Salt Lake Telegram | 1937-08-19 | Page 7 | Lisbon Breaks with Czechs

LISBON BREAKS WITH-CZECHS LISBON. Aug. If (UP) Portugal, aligned with nasi Germany in the Spanish civil war crisis, severed relations re-lations with Csecho-Slovakla today in a diplomatic move that was expected ex-pected to have startling repercussions repercus-sions all over Europe. The break was made on the ground that Csecho-Slovakla, under pPCyBnTOPaT--asYYY ls' 1 ft" Aft fvsrOtaw " whil nation, refused to make good on a gigantic machine gun order for Portugal. Just how big this order must havs been disclosed in an official offi-cial communique which said that Csecho-Slovakia offered to deliver too of the guns for Portugal's army, which, including the air force, the cavalry and artillery totals SO, 000 men. The long communique in which the break was announced said in substance that Portugal, "continuing "continu-ing its rearmament of the army," invited bids from principal factories fac-tories for a "certain number" of machine guns. Delays Deliberate" One of tha factories was the Oesiroslovsnske. Abro)ovka factory, "which is practically a government concern. It wsa commented that Csecho-Slovak guns were preferred. ' - - - . - a she asi aaaa ft HYeTjWtT WQHWrVl TTTvF TTTTTw vi dehvery." Negotiations went smoothly for some time, it was said, though there were delays which "in the light of subsequent facts" seemed d lib-rate. lib-rate. The note said that tha Csecho-Slovak Csecho-Slovak factory asked for a written declaration that the arms were "exclusively" "ex-clusively" for ths Portuguese army and that tha declaration was given. Then, it was complained, the government gov-ernment was advised that the Czecho-Slovakian government refused re-fused to authorise export of the arms because of Portugal's sttituda regarding the Spanish nonintervention noninterven-tion problem. The Portuguese government, gov-ernment, openly snd strongly In favor of the Spanish nationalists, had cooperated with Germany and fascist Italy in nonintervention problems. Neutrality Cited It was added that the Csecho-Slovak Csecho-Slovak government told the Portuguese Portu-guese minister that the only reason for refusal was ths government's obligation not to furnish arms, directly di-rectly or indirectly, for either of the factions in ths civil war. Finally, ths official statement said, ths Csecho-Slovak government agreed to authoriss the delivery of OOO machine guns in September, but reserved the right to reconsider the "remainder" of the contract when time for delivery arrived, since the order might conflict with Czechoslovakia's Czecho-slovakia's national defense needs. PRAGUE, Aug. 1 (UP) The foreign for-eign office in a formal statement today said ths diplomatic rupture with Portugal is "an unlqus in- stance in diplomatic history thai the failure of business negotiation! has led to a formal rupture in diplomatic dip-lomatic relations." "The Portuguese government," II said, "recently negotiated with s Czech arms firm, simultaneous!) soliciting the Czech foreign office'i consent for delivery. When it wai established that the Czech firm, owing to previous orders by the Czech army, would be unable to fill the Portuguest orders within the time fixed, the Portuguese government govern-ment was offered delivery of another an-other type. "We stats there neither existed nor exists political or diplomatic conflicts between Czeeho-Slovakia and Portugal."