NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE censorship imposed in Prague during the mobilisation has been raised, and much fuller reports on conditions inside Czechoslovakia are now available. It is accepted by everyone that in future Czechoslovakia has no choice but to conform with Germany's wishes. It is possible that General Sirovy may be replaced by a Prime Minister more acceptable to Germany, and ex-President Benes' journey to this country may have saved him from the fate of Dr. Schuschnigg. The Communist Party has been suppressed, and it is thought the German Social Democrats, the Czech Socialists, the Liberal Progressives and Dr. Benes' Czech National Socialists will be suppressed also. Reports from the Sudetenland describe the chaotic conditions in towns cut in two by the new frontier, the Sudeten Germans' loss of valued liberties and persecution of Jews and Socialists by Herr Henlein's Black Guards. The new regime has meant the rise of anti-semitism in Czechoslovakia also ; perhaps the worst fate of all has been suffered by refugees who, driven back by Czechs and Germans, now live in trenches and dug-outs in the no-man's-land between the new frontiers. Such is the price of peace ; yet the manner in which the recent changes have been carried out by the Czechs inspires the belief that they have indeed conformed to the unalterable necessities of their new position but fundamentally remain the people of Masaryk and of Benes.
* * * *
