George Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers

On April 26th the Czech Government rejected Henlein's Home Rule demands for the Sudeten Germans, and on August 4th Lord Runciman, appointed as a "special adviser to the Czechoslovak Government on matters affecting their minorities," met President Benesh and Government representatives in Prague. It was not until August 25th that the Czech Government started offering local autonomy to the Sudetens. Negotiations between the Sudeten leaders and the Czech Government were broken off on September 13th, as a result of the wholesale arrest of Sudeten Germans and the maltreatment of certain German Deputies by the Czech police and the increasing use of force by the Police and the Army in the Sudeten areas.

In his report Lord Runciman saw no more than tactlessness, lack of understanding, petty intolerance, and discrimination in Czech rule for the last twenty years, though he is confident that it was never "actively oppressive and certainly not terroristic." It appears hardly surprising that his mediation produced no results! (See Parliamentary Papers on Czecho-Slovakia, Nos. 7 & 8 [1938] Cmd. 5847 & 5848.)

On the previous day, September 12th, the British Cabinet met to consider a recommendation from the Prime Minister and some of his colleagues that there can be no automatic British guarantee of the Czecho-Slovakian frontiers as pleaded by the French. It was an open secret that the "Let's have a war now at all costs party" in the Cabinet, led by Mr. Duff Cooper, with their friends outside led by Mr. Winston Churchill and Mr. Anthony Eden, were strongly opposing Mr. Chamberlain's attempts to bring about a peaceful solution and to work for the pacification of Europe.

The same day at Nürnberg, Herr Hitler, addressing the Party Congress, declared unequivocally: "The Sudetens must have self-determination. I will not fail my brothers - it is their rights I claim, neither gifts nor concessions from the Czechs." The following day Henlein demanded from Benesh the revocation of martial law and the withdrawal of Czech troops and police from the Sudetenland. On the 15th the British Prime Minister flew to Berchtesgaden to seek a peaceful settlement with the German Führer. The Czechs intensified their provocation and the number of Sudeten Germans killed increased, until on September 16th the Czech Government proscribed the Sudeten German Party.

On the 18th, Daladier, the French Prime Minister, met the British Premier in London. Meanwhile the Japanese Foreign Office declared that Japan was ready to give military support to Germany and Italy against Red operations "according to the spirit of the Anti-Comintern Pact." Henlein a few days before had broadcast his proclamation to the German people and the entire world: "We want to go home to the Reich." A further proclamation is issued by Henlein calling for Sudeten volunteers to form a "Freikorps" to defend their homes on the frontier. The Czech Premier, Hodza, declares that his Government would never agree to a plebiscite.

On September 22nd, Chamberlain flew to Godesberg, carrying with him the Anglo-French plan which, under Anglo-French pressure, the Czech Government had at length accepted. In Prague meanwhile Communist mobs patrol the streets and shout: "Long live Soviet Russia." Hodza resigns and one-eyed General Sirovy, an old Czech legionary, is invited by Benesh to form a "military dictatorship."

The tension increases and on September 25th France mobilises 1,000,000 men.

Through the medium of the British Prime Minister the German Government sends a note to Prague demanding the evacuation of the Sudeten districts, agreed to in the Anglo-French plan, by October 1st. This was the result of continued persecution and terrorism by the Czech army, now fully mobilised, in the Sudeten areas in spite of the negotiations for a settlement. Poland and Hungary prepare to march to the rescue of Poles and Hungarians, and demand the return of their national minorities.

In England, "British" Socialists hold 2,500 meetings during the week, in which the alien Communist element is strikingly conspicuous in support of Prague and Moscow.

