Trial of the Major War Criminals before International Military Tribunal ...

point of view. Accordingly, for economic reasons also the demand
for frontier rectification is entirely justified by the Munich Agree-
ment, partly because this economic reason is, in the great majority
of cases, identical with the ethnographical reason and partly also
because even where the two reasons are not identical, (as in the
case of the Prague electrical power-station and the Brno reservoir)
the Munich Agreement expressly permits such rectification.
The economic self-sufficiency of the Czechoslovak Republic is
not, however, merely a question of frontier rectification but is also,
and perhaps mainly, a question of financial assistance in the form
of a loan. As you are aware, the Czechoslovak ~overnment has
already applied to the Government of Great Britain for assistance
of this kind and has met with a ready response which shows a
thorough understanding of the needs of the situation. In this
connection let me assure you that the Czechoslovak nation is accus-
tomed to disciplined labour, and in the face of its present hardships
will not hesitate to work to an even greater extent than hitherto
for the purpose of maintaining the economic existence of its country.
It will continue and will, indeed, even increase its output in agri-
culture and industry, it will construct communications and factories,
it will create new economic resources. For this purpose it does
not need any alms, for it has never received any throughout its
existence. Whatever it has borrowed, it has always duly paid back.
It will repay with interest also the loan which Great Britain is
about to grant it. The benefits from this loan will not be limited
to Czechoslovakia, but will be shared by the whole of Europe, and
these benefits will be both of an economic and a political character.
The neutrality
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of the Czechoslovak Republic will be ensured by its economic
strength, and it will thus be maintained as a very valuable element
of consolidation in the unstable area of Central and South Eastern
Europe.
The Czechoslovak Republic, economically secured by financial
assistance, supported by its natural wealth and its progressive and
hard-working population, loyally co-operating with all its neigh-
bours but preserving its neutrality and independence, will be a
valuable factor in that task of consolidation and pacification which
the Western Powers are endeavouring to achieve, and for which
they claim the Munich Agreement to be the starting point. If this
process is not rendered possible by an equitable rectification of the