English Translation

62 Copy. The Czecho-Slovak constitutional law on the autonomy of Slovakia, the agreement of the Slovak parties concluded in Zilina on 6 October last and accepted by the central government, as well as the Pittsburg Agreement, from which the Slovaks' claim to autonomy is derived, stress that Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia form a single federal state. Recently, in Slovakia, Professor Bela Tuka and the head of propaganda of the Slovak government Sano Mach, who relied on some unfair elements and exploited the undecided weakness of the chairman of the government, Dr Josef Tiso, and some other ministers. In recent days, the propaganda against the unity of the Cecho-Slovak State has reached such intensity that the central government and the President of the Republic considered it necessary to intervene in the interests of asserting the spirit of constitutional laws on the autonomy of the country of Slovakia. In the Slovak Republic, the unrest caused by the weakness of the country's government increased. That is why the President of the Republic dismissed, on Thursday evening, Minister Josef Tiso, the former Chairman of the Slovak Government, Dr M.Pružinsky, Minister of Economic Affairs, Dr Ferdinand Durčansky, Minister for Transport and Public Works, and Dr M Vanco, Secretary of Justice, from office. The remaining two ministers remained in the Slovak government. Mr Josef Sivák, former Deputy Chairman of the Government, became President of the government, while Minister Pavel Teplansky continued to hold the Ministry of Finance. These changes in the Slovak government did not affect the central government, whose member is the Slovak deputy to the chairman of the Beran government, Minister of State Karol Sidor. Nor did any changes occur in the joint departments in the office of Slovak delegates. These measures of the President of the Republic of Cecho-Slovakia are aimed solely at preventing the violation of the Czecho-Slavak unity and strengthening peace and order. Neither the autonomy of Slovakia nor the Zilina agreement are affected by this. At Prague's administrative offices, the unshakable will of the central government to continue the autonomous Slovak self-government -2-