Having said last week that no one thought the Czecho-
Slovakian affair likely before it happened, I am told that the Daily Worker stated on March 6th that the occupation of Prague would take place on the i5th. It may be so, and there may have been good ground for it. But having made diligent enquiry into the matter, I am still unconvinced that any reliable information on the subject was available till some 24 hours before the frontier was crossed. I still believe that Field-Marshal Goering knew nothing of any projected coup during the greater part of his San Remo holi- day; in short, the whole thing still appears to have been the result of a characteristically sudden decision by Herr Hitler. No doubt there were rumours about the seizure of Czecho- Slovakia, as there have been constant rumours of an attack on Holland, an attack on Poland, an attack on Rumania, an attack on Gibraltar ; no doubt the British and French and other Governments heard of them all, but there was no more reason to attach.weight to the one that proved in the end to be right than to the others which proved to be wrong. I have strong reasons for believing that neither the British nor the American Government had any reliable information.
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