A GREAT STATESMAN
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Suz,—Friends and even opponents of President T. G. Masaryk of Czechoslovakia will heartily congratulate the veteran statesman on the attainment of his eighty-second birthday on Monday, March 7th.
It is not practicable to review the career of this courageous deputy and professor, of Slovak peasant origin. On his election as President lie had to grapple with the problem of disgruntled and rather recalcitrant minorities. • Sub-Carpa- thian Russia and Slovakia were in a backward condition, and Germans and Magyars could not readily adapt themselves to a new regime.
Many Slovaks were partly Magyarized, and officials from Prague were not always welcomed. In rural districts the Germans had the better schools, the Czech schools being main- tained precariously. All this was readjusted. The University of Brno—long desired but always refused—bears the President's name, and that of Bratislava the name of Komensky (Come- nius), whose fulfilled prophecy Masaryk read on his inaugura- tion. While all branches of education are flourishing, ample provision has been made for the needs of minorities. Masaryk is an instance of a Moses who not only saw the Promised Land from Pisgah, but has been privileged to enter.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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