CZECHOSLOVAKIA: CZECHO-SLOVAKIA

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Following on the heels of uproars in the French Chamber of Deputies and the Japanese Diet, described in the last issue of TIME, comes the news of tumultuous scenes in the Czecho-Slovakian Chamber of Deputies. When the Speaker announced that the report of the committee of Constitutional Law on the Defence of the Realm Bill would be read, Dr. Smeral, leader of the communists, gave the signal for a deafening onslaught of noise from his party. A tattoo was drummed with despatch boxes on the desks. Whistles, large bells and trumpets joined in one concerted, inharmonious, deafening din. The parties opposing the communists, not to be outdone, mustered their vocal chords and poured forth a varied species of banshee wail—but all to no avail. The communists not only carried the day, but held the Parliament building. A desperate Government Bench, not being able to hear itself think, finally ordered the removal of the communists from the Chamber, and a few moments later the Parliamentary Guard carried the unruly members out to the martial strains of The Red Flag. The Government's victory was, however, short lived. As soon as the last reverberating echoes had died away the Slovak People's Party took up the turbulent tactics of the communists, and successfully prevented the reading of the bill for some time. In the end they too left the Chamber and the bill was read to the remaining but exhausted members.