On September 26th Hitler delivers his famous speech to the German nation from the Sportspalast in Berlin. For purposes of historical record I append some notable extracts:

"If I am now the mouthpiece of the German people, I know that in this hour the whole people, millions strong, agree with every one of my words. This strengthens the nation and makes my oath their oath. Let other statesmen ask themselves whether this is also true in their case.
      "We are not interested in suppressing other nations. We want to live and find happiness in our own way, and let others do the same.
      "Although we are now free and strong, we are swayed by no hatred of other nations. We bear no grudge for the past, we know that the other nations are not responsible. It is a small international clique of self-seekers [egotists; -The Scriptorium] who do not recoil from sending whole peoples to destruction when they think it necessary for their mean interests.
      "I myself am a front-line soldier and know how hard war is. I know the seriousness of war. I wanted to save the German people from it. These democracies, which are indulging in phrases about peace, are the most sanguinary war agitators. Bit by bit the peoples are freeing themselves from the blinding Genevan madness, which I could not call collective obligation to peace but collective obligation to war.
      "I offered my hand to Britain. I voluntarily renounced ever again entering upon a naval armaments competition, in order to give the British Empire a feeling of security. When the Saar region was returned to the Reich I gave the solemn assurance that now all territorial differences with France had been settled. I now see no differences at all between us. With Italy an axis has been formed represented by two peoples which have found themselves both ideologically and politically in a close and indissoluble friendship.
      "Two problems remained. Here I had to make a reservation. Ten million Germans were outside the frontiers of the Reich in two self-contained areas - Germans who wanted to return to the Reich as their home. This figure of 10,000,000 represents no trifle. It represents a quarter of the inhabitants of France. And if France had not for 40 years given up her claim upon the few millions of French in Alsace-Lorraine, then, before God and the world, we have the right to maintain our claim upon these 10,000,000. It is the last territorial claim which I have to make in Europe, but it is the claim from which I do not swerve and which I shall fulfil, God willing.
      "This is the history of the problem. In 1918, Central Europe was torn to pieces under the motto of 'self-determination of peoples' and was remodelled by a few crazy so-called statesmen.
      "The Czech State owed its existence to this. This Czech State began with an original lie. The name of the father of that lie was Benesh.
      "This Herr Benesh appeared at Versailles and gave the assurance that there existed a Czechoslovak nation. He had to invent this lie in order to give his insignificant number of compatriots a somewhat bigger and thus more justifiable volume; and the Anglo-Saxon statesmen who in matters of geography and race are not always so well-informed, did not consider it necessary to examine Herr Benesh's statement.
      "Otherwise they would have seen at once that there was no such thing as a Czechoslovak nation, but that there are Czechs and Slovaks and that the Slovaks do not want to have anything to do with the Czechs. So these Czechs finally, through Dr. Benesh, annexed Slovakia. As that state did not appear to be capable of life, they took, without hesitation, 3,500,000 Germans, in spite of their right to self-determination and their will to self-determination. As this was not enough, a million Hungarians must be added, then Carpathian Russians, and then finally a hundred thousand Poles.
      "Such is the state that was later called Czechoslovakia - against the rights of self-determination of peoples and against the clear desire and will of the outraged nationalities.
      "In these years of Czechoslovak 'peaceful' development well-nigh 600,000 Germans had to leave the country for the very simple reason that otherwise they would have had to perish from starvation. The whole development from 1918 to 1938 showed one thing quite clearly: Benesh was determined to slowly exterminate the German element. He succeeded in doing this to a certain extent. He cast innumerable people into the deepest distress. He managed to make millions of people timid and cowed. Under the continual employment of terror he slowly succeeded in silencing millions.
