A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK T HESE • are sad circumstances in which
to celebrate the centenary of Thomas Garrigue Masaryk's birth. It will be celebrated secretly in thousands of homes in Czechoslovakia, for it would be an insult to the common people of that country to suggest that the great traditions set by the founder of their State, and sustained fully by his chosen successor Dr. Benes, are being disregarded, still less deliberately betrayed. It is fatally easy to destroy, a work of genius and labour to construct. To President Gottwald belongs the dis- honour of shattering the fabric which Masai yk, and after him Benes and Jan Masaryk, built up. At least the first President was spared the agony of witnessing even the approach of that shame. I only met the President once, but to talk with him at all was to recognise his innate greatness. Hard though he had striven, much as he had been frustrated, in his fight for his country's independence, he preserved a manifest tranquillity of mind that no one could fail to find impressive. If not, by the nature of things, a philosopher-king, he was essentially the philosopher-statesman. You may search the world today and not find his like. Many besides the Czechs in exile will pay melancholy honour to his memory on the centenary next Tuesday.
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