Runciman Among Kinskys

Britain's cautiously mediating Viscount Runciman, having spent his first Czechoslovak weekend at the castle of Count Jiri Kinsky, who is pro-Czech, spent his second weekend at the castle of the Count's cousin, Prince Ulrich Kinsky, who is pro-German. Apart from this effort at impartiality, Lord Runciman last week continued to make the Czechoslovak Government nervous by devoting most of his time to conferences with henchmen of Sudeten German Nazi Fuehrer Konrad Henlein.

Meanwhile, the German press boiled up with its most furious anti-Czechoslovak campaign thus far; Herr Hitler mobilized 1,000,000 men along the eastern frontiers of Germany; and the Czechoslovak Reserve Officers' Association led Prague patriotic groups last week in demanding that the Government call on Czechoslovaks to fight and if necessary suffer bloody defeat, rather than tamely yield even a fraction of the nation's sovereignty.

In jittery Prague, President Eduard Benes' nephew, Jiri Benes, front-paged an editorial declaring blandly that Neville Chamberlain has sent Lord Runciman to act as a "witness for the Crown" in case war begins at the Czechoslovak border. Its conclusion:

"The English public will fight only on the side it believes to be in the right. In England, Lord Runciman is known for his justice and honesty. His word will be good enough. . . . If it is clear that we, having been attacked, will defend ourselves to the end; and if it is clear that an unprovoked attack will have the same consequences as the attack on Belgium in 1914, then there will be no war. Because even the aggressor in his blindness knows that in such a case he will be crushed."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.