Tuesday, 20 September 1938

20 September 2008 in 1930s, Civil defence, Ephemera, Periodicals, Pictures, Post-blogging the Sudeten crisis by Brett Holman | 4 comments

This post is part of an experiment in post-blogging the Sudeten crisis of August-October 1938. See here for an introduction to the series, and here for a conclusion.

CZECHS TO ACCEPT / Decision Early To-day After Five Hours' Council / TO AVOID WAR AND BLOODSHED / The Next Step: Mr. Chamberlain's Second Visit To Hitler / Manchester Guardian, 20 September 1938, p. 11

This time it’s the Manchester Guardian which has the scoop (p. 11): in late night meetings last night, the Czechs decided to accept the ‘recommendations’ of the French and British governments, albeit ‘possibly with reservations’. There’s still no official confirmation of what those recommendations are, but the London correspondent has some information from ‘responsible quarters in London’, which generally confirm the speculations of yesterday :

1. Areas in Czecho-Slovakia with a predominant German population to be ceded without a plebiscite.
2. Other areas to remain in the Czecho-Slovakian State under the federal system proposed in Dr. Benes’s Fourth Plan.
3. An international commission to “rectify” the new boundaries.
4. The independence of Czecho-Slovakia within these boundaries to be guaranteed by Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, and Yugo-Slavia.
5. The neutralisation of Czecho-Slovakia and cancellation of her treaties of alliance.
6. The interchange of populations to be arranged by which German sympathisers within Czecho-Slovakia can go to the new German provinces and the population in these provinces that does not wish to remain there can go within the new boundaries of Czecho-Slovakia.

There doesn’t seem to have been any reaction from the German side, yet. It appears that Chamberlain’s planned second visit to Germany is going ahead, though the date is not yet set. But Henlein’s ‘Free Corps’ of Sudeten Germans is going to continue raiding Czech border posts from German territory (last night they attacked a customs post near Gr

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4 comments

  1. CK’s avatar

    CK on 21 September 2008 at 12:34 am

    Sorry Brett,

    Hate to correct you here. A “scoop” on page 11?

    Scoops are on page 1. Page 11 might just be late-breaking news, ’30’s style.

  2. Brett Holman’s avatar

    Brett Holman on 21 September 2008 at 12:42 am

    Hate to correct you here. A “scoop” on page 11?

    Yes, actually.

  3. Erik Lund’s avatar

    Erik Lund on 21 September 2008 at 2:46 am

    One of the interesting things about exploring media from before the big event is finding ideas that were supposed to be emergent during it are actually present before hand. I’m thinking of the momentary loss of power in “bunting” flight in carburetted engines that is often mentioned in Battle of Britain histories as though it were a new discovery. But, hey, rationing has some minor historical significance, too.
    The reason that I think they’re interesting is that you begin to suspect that the fuss made is informed less by observed effects than by anticipation.

  4. Brett Holman’s avatar

    Brett Holman on 21 September 2008 at 5:23 pm

    Yep! Though for us it works the other way around too, reading backwards from ‘the big event’ to find precursors. I think I’ve done that here — upon reflection, the food defence plan probably isn’t just rationing but also simple storage of food, in case the distribution network breaks down (e.g. through a knock-out blow).

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