      "A French Air Minister, Pierre Cot, bluntly stated it a few weeks ago: 'We need the State because German economy and German industry could be best destroyed by bombs from this State.' And Bolshevism is now using this state as its door of entry. It was not we who sought contact with Bolshevism, but Bolshevism makes use of this state in order to gain a channel into Central Europe. And now a shameless action began. This State, which had only a minority Government, compelled the national groups to follow a policy which some day will force them to fire upon their own brethren.
      "Herr Benesh stood up and demanded from the Sudeten Germans: 'When I make war on Germany, you have to shoot at the Germans. If you refuse to do it you are traitors and I will have you shot.' He demanded the same from the Hungarians, the Poles, and the Slovaks, whom he used for aims to which the Slovak people are indifferent.
      "I can assure you that when we occupied Austria my first order was: 'No Czech need, nor indeed may he, serve in the German army.' I did not confront him with a conflict of conscience.
      "How long is this to last? For 20 years the Germans in Czechoslovakia and the German people in the Reich have had to look on at this, not because they ever acquiesced in it, but simply because they were powerless and could not shake off their tormentors in the world of democracy.
      "And then came England. I explained unambiguously to Mr. Chamberlain what we now regard as the only possible settlement. It is the most natural that there could be. I know that all the nationalities no longer wish to remain with Herr Benesh, but I speak in the first place for the Germans. For these Germans I have now spoken and assured them that I am no longer inclined to look on inactively and calmly while this madman in Prague thinks he can ill-treat 3½ million people.
      "And I have left no doubt that German patience is at last exhausted. I have left no doubt that it is a peculiarity of our German mentality to put up with something for a long time and with patience, but that eventually there is an end to it. At last England and France addressed the one possible demand to Czechoslovakia: to give up the German territory and withdraw in favour of the Reich.
      "Herr Benesh found a way out. He announced that these territories must be evacuated. That was his declaration! But what did he do? He did not evacuate the territory, but is now driving the Germans out!
      "And that is the point where the game must cease.
      "Herr Benesh had hardly spoken when his military subjection began again - only more intensely. We see the terrible figures: On one day 10,000 fugitives, on the next 20,000, a day later 37,000, two days later 41,000, then 62,000, then 78,000, now 90,000, 107,000, and to-day 214,000. Whole stretches of territory are depopulated, villages are burnt down; efforts are made to smoke the Germans out with grenades and gas. But Herr Benesh sits in Prague and tells himself: 'Nothing can happen to me, in the last resort England and France stand behind me.'
      "I have now placed before the British Government a memorandum with a last and final German proposal. This memorandum contains nothing more than the realisation of what Herr Benesh has already promised. The content of this proposal is very simple: Such territory as is German by population and wishes to come home to Germany, comes to Germany. And not only when Herr Benesh has succeeded in driving out perhaps one or two million Germans, but now, and immediately. In this respect I have chosen the frontier which, on the basis of material that has been available for decades on the division of peoples and languages in Czechoslovakia, is just.
      "I have demanded that now, after twenty years, Herr Benesh shall at last be faced with the truth. He will have to hand this territory to us on October 1st. Herr Benesh places his hopes on the world. And he and his diplomats make no secret of it. They declare: 'It is our hope that Chamberlain will be overthrown, that Daladier will be got rid of, that everywhere men will be overthrown.' They place their hopes on Soviet Russia. He still thinks he can escape fulfilling his obligations.
      "I am grateful to Mr. Chamberlain for his efforts. I have assured him that the German people wants nothing but peace. But I have also explained to him that I cannot retire beyond the limits of our patience. I assured him further that at the moment when Czechoslovakia solves her problems, namely, when the Czechs have settled with their minorities, peacefully and not by oppression, I am no longer interested in the Czech State - and that is guaranteed. We want no Czechs!
      "In this hour the whole nation will unite with me. It will feel my will as its own will, just as I regard its future and its destiny as giving me my mandate."

