HE tragedy of Czechoslovakia, where, according to T
NEWS OF THE WEEK
' eye-witnesses, the regular Nazi mechanism of victimisa- tion, proscription and persecution is already in operation, is carried one step further by the resignation of President Benes, as sequel to the foul camp Ign of vilification directed at him in the German Press and Herr Hitler's speeches. Dr. Benes was the one man who could have held the remainder of Czechoslovakia together, so he goes—maintaining to the end that dignity and courage which have marked his demea- nour from the first day of the crisis—at German dictation. Meanwhile the struggle for the spoils continues unabated. The German and Polish demands have been satisfied ; it is now the turn of the Hungarians and the Slovak Auto- nomists, though they represent a minority of the Slovak population. The Hungarians have shown a rather less indecent haste than the Poles in demanding the transfer of territory ; but it is feared they may extend their demands to cover the Ruthenians as well as the Magyar minority, and thus obtain a common frontier with Poland. This would further Signor Mussolini's reported plan of forming a Hungarian-Polish-Rumanian-Yugoslav bloc to resist German domination. The Slovaks are demanding autonomy within a federalist State, and in view of the support their claims receive from other predatory claimants, it is hard for the Czechs, now completely isolated, to refuse. These results of the peace of Munich show clearly that in securing " self-determination " for the Sudetendeutsch, Herr Hitler was also securing his real objective—the complete break-up of the Czechoslovak State. The controversy regarding a guarantee for the new Czechoslovakia may soon be settled by the disappearance of any Czechoslovakia to
