Faith with occupied Europe
Sir: The comparison that you make between the Czechoslovak leaders and Marshal Pdtain is most unfair to the former. Pertain was no friend to the open society : his politics were mediaeval Catholic reactionary, a mask that Nazis and Fascists often found it convenient to assume (witness Spain: did not the Carlists call the Falangistas nuestros rojos?).
Granted that he wished to forestall direct rule from Berlin, he also hoped to make a social order more conformable to his warped opinions than its predecessor. The Czechostovak leaders, by contrast, would like nothing better than to carry on as before the invasion, and have no sympathy with the social structure ordained by Moscow: they are trying to absorb the totali- tarian shock and not pass it on to the people.
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