THE GRAND OLD MAN OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA
iT was on November 14th, 1918, that the Czechoslovak National Assembly, meeting in Prague, formally declared the Czechoslovak State a Republic, with Thomas Garigue Masaryk, widely known as Professor Masaryk, as its President. Exactly three years before Masaryk,-with ,the sanction of the Czech leaders in Austria and elsewhere, issued the manifesto which not only ranged the Czechs ,definitely with the Allies in the War, but as definitely 'asserted that the aim of the Czechs was the establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia. In the interval between those dates Masaryk's activities were as prodi- gious as incessant. For one thing, he had to fashion a political organization that would represent his country, and this he did, ably assisted by Dr. Bencsh among others, by _setting up the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris; for another thing, he had to lighten the darkness of Western. Europe respecting the claims and objects of the Czechoslovaks, and this he did by lectures at King's College, London, and at the Sorbonne in Paris, as well as by a remarkably efficient general propaganda. He made British and French statesmen understand how great a 'part his people might play in the struggle with Germany and Austria, and particularly with the latter.
• Masaryk's next effort, and the most important at the time, was his consolidation of the Czechs who were already fighting for the ,Allies, or who had surrendered voluntarily to them, as, for example, to the Russians, into regiments, brigades; and finally armies. This took him to Russia in 1917, in the chaos of the Revolution ; the Czech troops called him "Father Masaryk," hailed him as their leader, and followed his instructions, which in the end detached them from the Russian command and saved them from the infection of Red fanaticism. Having told the Czech army in Russia to transfer itself by way of Siberia and Vladivostok to France, he went on ahead to prepare the way, and this led him to Japan and America ; he was in Chicago, the chief centre of the Czechs in the United States, in May, 1918. During the next four' months he had the satisfaction of receiving the " recognition " of the National Council and Czech Army from France, Italy, Britain and America. On October 28th, 1918, Czecho- slovakia proclaimed its independence, and on December 21st, Masaryk was welcomed in the capital as Head of the State, every town and village having dressed itself, in the vivid phrase of a Czech writer, "as if for a bridegroom." He had founded the State ; he now applied himself to building it up. In May, 1920, Masaryk was elected President for life. His two main objects have been exter- nally the security and internally the unification of Czecho- slovakia. The former resulted in the formation of the Little Entente and the treaties with France and Poland, and as regards the latter Masaryk in his own person is the unifier a his country, for he is revered by all Czecho- slovaks, whatever their political stripe.
President Masaryk's career is a very high and unusual romance—a romance of character far more than of cir- cumstances. Born in a Moravian border-town of humble parents in 1850, and having had very little schooling, he began life as apprentice to a locksmith and continued it as a blacksmith; but he educated himself, gave lessons to pay his way, and finally graduated at the University of ;Vienna, where he became a minor professor. In 1882 he was a professor in the Czech University, Prague, and during the next twenty years he wrote many important books on various subjects. In 1891 he was elected to the Ileichsrath, but resigned after two years. In 1907 he was again a member of the Austrian Parliament, and it was from that time on that his name began to. be well known throughout Europe. For it was during this period that he exposed the Austro-Hungarian intrigues against Serbia and proved the complicity of the Legation at . Belgrade and of the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Friedjung and. Vasitch forgeries. A passion for righteousness and the truth burned in Masaryk. Naturally, he made many enemies—not only among the Austrians, Germans, and Hungarians, but among the Czechs themselves, for, to the great offence of some of his countrymen, he disproved the authenticity of famous Czech historical manuscripts, which had been regarded as sacred. He was reviled, persecuted, punished, but he did not swerve from the path he had marked out. The outbreak of the Great War deepened his antagonism to the Austrian Empire. In the struggle he saw the opportunity for the emancipation of the Czechs, and he grasped it with all his powers. He has reaped a wonderful reward.
What manner of man is President Masaryk personally ? I had the privilege of spending part of two days with him this autumn at the beautiful château of Topolehanky, formerly the property of the Archduke Joseph, and now the Slovak residence of the President. The morning of the second day was very wet. In the gardens every leaf on every branch of every tree was dripping heavily. The sky was black with clouds, and the prospect out of doors was distinctly uninviting. At ten o'clock President Masaryk sent word by his private, secretary that he was waiting—to take me for a drive ! In a closed car or car- riage, presumably. But, no. Under the porte-coeldre stood a large two-horse drosky, open of course, though the hood was pulled well forward and there was the usual apron to protect the legs. The President, a tall, straight, rather spare figure, in an overcoat and soft felt hat, strode out from the vestibule, smiling. No one who did not know his age would ever have supposed that he was "getting on" for seventy-six. The postage stamps of Czechoslovakia represent his _face as severe and ascetic looking, even emaciated ; they are a libel and should be done away with. It is a serious face, but it is not ema- ciated at all ; it is easily capable of laughter. After greeting me kindly, he jumped into the drosky, and I climbed up to his side. " It rains," said the President, with great cheerfulness, and then added, as an after- thought, "but it will soon clear up." It didn't. The aide-de-camp and the coachman on the box, however, had much the worst of it.
The roads were rivulets. When the drosky careened to one side the President bumped into me, and when it swung to the other side I bumped into him. A bigger lurch, and a wet bough would swish across the drosky and besprinkle us with strict impartiality, and all the time this vigorous, unaffected, young-old man showed the pre- occupation of his mind. The chief subject of his talk was the making of a State.
. Presently our drive took us into a cleared space in the forest. "We'll get out here," he said, in his cheerful way. The rain still poured down, though not quite so heavily as before. Some little distance ahead were the ruins of an old castle perched on a rocky height. "There's a fine view from up there," said the President, suggestively. "Are you afraid ? "lie asked, his eyes laughing. I said, "We'd both get rather wet." "What's that ! " he returned —this young fellow of seventy-six. And off he marched through the thick wet grass, and sixty-eight, which is my age,. could not but follow such a lead.
ROBERT MACI1RAY.
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