NEWS OF THE WEEK
IIERR HITLER is said to have applied himself, immediately on his return from Rome, to the question of the Sudeten Germans. That is likely enough ; there are many signs that pressure is to be exercised at Prague with a view to securing an early, if not necessarily a final, decision. Not necessarily final, for a not improbable development is the concession to the Sudetendeutsch of a considerable measure of autonomy, which the Sudeten- deutsch will use in due time as basis for a claim to secession. What guarantees of benevolent neutrality Herr Hitler secured at Rome from Signor Mussolini has not been revealed. The British and French Governments, in accordance with the decision taken at the meeting of Ministers in London, have urged the Czechoslovak Government to go to the furthest limit of concession, and the British Ambassador at Berlin has reported the demarche to the Wilhelmstrasse. He is expected to discuss the matter further with Herr von Ribbentrop, but Herr Hitler, who clearly intends, without the smallest justification, that the future of the Sudeten- deutsch shall be decided in Berlin, not in Prague, is hardly likely to welcome external counsel, much less mediation. The Czechoslovakian Cabinet is at present working out the last details of its new Statute of Minorities. When that is published, in the course of the next few days, a period critical for Central Europe—at least—will open. The real crux of the situation is the intolerable claim of Herr Henlein, acting obviously as mouthpiece of Berlin, to dictate Czechoslovakia's foreign policy.
*
