have bowed to the inevitable ; but the great mass of the people still desire a State which, however changed, will be founded on democratic and not authoritarian ideas.

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