760F.62/1025: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 23—9:35 a.m.]
479. The feature news in the morning papers is the military reoccupation of the Sudeten border districts by order of the new Praha Government. Lurid accounts are given of the ruthless deportment of the troops who are reported to have opened fire on passers-by without warning, shooting down 16 people in the Eger District alone. Alleged persecution of Hungarian and Polish national groups by the Czech authorities is also emphasized.
The following excerpt from the Berliner Tageblatt illustrates the general opinion of editorial comment.
“The lunatic actions of the rulers whom Czechism in this desperate hour has made the arbiters of its fate cuts off all possibility of further [Page 640] quiet development. After a Praha Government had agreed to the proposals which England and France drafted and which the Sudeten Germans were about to implement in order to avoid still more victims, Praha’s new Government at Moscow’s order, directs its hounds against the still unprotected Sudeten Germans. It is needless to say that now they will not remain without protection a moment longer than the circumstance requires. Long enough Germany warned of the danger of such a criminal act of desperation on the part of Bolshevised Czechism. The time went by unused. Now it is past.”
The noon press features reports purporting to demonstrate conclusively that Moscow is completely dominating the Czech Government and has ordered a policy of terrorism centering on the German borders. Sirovy is said to have declared before a Bolshevik mass meeting that in spite of all previous decisions the possibility of war within the next few days is not to be excluded.