German domination of the Danubian and Balkan countries on a plan modelled after the British Empire was proposed here today as political circles predicted that the question of the German minority in Czechoslovakia will cause repeated periods of tension throughout the Summer.
Developments of the past week have convinced Germans, apparently for the first time, of the existence of an unshakable Anglo-French front. Varied Nazi sources said today that it is not worth running a risk of starting a European war for the sake of adding the 3,000,000 Czechoslovak Germans to the Reich.
The German man in the street, prepared by violent press attacks for action in the Czechoslovak crisis, was somewhat surprised by the turn of events. Responsible quarters, however, seemed to recognize the necessity of slow action, depending on internal developments in Czechoslovakia as well as changes in the international situation, in the drive to obtain complete autonomy for the Germans in Czechoslovakia.
Nazi circles here said that Konrad Henlein, leader of the Sudeten Germans, would be at least temporarily satisfied with an autonomous status similar to that of the Danzig Nazis, who without formal incorporation in the Reich really govern a Nazi district.
“At bottom,” said the Boersen Zeitung, “the Sudetens demand only what Great Britain long ago accorded to the South Africans, the Irish and the Canadians.”
Proposing that the example of the British Empire and the Dominions be followed for a general solution of the problem of the relations of the Third Reich with the countries of Central Europe and the Balkans, the same newspaper indicated that Berlin considers the Czechoslovak problem to be the last serious obstacle to German domination of the Danubian and Balkan countries.
The Boersen Zeitung concluded with the following significant sentence:
“Germany, which plays in these regions the role of a great directing power, a cultural and moral alma mater, has not during acute local tension lost sight of the solution favored for the British Empire by (Colonial Secretary Malcolm) MacDonald.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
