3 FEBRUARY 1939, Page 6

After some two months spent in this country Dr. Benes

has left for America, where he is to deliver twelve lectures, on contemporary forms of government, at Chicago ; the last of the twelve, on " The Future of Democracy," will be awaited with peculiar interest. While he has been here the ex-President has observed a studied seclusion, at first for reasons of health and later for reasons of discretion. He has occupied a pleasant house, previously tenanted by his nephew. at Putney, has refused all invitations and seen only about half-a-dozen of his English friends. He has been over- whelmed, and deeply touched, by a flood of tributes from Czecho-Slovakia, where he has become almost a legend, and the conviction that he will one day return is widespread.