"Plan No. 3"

The mounting international war scare reached a climax last week. U. S. underwriters abruptly doubled the premiums charged for insuring U. S. property in Europe against war risks. The pound sterling, which recently has been high above parity with the dollar, last week dipped below for a three-year record. In Washington, anxious Assistant Secretary of State George S. Messersmith repeatedly crawled out of bed around 4 a. m. to hear by transatlantic telephone what U. S. Ambassadors in Europe could tell him about whether Adolf Hitler was going to hurl the German Army into Czechoslovakia.

Early Bird Messersmith, although he heard much bad news, was not obliged last week to hop chirping to Secretary Hull or the President before breakfast. The danger of war was not acute enough to keep Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in London. With his fishing rods and guns sticking ostentatiously out of his limousine, Mr. Chamberlain left for Scotland to play trout streams and shoot grouse with King George. Lloyd's pointed out in London last week that, although they stopped writing war-risk insurance on British property some months ago, and although they have been unwilling to cover either the risk of war breaking out in Europe or of Franklin Roosevelt announcing he will seek a Third Term, they were still quoting cargo insurance at far below "wartime rates." Thus, although the rate on South African copper shipped to Germany was raised last week from .025% to .125% the latter figure spells "Peace" in comparison with the 42% premium charged on shipments bound for war-torn Spain.

"Indefectively United!" Up & down Europe a new factor working for peace was sighted by anxious millions in the behavior last week of U. S. Ambassadors. In London, after the British Cabinet had reviewed the Czechoslovak situation for nearly three hours, U. S. Ambassador Joseph Patrick Kennedy was invited in for an hour's conference. Next day Mr. Kennedy was back in Downing Street, conferring this time with Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax, and red-ink London placards shrieked this as good news. Mr. Kennedy, interviewed by transatlantic telephone, told the Hearst Boston American, ''No war is going to break out during the rest of 1938."

Next, Roman Catholic Kennedy, attending in Aberdeen last week a memorial service for the first Episcopalian bishop in the U. S., Samuel Seabury (died 1796). made what was taken as an anti-Nazi speech by his highly appreciative British audience. "In certain parts of the world." cried Mr. Kennedy "the profession and practice of religion is being called a political offense. Men and women are being deprived of their natural born citizenship and they are being thrown out of the land of their nativity because they profess a certain religion which political authorities have decided to uproot. . . . We are blessed that our two countries . . . are imbued with certain old-fashioned but still useful qualities--respect for the rights of others and for the sanctity of engagements as well as a genuine love of freedom for the individual!" U. S. Ambassador to France William Christian Bullitt went further, suddenly declared impromptu at a Bordeaux banquet in the presence of three members of the French Cabinet: "France and my country are indefectively united in war as in peace. ... It is no secret that the people of the United States have a most profound sympathy today for the people of France.

... At this time the unity and calm with which France contemplates the future have awakened the admiration of the whole world." With President Albert Lebrun of France presiding, every member of the Cabinet had put his signature on an extraordinary "unanimous decree." This empowered Premier Edouard Daladier to "stretch out" the French 40-hour week law in individual cases, so that the State can have French armament plants and allied factories work up to 48 hours.

Pressure v. Pressure-- All this was pressure against Adolf Hitler and at least one official newsorgan of the Soviet Union chimed in last week by demanding that ''concerted practical measures . . . not mere diplomatic conversations be used lo keep Germany out of Czechoslovakia." In Prague, meanwhile, the British mediator, Viscount Runciman, at last had ready a third series of proposed concessions to the Sudeten Germans known as Czechoslovak Premier Dr. Milan Hodza's "Plan No. 3." This had been secretly flown over for the inspection of the British Cabinet and secretly flown back to Prague by Mr.

Frank Trelawny Arthur Aston-Gwatkin, Lord Runciman's Man Friday. It was taken by Sudeten German Fuehrer Konrad Henlein to Berchtesgaden last week and there laid before the German Fuehrer. Details were kept secret but it was understood that Plan No. 3 embodied these main points: 1) a three-month truce to be declared, to give time for much further negotiation between the Sudeten Germans, the Czechoslovak Government and other interested parties; 2) Czechoslovakia to become after these negotiations a Federal State composed of Gaue or "Cantons" modeled on the Swiss Federal State, whose structure has often been compared to that of the U. S. The Sudetens complain this would give their Gaue only a rough equivalent to American States' rights, whereas they have demanded "autonomy" comparable to British dominion status.

"Straw Man." Viscount Runciman's entourage began complaining fortnight ago that they have found Konrad Henlein nothing but a "straw man," and last week the Sudeten Fuehrer went to Berchtesgaden only to take the orders of his boss, Fuehrer Hitler--for the fourth time this year.

Present with the No. 1 Nazi were No. 2 Nazi Goring, No. 3 Nazi Goebbels and Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, who arrived from Berlin with what was said to be a personal piece of advice to Adolf Hitler from Neville Chamberlain.

This had been verbally delivered in Berlin by the British Ambassador, Sir Nevile Henderson, who brought it by air from London. As Sir Nevile was leaving Croydon, he added an E. Phillips Oppenheim touch by portentously remarking to cameramen : "You had better be quick--this is the last chance you'll get."*

Henlein, after four hours' conference with Hitler, returned to his home in the village of As. Three days later one fact seemed obvious: the "strawman" had been instructed to reject Plan No. 3, to compromise on nothing, to hold out for full, unqualified Sudeten autonomy. The Czech Cabinet then met with President Benes and drafted its "last" offer to which a response was expected from Dictator Hitler this week in one of his numerous speeches at the Nazi Party Congress in Nurnberg (see p. 32.)

Sudetens Scared? Meanwhile, local bigwigs of the Sudeten German Party were reported from Czechoslovakia as be ginning to show signs of fear lest they be thrust aside by Nazis from Germany, much as in Vienna the Austrian Nazis have lost all the biggest plums to German Nazis. Supplementing cables to this effect was a statement by pro-Czech Chairman George Boochever of the American-Czechoslovak Chamber of Commerce, who stepped off the Dutch liner Nieuw Amster dam in Manhattan. "In my talks with Sudeten Germans," said Mr. Boochever, "I gained the impression that they had no real wish to be annexed to Germany. . . . I think Henlein is but the mouthpiece for Hitler's views and if it were not for the propaganda and subsidies from Germany received by Henlein and his group there would be no agitation. . . ."

*In the event of war, Sir Nevile would expect to be recalled, cease to be Ambassador.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.