That was the speech of a simple soldier, of a great statesman, a leader of his people, of a man of destiny - yes, and a friend of England. It was uttered in an hour when thousands in this country thought that the most devastating and damnable war in history, a fratricidal conflict, would, in a few hours, in a few days, assuredly destroy our sons and all we value besides. Yet every true Englishman and every English soldier will respect, will understand him.

"The Times", September 27, 1938. Page 12, column 4.

On the very next day (27th) that incredible organ of national misrepresentation and illusion, the London Times, published "authoritatively," a statement to the effect that "... if... a German attack is made upon Czechoslovakia, the immediate result must be that... Great Britain, Russia and France... will come to her assistance." England will bleed for Prague and Moscow!

Be patient, my readers, and look back at the issue of the Times of September 27th. For your guidance it is reproduced here in facsimile.

Who spoke those words? Who authorised them? Why? On whose behalf? Treaties? What treaties? Commitments? Whose commitments? Remember, shall we not - that twenty years ago we entered into the era of "no secret diplomacy, and self-determination." Blessed phrase!

And the next day. The King signs the mobilisation order for the British Navy. Mr. Duff Cooper is, on September 28th, 1938, ruler of the King's Navy.

Is the die cast? Parliament meets.

"M. Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovakian Ambassador, smiling happily, arrives for the debate." Daily press comment accompanying suitable and convincing photographic evidence of the happy smile of M. Jan Masaryk. Who wants war?

Towards the end of the speech Mr. Chamberlain receives a note from Herr Hitler agreeing to a four-Power conference the following day at Munich, at the suggestion of Benito Mussolini. Heartfelt cheers greeted the announcement.

"If a German attack is made upon Czecho-Slovakia the immediate result must be that France will be bound to come to her assistance," reads the article in the Times. On what was that assumption based? There existed no automatic guarantee of Czech frontiers by France and, consequently, there was no obligation for England to support France in such a contingency.

M. Jean Montigny, a French Deputy for the Sarthe and a jurist of distinction, examines this question in the light of (i) the Treaty of Versailles; (ii) the Treaty of Alliance and Friendship between Czechoslovakia and France; and (iii) the Locarno Pact of October 16th, 1925; from the juridical, military, political, and moral point of view of the interests and security of France. And he comes unequivocally to the conclusion that there would have been no justification for France undertaking a preventative war in order to secure Czech frontiers against Germany. Addressing the President of the Republic, the Ministers and Members of the French Chamber, he came, in brief, to this conclusion on September 19th, 1938:

"We cannot allow a situation of international tension to be maintained for the purpose of providing our Government with a convenient weapon in domestic politics.
      "We will not admit of a gradual drifting towards war precipitated by the laziness or the pusillanimity of those who direct our national destiny.
      "Were a demoniac will of German hegemony to constrain us to it, then let us prepare to better purpose, than by the verbiage of meetings, so formidable a military coalition as may be necessary to conquer her. But France's allies must bring thereto their fairly apportioned strength. Thus France, loyally associated with others in a terrible war, in such a case revealed as indispensable in order to safeguard her liberty, her soil, and all those spiritual goods which give a value to life, could call upon her sons. Then the answer is YES!
      "But to demand this sacrifice in a preventative war? NO!
      "In a war where a possibility still lingers of reconciling Germany and Europe? NO!
      "In a war where France, in the role of a new Christ, is to be sacrificed tomorrow in order to glut the triumph of Communism or to save interests other than her own or to accomplish racial revenge? NO, and twice again, NO!"³¹

Nothing but months of preparation on the part of all organs of publicity, the press, the cinemas, and the British Broadcasting Corporation, all devoted to advertising the inevitable and imminent outbreak of another world war, in which German bombers would make the London and industrial areas their first target, could have produced the mass hysteria and panic scenes which disgraced London, especially the poorer districts where the alien and immigrant population is most numerous, during the crisis week from September 25th to October 1st. All this insidious war-hysteria was disguised as "Air Raid Precautions." Nothing else could have made the public believe in the imminent danger of war in the first place, or, in the second, believe that, in case of war, the civilian population would find any real protection in the advertised issue of 50,000,000 civilian gas masks. Even gas-proof chambers for dogs and cats were advertised and exhibited.

Apart from the well-established military futility of aerial attack by gas bombing, the Civil War in Spain has demonstrated the non-existence of this risk; while the civilian gas mask issued in England has established its effectiveness only in rendering an undisciplined and panicked civilian crowd, with their heads tied up in india-rubber bags, even more inefficient for any useful or orderly task than they would be with their wits about them and the free use of their eyes and nose and hands.

As it was, a number of people received serious injuries. Back gardens were frantically dug up to provide "air-raid trenches." Some people fell into them in the dark and broke their limbs. Trenches and rickety shelters fell in on others while they were digging them deeper. Some people were found dead with their heads in gas-ovens testing out their gas masks. Much was said about the "profiteering" of retailers in A.R.P. appliances. Less was said, however, about the enormous profits of the manufacturers who had government contracts for the supply of civilian gas masks and other A.R.P. paraphernalia.

