25 NOVEMBER 1938, Page 2

The New Czechoslovakia The partition of Czechoslovakia is now complete.

By an agreement signed on Monday the northern half of the country, above the narrow neck at Briinn, becomes a Czech enclave in Germany. The Czechs have ceded new territories, including the village of Theben, a suburb of Bratislava, which contains a Czech population of some 50,000 ; but they have also handed over to Germany a narrow strip of territory across which the German Reichsautobahngesellschaft will build a great new motor road connecting Breslau and Vienna via Briinn. The new road will be a part of Germany. The project has caused some alarm abroad, both because of the obvious military value of such a highway and because it is thought by some to be the beginning of a great German motorway through the Balkans to Asia Minor, which finally will realise, in a new form, the old dream of the Berlin- Baghdad railway. In addition, the Czechs have agreed to the construction of a Danube-Oder canal 'across their territory. These works will alleviate unemployment in Czechoslovakia ; and they will complete her subordination to Germany. Dr. Hacha, President of the Supreme Court, has taken the place of M. Chvalkovsky as official candidate for the Presidency, because, it is reported, it has been discovered that M. Chvalkovsky has a Jewish grandmother.

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