But the Germans will be so close to this town that it will be at their mercy. Besides, it has a small German minority about 12 per cent of the total population , which, under pressure from Hitler, will be its real administrators.
Any village or township with German majority and there are many such scattered throughout Czechoslovakia and right into Carpathian Ruthenia in regions where the Czechs are the vast majority can, through the device of the plebiscite, be made to become a German stronghold, dominating the surrounding country like the castle of a medieval robber baron.
With the help of the plebiscite Hitler can get control of factories, railways and strategic points. In a short time he can make himself master of Czechoslovakia without war and without any serious opposition from the Western Powers. The question of the plebiscite was the only serious hitch at Munich. German demands and the demand will certainly be satisfied — that all persons who were residents in the area designated for the plebiscite in October, , shall be entitled to vote. In this way large numbers of former Austrian officials and residents can be drafted into these areas and so help to convert minorities into majorities.
It is to be feared that by that time every guarantee, whether German and Italian or French and British, will have lost whatever meaning it might once have been made to have. The economic consequences of the Munich agreement are bound to be very hard for Czechoslovakia. The loss of industries, railheads, junctions and so on, cannot fail to cause heavy loss of trade and unemployment. Nor can there be any doubt that Czechoslovakia will become for Germany an object of quasi-colonial exploitation.
Two days later, all the editorials were devoted to Munich, including the following about censorship. One aspect of the vast disturbance of the last fortnight must strike anybody who reflects on its history. In the three most powerful States of Central and Eastern Europe the peoples were not allowed to know what was being said and done outside.
In Russia there seems to have been very little news. In Germany and Italy the news was deliberately falsified when it was not suppressed. The Italian people were led to believe that Chamberlain was in agreement with Hitler and only anxious to put pressure on Benes.
Of one of his speeches they were given a false version. When you look at the population of Europe you find that almost one half of it was thus left in ignorance or deceived. Of the four Powers represented at Munich, France and Great Britain have between them a population of about ninety millions and Germany and Italy a population of one hundred and fifteen.
He misunderstood Hitler, who he believed could be appeased by suitable concessions and neither he nor the French saw good reason for a war to preserve Czechoslovakia, which had only been created in At the same time, if the quest for peace failed, Britain needed to buy time in which to rearm, though this inevitably meant giving Germany more time to continue rearming as well.
No Czech representative was invited to the conference. Chamberlain had asked for the Czech ambassador to Berlin to come to Munich as an adviser, but he was not allowed in the same room as Hitler. On the night of September 28th a Czech government statement agreed to cede Czech territory where 50 per cent or more of the population were German, but protested against the demand for a plebiscite in areas without a German majority.
At Munich Hitler gained what he wanted — the domination of Central Europe — and German troops marched into the Sudetenland on the night of October 1st. The day before, the Czech government had accepted the Munich pact. World War II Documents. Operation Paperclip. Statistics on Jewish American Soldiers. The Jewish Army Plan. Truman Opposes Jewish Army. Jewish Pilots and Aircrews in the Battle of Britain.
Jewish Personnel at Bletchley Park. Canadian and Allied Jews at the Raid on Dieppe. Jewish Company of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps.
Jewish Soldiers at the Battle of Arnhem. Jewish Troops with the Chindits. Two Jewish Heroines of Special Operations. Major Operations.
Battle of Britain. Operation Barbarossa. Operation Overlord. Battle of Stalingrad. Operation Citadel. Battle of the Bulge. Operation Market Garden. Operation Valkyrie. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima. Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Tripartite Pact. The Atlantic Charter. Wannsee Conference. Casablanca Conference.
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