Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-03-21 | Page 1 | Czech Seizure Unlawful, U. S. Bluntly Tells Nazis

: yD emptily fi(LLS ,iliDi Scathing Note RakesGerman Force Policies State Department Message to Embassy Covert ' Welles' Indictment of "Wanton Law- ' ' 1 lessness' Displayed ' ' ...... WASHINGTON, March' 21 (INS) Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles today made public a United States note formally refusing to recognize the legitimacy of Germany's seizure of Czecho-Slovakia. Inclosed with the note was the public statement la which Welles on Friday last denounced the Csech annexation by Germany aa "wanton lawlessness and arbitrary fores threatening world peace and the vary structure ef modern civilisation." civi-lisation." Stat department officials said the bitterness of this language was unparalleled la preaent day diplomacy. diplo-macy. Welles also made publio tha text of a German sots of Thursday setting set-ting forth the events leading up te and the terms of the German occupation occu-pation of Cseche-81ovakla. The American reply delivered ts the German embassy by s motorcycle motor-cycle messenger yasterday eras addressed ad-dressed to Hans Thomson, German chance d'affaires, and was signed by Welles. . . The American note said: "flirt I acknowledge the receipt of your note of March IT, in which, by direction Of your government, you inform the government of the United States of the terms of the decree Issued on March 15 by the government of the relch announcing announc-ing the assumption of a protectorate . over-the provinces of Bohemia and . Voravia. "Tne government of the United States has observed that the provinces prov-inces referred to are now under , the defacto administration of the German authorities. The govern-ment govern-ment ef the United States doss not recognise that any legal basis exists for the status so Indicated. . "The view ef this government with regard te the situation above ' referred to, as well as with regard to related facts, was made known oa March IT, . I Inclose herewith, for the Information of. your government gov-ernment a copy of the statement la which that view was expressed. "Accept, sir, the renewed assurances as-surances of my high consideration. (Signed) Sumner Welles, Acting Secretary of State. The lncloeure, constituting ens of the bitterest denouncements the stats department has ever lasoed, condemned - "military aggression and interference la the affairs ef free and Independent peoples." and referred to the extinguishment ef Czechoslovakia ss temporary. The German note merely set forth textually tha U articles in a decree or March 1 by which Chancellor Hitler established the Garsaaa protectorate pro-tectorate ever Bohemia and Mora. via. The articles asserted that Csech e-8lovakla e-8lovakla "from now ea belongs to the domain ef tha greater German reich,' that German Inhabitants shall come under "provisions for the protection of the German blood and German honor" and that other inhabitants "become nationals ef the protectorate ef Bohemia and Moravia." The note directed particular attention at-tention to article six, which says: -Tha reich takes charge of the foreign affairs ef the protectorate, and in particular of the protect! oa of its nationals In foreign countries. The reich will conduct foreign affairs af-fairs in accordance with the common com-mon interests. The protectorate is given a representative near tha reich government with the official designation ef minister The note also stated: -The former diplomatic representatives represen-tatives of Csecho-Slovakia In foreign for-eign countries are no longer qualified quali-fied for official acta." .Welles, at his press conference, reiterated that the central European Euro-pean crisis had occasioned no conference con-ference or consultations between the United States and any other government British amnaria-W Sir -Jlonald Lindsay, a visitor ef yesterday, called merely te secure Informatioa and sot for consultation, Welles said. The - acting secretory said his scheduled appearance before the senate foreign relations committee tomorrow will relate to a pending authorisation for United States navy constraction ef warships for Latin American governments and not to neutrality.