CZECHOSLOVAKIA. (Hansard, 17 November 1938)

§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE EARL OF PLYMOUTH)

My Lords, the Secretary of State has asked me to express to the noble Lord the Leader of the Opposition his regret at not being able to be here in person this afternoon to answer this Question, but he feels certain that the noble Lord will appreciate the fact that the visit of His Majesty the King of Rumania has added so to his engagements as to make it impossible. I understand that an official communiqué was published in Prague on November 5, stating that the frontier between Czechoslovakia and Poland in the Teschen area had been definitely fixed as a result of the consultations of the Polish-Czechoslovak Frontier Delimitation Commission. Neither the German-Czechoslovak Frontier Delimitation Commission, set up by the International Commission in Berlin, nor the 120 Hungarian-Czechoslovak Frontier Commission, set up in accordance with Article 1 of the Vienna Arbitral Award, have however concluded their labours, and the new frontiers of Czechoslovakia with Germany and Hungary, though generally settled, have not yet been finally delimited.

In response to a suggestion put to them by the Hungarian Government on October 24 the Czechoslovak Government agreed to submit the question of the Hungarian minority in Czechoslovakia to arbitration. The two Governments agreed that the German and Italian Governments should be invited to act as arbitrators and representatives of the Governments concerned met in Vienna on November 2. After conversations with the Hungarian and Czechoslovak Ministers for Foreign Affairs the German and Italian representatives made an award laying down the areas to be ceded to Hungary by Czechoslovakia. This award has been accepted by the Hungarian and Czechoslovak Governments. His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom were not consulted about the new frontiers laid down in this award, but it will be recalled that the Munich Agreement did not make any stipulations in regard to the settlement of the problems of the Polish and Hungarian minorities in Czechoslovakia, and it was only in the event of these problems not being settled in agreement between the two interested Governments within three months that they would have formed the subject of another meeting of the Munich Powers. A settlement was, in fact, reached between the Czechoslovak and Hungarian Governments when they agreed to accept as final the arbitral award of the German and Italian Governments, and His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom can only welcome the decision of the two interested Governments to submit their differences to a peaceful settlement by arbitration, and the fact that the arbitral award has been acceped as final by the Czechoslovak and by the Hungarian Governments.

The Annex to the Munich Agreement stated that His Majesty's Government and the French Government had entered into the above Agreement upon the basis that they stood by the offer contained in paragraph 6 of the Anglo-French proposals of September 19 to join in an international guarantee of the new boundaries of the Czechoslovak State against unprovoked 121 aggression. The Heads of the German and Italian Governments also stated and in this Annex that when the question of the Polish Hungarian minorities in Czechoslovakia had been settled, Germany and Italy for their part would give a guarantee to Czechoslovakia. Since, as I have already explained, the new frontiers of Czechoslovakia are not yet definitively fixed, the undertaking of Germany and Italy to guarantee Czechoslovakia has not yet taken effect, nor have there so far been any exchanges of views with these two Governments as to the manner in which the guarantees should be combined and as to the conditions in which they shall operate. Thus, as my noble friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs said in the House on October 3, many questions remain to be settled regarding the system of guarantees to be set up in favour of Czechoslovakia. This applies in particular to the questions to which the noble Lord has drawn attention regarding the States who are to guarantee the new frontiers and the exact form which this guarantee would take. As my right honourable friend the Prime Minister stated recently in another place, 122 this matter is now being examined in all its aspects by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom.

His Majesty's Governments in the Dominions were informed by telegram immediately of the terms of the Anglo-French proposals to the Czechoslovak Government of September 19, paragraph 6 of which related to the proposed participation of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom in an international guarantee of the new boundaries of the Czechoslovak State against unprovoked aggression, but it was not possible, in view of the urgency with which these proposals had to be put forward, for any exchange of views to take place before they were communicated to the Czechoslovak Government. It is, however, the intention of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom to communicate with His Majesty's Governments in the Dominions before reaching any final decision regarding the exact form which the proposed guarantee is to take.