Czech Government Says Population, Not Jews, is Behind Unrest in Slovakia

The official communique issued by the Slovak Government in Bratislava attributing Saturday’s clashes between the police and the local population in Humenne and Michalovce to Jews, was ridiculed here today by Czechoslovak officials as “a gross exaggeration.”

Information reaching the Czechoslovak Government in London reveals that the clashes in the two Slovakian towns, though explained away by the pro-Nazi authorities in Bratislava as resulting from “Jewish resistance to deportation from the country” were really an expression of the state of high tension existing in the Nazi puppet-state. Isolated fighting against the pro-Nazi Slovak authorities is going on in the mountainous regions of Slovakia, the information reaching here stated, adding that it is possible that some of the guerrilla bands include Jews who succeeded in escaping while on their way to forced labor camps.

The pro-Nazi Slovak newspaper Guardista today carries an article admitting the growth of discontent among the Slovakian population. It attributes this situation to “Jewish incitement.” Broadcast over the Bratislava radio, the article says that “an immediate and drastic solution of the Jewish problem is imperative in order to put an end to the Slovakian people being demoralized by Jews.”

The Czechoslovak circles in London today emphasized that the growing dissatisfaction with the pro-Nazi regime in Slovakia is due to the economic insecurity in the country caused by the confiscation of property from Jews and so-called “enemies of the State.” It is also intensified by the great losses which the Slovak military units are suffering on the Russian front and by the constant threat of the Nazis that Hungary will be permitted to occupy the whole of Slovakia should the puppet state refuse to give in to Berlin’s demands.