THE CZECHOSLOVAK QUESTION
yourself remarked the other day that you see the justice of this position. And it is a just position.
6. The justice of this appears sufficiently from the fact that only those men go from America to France to join the Czechoslovak Army who are not subject to our own draft laws, and that they go to fight for our common cause as well. In some cases they leave their families, they sever ties of many years in order to offer up their lives for the cause of America and Bohemia, which is also the cause of humanity. If those can be readmitted who have joined the French, the Canadian and the other Allied armies, certainly the Czechoslovak volunteers can also be admitted on the same grounds, and even for more forceful reasons.
7. The situation is one that might present certain complications which perhaps it will be necessary to submit to the State Department, and indeed I am sending to the State Department a copy of this letter. Unfortunately, as yet our government has not given the Czechoslovak National Council the official recognition which has been accorded by the government of the French republic. I trust the time will come when this will be done. However, if our government as yet is not ready for this step, it still seems that the resolution can be so amended as to cover the cases of the Czechoslovak volunteers without according such official recognition. For instance, if following the word “war” in line nine of the resolution the words should be inserted “or who during the present war left the United States to fight against[ 73 ]
