The Future of the Czechs The Czechs themselves have drawn
the only possible conclusion from the situation in which they find themselves. This week the influential Lidove Noviny, the organ of Presi- dent Benes' party, and until now the determined opponent of Germany, says farewell to France and Western Europe and declares that henceforward the Czechs have no choice but to secure political and economic co-operation with Germany. It is possible that such a policy will be carried out under the leadership of the pro-Nazi Agrarian party. Immediately, however, complete ruin faces the Czech people. The Lio,000,000 loan granted by the British Government will have the approval of all who feel responsibility for the disaster in which the Czechs have been involved. But it is utterly inadequate for the rehabilitation of a people that has lost not only territory, industry, population, frontiers, fortifica- tions, but railways and natural lines of communications. The Lord Mayor of London has responded to an almost universal public desire in launching a national fund for relief, in addition to the funds that are already being raised ; for Prague both has to care for the hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring in from the ceded districts and to attempt to cope with the unemployment which follows economic dislocation and ruin.
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