It was not until after the crisis that the public began to appreciate the significance of A.R.P., and the schemes that had been elaborated for the "evacuation" of the civilian population from London and the urban centres into rural districts of the north and south-west of England. Even after the British Prime Minister had announced the Munich Four-Power Pact, which promised security and peace in Europe, the erstwhile pacifists and enthusiasts for "disarmament" redoubled their enthusiasm for "passive defence," and for the speeding-up of the armaments' race, in readiness for the world-war they "hoped" was only postponed.

The Dean of Canterbury, well known for his enthusiasm in the cause of Bolshevik Spain, appeared, after the crisis, on the platform with Mr. Gollancz of Left-Wing Book Club fame and, with Communist spokesmen, contributed his appeals for Red Spain, for Air Raid Precautions in England, and for "refugees."

Meanwhile, Sir Samuel Hoare, the Home Secretary, in issuing from his Department the recommendations of a "Committee on Evacuation," introduces and invents a new category of "refugees." This bomb-shell Report was discreetly withheld by the Home Office from the public until after the crisis. It is announced that arrangements are being made for the reception of persons who "voluntarily become refugees under evacuation schemes from certain industrial areas and thereby become entitled to accommodation in private houses - (in rural areas supposed to be relatively safe from bombing raids) - under powers of compulsory billeting."³²

This is the first time in the history of England, or of any other country not under Communist dictatorship, where it has been suggested that civilians may, under the guise of a national emergency or in time of war, elect, under Government arrangements, to commandeer or requisition private houses for their own accommodation "on the slum clearance standard," or on the standard of "one person to one room." Sir John Anderson, the Chairman of this Report, points out that this "evacuation of refugees" scheme - this official, by the way, prefaces his remarks with "we need hardly say" - could not possibly work on a voluntary basis, and would have to be enforced "regardless of the type of refugees which householders would be compelled to accept in their houses and the circumstances and length of time for which they would be compelled to take them."³² We, on the other hand, "need hardly say," that a more grotesque and flagrant violation of English Common Law and of civil liberties has never before been suggested by urban and internationalised politicians as a means of outraging and terrorising the rural and agricultural population of England.

It is perhaps not surprising to those who know their urban and un-English traditions and political affiliations, that amongst the three members of Sir John Anderson's Committee are found the names of the Hon. Members for South-West Bethnal Green, Sir Percy Harris, and for North Islington, Dr. Haden Guest.³²

On October 4th the Parliamentary Debate on the crisis reveals how disappointed many prominent politicians were that there was no war. The Lord Mayor opens his fund for Czech refugees. Thousands flocked back into Prague again in order to qualify as refugees - but not the Germans, who, in certain "doubtful" areas, found they did not even need a plebiscite. The House of Commons voted credits of £10,000,000, so that the refugees who remained in Czecho-Slovakia should be as well looked after as those who were able to come to England and enjoy all the funds collected for refugees preferring travel to staying at home.

The British public want the truth - not little bits of it, but the whole truth, for it has been cruelly deceived. Let us face it!

We have our own distressed areas. There are housing conditions in the South Wales coalfields and elsewhere almost as shocking as those imposed on the Sudeten Germans by the Czechs in Bohemia. We, too, have unemployment, discontent, and distress - unalleviated.

What is the solution, now and in the future? It is simple, and becomes every day more obvious. Remove British interference from the affairs of Central Europe and the rest follows. Let us face realities and put our own house in order. Germany will and must rescue her own German children, Poland will rescue the Poles, Hungary the Magyars. This, after all, is only that self-determination which we guaranteed.

Let the Czechs be given an area of their own or return to Bolshevik Russia, and there will remain in what has been the unhappy Republic of the Czecho-Bolsheviks only the Slovaks and Ruthenians, who have no desire to set the world alight in the name of the World Revolution and their own self-interests.

Are the Slovaks alone to be left to endure the agony of Czech misgovernment and oppression?

Fight we will if fight we must, not against Germany for daring and being strong enough to look after her own sons, but against the enemy in our midst! Thus, and thus alone, can England maintain peace and her own honourable obligations.

The Czech Conspiracy
A Phase in the World-War Plot