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[Mr. Astor.]
vengeance would be summarily punished by the military authorities. It was said, though I cannot personally vouch for this, as I can for all the other statements, that when some Henleinists at Aussig took an opportunity to beat up the Czechs they were summarily shot by German troops for their conduct.
May I mention the question of refugees from that area? The position is that the Germans are encouraging the rank and file of the Social Democrats to remain or return. That is not from any altruistic motive, but from the fact that in Ger- many there is not a surplus of labour as there is in this country, but a shortage of labour. This year they imported 30,000 Italian workers, and it is to their interest that the industrious and skilful Sudeten German, whatever his political beliefs in the past may have been, should be en- couraged to remain or return. It would be most unwise for their leaders to return, but they believe that, when there has been a distressed area in the past, so distressed as to cause the Quakers in this country to conduct relief among Sudeten Germans for the last few years, if they can provide work they need not fear dis- affection in the future. Similarly, they tried to encourage the Czech mineworkers, and certainly for the moment, though this may not be permanent, Czech agri- cultural colonists to remain.
The refugee problem where there is the most need is that of the Social Democrat leaders and the Jews. Most of the Jews of that area fled long before the German troops arrived, and rightly, too. It was the most awful tragedy, be- cause that was in an area where there was no anti-Jewish feeling at all until the last few years, when it was worked up. It will be a difficult question for this country to help those Jews, because they are mainly small shopkeepers. For in- stance, the Czech relief authorities told me they thought there were something like 6,000 Jewish commercial travellers as refugees, and to colonise a commercial traveller, whose main stock-in-trade is his tongue, in an area where he does not understand the language will be extra- ordinarily difficult and will need the greatest help on our part.
It is tragic that the unwise policy of the Czech Government in the past has resulted in the cutting-up of the historic Kingdom of Bohemia. Bohemia has
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always been a mixed German and Slav State. If you take the feathers and motto of the Prince of Wales, they are the feathers and motto of the Kings of Bohemia, which the Prince of Wales assumed because he captured the King of Bohemia at, I think, the Battle of Crécy. That motto is not in the Czech language but is in German-" Ich dien.' It has always been a mixed State, and if the emphasis had been laid on the historic past, you might never have had the present situation, It was the excessive racial feeling of the post-war Czech Gov- ernments which produced the racial re- actions of the Germans, and it is tragic to see how many were the small vexa- tions that created discontent. In the War the Austrian equivalent of a V.C. was won by a certain resident in the Sudeten area. He has not been allowed, under penalty, to wear his medal for 20 years, and when he was asked to join the Reserve of the Czech Army and he offered himself he was immediately reduced to the ranks not that it mattered, because he was not called up for training, but it is that sort of insult which did more than anything else to create the present situa- tion. I went from Sudetenland to Prague by car, and there are no troops on the frontier, which is quiet. There were about five or six German police and Customs men and the same number on the Czech side. You could have crossed quite easily by walking 200 yards off the road across a field. There was no barrier of any sort.
A few days spent in Prague fills one with admiration for the way in which the Czech people have gone through the present ordeal. They have shown an immense pluck, calm, and discipline, and they are facing their problem in a realistic way. One of the Ministers of the Czech Government said they must go back to the policy of that great Saint and King whom we commemorate at Christmas time, Wenceslas, and realise that it was impossible that Bohemia should be in a permanent state of hostility to the sur- rounding Germany. On the whole the relations between the new Czechoslovakia and Germany have not been so bad. At the beginning, in the International Com- mission's deliberations the Germans were asking for a rigid interpretation of their claims, but since then the German Army have evacuated many villages where they found themselves unable to understand a
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word said by anybody in the villages. There have been rectifications in favour of the Czechs,
On the economic side, the Germans have been, on the whole-I am only quoting what the Czechs said to me reasonable in their demands. There has
been no demand for a Zollverein, and they
have left Sudetenland and the new Czech State tariff-free for the present, before working out an equitable system of pre- ference. I hope we shall not assume that because of the new conditions we must wash our hands of the new Czech State on the ground that they have become a province of Germany, as the Leader of the Opposition thought might have to be the case. They are facing their task with realism. They are now a homogeneous State. They are going to maintain their democratic system. There is a rallying to the new Czech State of the ancient families of Bohemia, which have in the last 20 years been left aside. Although they felt no particular loyalty to the new Czechoslovakia, when the crisis came they felt loyalty to the ancient frontiers of the kingdom of Bohemia, and they are now rallying round the new Government. They are making a gallant and a realistic effort.
English prestige has been increased by the Lord Mayor's fund for the relief of refugees, but that is only a palliative, and they are asking that we should take their claim for financial help, not on a senti- mental basis, but on its merits. They point out that they have been excellent debtors in the past whenever they have had to borrow money. They maintain that with the £10,000,000 and further sums they can get their railway com- munications readjusted and their roads altered, that they will be able to get the necessary raw materials to keep their economic life going, and that they can give the necessary financial assistance for the new autonomous Slovak Government to prevent that Government and the Ruthenian Government submitting to the tempting attractions which certain of their neighbours are offering to them now. They do not desire to go back to a state of permanent hostility to Germany, but they believe that they can be a neutral, inde- pendent and good-neighbourly State. hope we shall not wash our hands of them, but that, in a time of need for reconstruction, we shall help them on a
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strictly business basis, which is all that the new Czech State desires.
Before I went there I spent a few days in Germany, and the main sentiment one found there was relief. One found no ex- pression of vain-glory, but the deepest relief that peace had been preserved and extraordinary gratitude towards the Prime Minister. I think one cannot take an exaggerated optimistic от pessimistic view. Nothing that I saw contradicted the assumption of the hon. Member for East Aberdeen (Mr. Boothby) that the effort we have to make to get equality in armaments has to be deep and strenuous. Nothing that I saw in Germany made me believe that there was any bluff on their side. I found no evidence whatever to support that. One has only to see the thoroughness of their preparations. When you can see that since March every bridge between Austria and Czecho- slovakia, however modern and new, has been pulled down and a new and wider and stronger bridge built in order to take the heaviest tanks and guns, one can see that they are people who are not pre- paring merely for a demonstration of force, but for its use. But we must not talk of inevitable war. During the nine- teenth century two wars were thought to be inevitable. In the time of Napoleon III a war with France was thought in- evitable, and yet it was averted. During the time that Kipling was writing his early stories in India, everyone thought that a war with Russia was inevitable, and yet it never took place.
Herr Hitler has done one thing for this country. He has imbued us with some of the qualities he has given to his own people; he has made us defence-conscious and has made us keener to perform national service in the defence of this country. I am sure that any demand that the Government make on the people will be joyfully borne. I have been immensely impressed by the numbers of people who have written to me asking that there shall be some form of national register and voluntary service. I have had more letters on this subject than on any other since I have been a Member of the House. I welcome what the Prime Minister said about the importance of the Anglo-Ger- man declaration. Let us not make the mistake we made with the Italians. Ill- feeling between England and Italy became much greater after sanctions than during
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