2,000,000 Sons of Death

To the world this week, Czechoslovakia was a heroic nation. Its President Eduard Benes not only proved himself heroic, but was hailed with even more reason than at any time during the last 20 years as "Europe's Smartest Little Statesman." After Dr. Benes received the British and French demand that he yield to Germany most of the Sudeten territory of Czechoslovakia, it was smart to keep the Great Powers waiting nervously for 30 hours last week while in Prague the President and Premier Milan Hodza labored with legal experts, finally produced not a note of capitulation but a suave reply to Britain and France in which the Czecho-slovak Government offered to "arbitrate the whole Sudeten question under an old treaty with Germany which they had dug out of their files.

"Yield Unconditionally!" It was smart of Dr. Benes then to go to bed in Prague as though he had disposed of the matter and have to be waked up at 2 :00 a. m. by the Ministers of Britain and France who were kept arguing until 3:30 r. m. in their efforts to make a clear cut demand that Czechoslovakia "yield unconditionally." Every hour counts when it is a question of mobilization and counter mobilization --even more when it was a question of how Dr. Benes could gain precious hours in which anti-Nazi public opinion could emerge from groping bewilderment in Britain and France, begin to gather strength against Germany and her demands.

Typical of what was happening in millions of minds was the reaction of M. Leon Blum, Socialist leader of the most influential party in France and the only Jew ever to become its Premier. "War has probably been averted," wrote Editor Blum in Le Populaire, "but I feel myself divided between cowardly relief and my sense of shame." Only 36 hours later Leon Blum blazed up and withdrew his Socialist Party's support from the demands which French Premier Edouard Daladier and British Prime Minister Chamberlain had made upon Prague. Although these demands had just been ''unanimously approved" by the whole French Cabinet, three of its members suddenly changed their minds and wrote out their resignations, were with difficulty persuaded by Premier Edouard Daladier to change their minds again, remain in the Cabinet.

Meanwhile, President Benes and Premier Hodza "yielded unconditionally" to the Anglo-French demands. This may have been smart, too, for the news that Prague had apparently crumpled up in abject surrender caused Adolf Hitler to feel that he need not hurl the German Army at once into Sudetenland. Finally, it was smart for the Hodza Cabinet to resign as soon as it had "yielded unconditionally," thus clearing the way for a fresh Czecho-slovak Government with a clean slate.

Premier-General. How the hard, resolute Czech people would react in a crisis was shrewdly guessed by Psychologist Dr. Benes, and with perfect confidence he left it to them to mill spontaneously through the streets of Prague in monster demonstrations which finally reached 250,000, shouting and screaming hour after hour "Give us arms! We want to fight! Don't yield a centimeter! Give us Syrovy!"

Ultra-tough, one-eyed General Jan Syrovy is the famed veteran hero of the Czechoslovak legions who stormed clear across Russia during the Russian Revolution, sailed from Vladivostok to rejoin their comrades in the homeland. It was smart for President Benes to give out last week that "yielding to fresh foreign pressure" he was unable to appoint as Premier General Syrovy, the people's choice, but had to choose instead a civilian, the Governor of Moravia, Jan Cerny-- especially since it turned out a few hours later that redoubtable General Syrovy had actually been appointed Premier and had instantly ordered mobilization of an army of 2,000,000. The jaunty, daredevil figure of one-eyed Premier-General Jan Syrovy was just what the Czechoslovak Republic needed at Prague to fire all hearts. Most useful of all, the General has friends among Russians.

Stalin Jumps In. Not a word did President Benes reply to demands made last week by Poland and Hungary that Czechoslovakia must yield her Polish and Hungarian minority districts to them, since she had promised to yield the Sudetenland to Germany. Dr. Benes left it to high-minded, sad-faced Viscount Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary, to tell Polish and Hungarian envoys in London at two extremely angry sessions that they could not have what Germany could wrest by her Might; instead, they must delay their claims until a later date. The psychologist of Prague correctly judged that this would be the point at which Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain would balk, telling the Fuehrer at Godesberg that, while one piece might have to be carved off Czechoslovakia, it was impossible for His Majesty's Government to make themselves a party to forcing the triple-butchery of carving off three chunks, one each for Germany, Poland and Hungary (see p. 14).

By a policy of bending like a reed before the Nazi storm, then snapping back with General Syrovy like a whalebone, President Benes meanwhile attracted some aid from the ever-cautious Soviet Dictator. For once, Joseph Stalin, ordinarily content to leave Russian foreign policy largely to Maxim Litvinoff, who was at Geneva all week (see p. 16), suddenly bestirred himself in Moscow. The Soviet press was not permitted to announce the fact, but the Kremlin flashed to Warsaw a drastic threat that, if Poland should invade Czechoslovakia, Russia would at once denounce her 1932 Treaty of Non-Aggression with Poland and "march."

Localized Warfare. In six hours of super-swift Czechoslovak mobilization, Premier-General Syrovy rushed 1,200,000 reserves into uniform. "They streamed into public buildings and discarded Mufti," cabled United Press's Eleanor Packard. "They picked out Sam Browne belts and cartridges. They seemed to find preparations for war great fun."

Meanwhile, Sudetens who had fled to Germany and organized a Freikorps ("Free Corps") appeared in Mufti, wearing Freikorps armbands and supplied with light German weapons of every sort, including hand grenades and machine guns, to wage localized warfare upon Czechoslovak towns and customs houses all along the Sudeten frontier. At As, the birthplace of No. 1 Sudeten Nazi Konrad Henlein, Czech gendarmes who fortnight ago described themselves as "Sons of Death'' were driven out with heavy casualties. The town of As is the fingernail of a tiny finger of Czechoslovakia extending 18 miles into Germany, and Sudetens in this salient proudly pinched themselves off. They issued proclamations defying Prague, warned that Nazi vengeance will be taken later on every Sudeten who "as a traitor puts on the uniform of Stalin and Syrovy."

In scores of border clashes Czechs and Sudetens were killed, but there were no charges that anyone in German Army uniform joined the fray up to this week.

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