(See front cover)
Eduard, save up your pence, For Adolf soon will be over the fence. So runs the insolent jingle which Nazi sympathizers among Czechoslovakia's German minority sporadically plaster on Czech frontier barriers. No one need explain to worried Czechs that Eduard is their president, Eduard Benes (pronounced Benesh), that Adolf is their neighbor, Hitler, that the fence is a cup-shaped chain of mountains along the Czech-German border, a chain about the height of Vermont's Green Mountains. Since the Sixth Century this fence has served as a barrier against the eastward push of Teutonic tribes, but never has its protective power been of such worldwide concern as in 1938. Inhabited largely by Germans, the whole length of the fence has come to be known as the Sudeten region, although the Sudetes Mountains form only the northern side of the cup.
A large section of the world's diplomats believe that five weeks ago Chancellor Hitler made a feint in Czechoslovakia's direction when he moved 170,000 troops into "summer barracks" nearer the border. He had just Nazified Austria while French and Germans stood by with open mouths. Their mouths were still open when the Reich's soldiers began ominously moving around on their side of the Czechoslovak border. In this crisis the Czechoslovakian Republic, the keystone of democracy in central Europe, marched 400,000 troops up to its side of the border and the first German over the line would have been a dead German. Thus that crisis was solved, and little Eduard Benes was heard to observe that the machinery of a democratic state can work fast, too.
Last week, Czechoslovakia staged another display of her forces—of those who would form the backbone of her second-line defense. The event was the tenth Congress and athletic carnival of the Sokols, lasting a full month. Sokol Congresses, scheduled every six years, are much older than the modern Olympic Games and, like the ancient Olympics, their background is strongly national. The Czechoslovak Sokol, oldest national gymnastic organization in the world, was founded in 1862 by Philosopher Author Dr. Miroslav Tyrs and Dr. Jindrich Fügner. The name Sokol, meaning falcon, was adopted because it is the traditional name for Czech folk-song heroes. During the years of Habsburg dominance, Sokol groups served to keep Czech nationalism alive. When the World War broke out members filtered into Allied armies, formed Sokol legions to fight their old masters. Today, the Sokol numbers some 800,000 men, women and children, one out of every 20 in the population, organized in 3,265 local branches.
The 460,000 male members are a storehouse of well-trained manpower for the nation's efficient standing army of 180,000 men. Significantly an important part of the Sokol Congress activities is the army's defense demonstrations.