March 17.
The Munich Four Power Pact has failed. That can be the only interpretation to be given of the dramatic strokes whereby Czechoslovakia has been swallowed up by the German Reich. The statement made last October that Herr Hitler had no further territorial ambitions in Europe has been found in the final event to be untrue, and that goodwill upon which Mr. Neville Chamberlain founded his policy of appeasement has been shown to be non-existent. It follows that his policy has received another reverse, and one from which it may not re= cover, for it is quite obvious that a policy based upon a faulty premise cannot be expected Jong to survive the exposure of its falsity. That is not to admit that Mr. Chamberlain was wrong when he went to Munich in an endeavour to prevent a world catas trophe. His success in that direction is sufficient justifeation for what he did, but reviewed in the light of all that has happened since, it is quite clear that, while he thought something had been saved out of the wreck of Czechoslovakia, Herr Hitler was entirely of another opinion. Czechoslovakia was to be incorporated into the Reich, and while certain sections of it may be given a certain amount of local autonomy, the fact remains that Bohemia, Moravia, 'Slovaida, and probably Ruthenia have passed under German control. In their passing they have provided the first denial of Herr Hitler' doctrine of racism, for he has absorbed races which cannot by any stretch of the imagination be described as German, and the first indication has been given of the rashness of believing that any of the principles which he has laid down "Mein Kampf" have about them any abiding quality. From now onwards to place any reliance upon the good faith upon which Mr. Chamberlain has depended will be to commit a blunder of the gravest magnitude. The world at large has now been duly warned that the commission delimiting Czechoslovakia's new boundaries was nothing but a solemn farce. Those boundaries were never destined by at east two parties to that commission to be permanent.
The technique was the same as that employed against Austria and Czechoslovakia last year, and it must give other of the Central European and Eastern European States furiously to think. What, the world will ask, will come next? 'The way to Rumania' is now open, the Black Sea may very well be the next goal, or Memel, of the Ukraine, or Poland itself. It is even suggested that the time is coming for Germany, and Italy to open their attack on the western democracies, though it is possible that that will wait for the time being while Germany takes all the steps necessary to protect herself against the effect of a blockade which would inevitably be put into operation upon the commencement of any such With the wealth of Rumania, Germany could withstand a rely, and it is, perhaps because of the realization that the idea of the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.