Prague, July 9.
The nationalities statute is now nearing completion as the Government busily pursues negotiations with the various groups interested in the vexing minorities question.
Premier Milan Hodza received today Dr. Jan Mazaryk, Czech Minister to London now on a visit here, Dr. Juraj Slawek, Czech Minister to Warsaw who is also on a visit here, and M. Konstantin Hrabar, Governor of Ruthenia. The last-named stated that all Ruthenian political parties demand the creation of a Ruthenian Diet and that elections to this Diet be held as soon as possible.
Dr. Hodza, it is further learnt, will attend the proceedings of the Par mentary Committee next week when it resumes discussions with regard to the Government's scheme on the minorities.
Meanwhile, the Government are pursuing negotiations with Parliamentary Parties belonging bath to the Governmental Coalition and to the Opposition. The authorities' scheme, aiming to settle the minorities problem, it is recalled, comprises three draft bills. There is the constitutional law on languages, the nationalities statute which will fix the position of non-Slav Czech citizens, and the law on autonomous administrations in non-Slav districts, including the Sudeten German regions.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.