recall with great emotion. It was at a time when the prospects of our success were precarious, and when we daily had to face the possibility of spending the rest of our lives abroad under conditions of great hardship. Professor Masaryk, too, had to contend with great anxieties about his family. Alice Masaryk, his daughter, had recently been imprisoned, and Mme. Masaryk, whose health was now seriously impaired, was living isolated at Prague. “When I take everything into account,” said Masaryk to me on our way back to London, “I often consider whether I ought not to go home again. Of course, they would hang me, but at least I should see my wife once more; and I am afraid that she will not live till the end of the war. It would cause a stir among our people at home and would certainly stiffen their opposition to Vienna.”
I was deeply moved by these remarks, which caused me to reflect upon my own personal troubles. At that very moment my wife was in some Viennese prison, and the whole outlook was dark and uncertain. Nevertheless, I reminded myself that whether our undertaking ended in victory or defeat, what was now happening would one day be regarded as a great epoch in the history of our nation. Moreover, I had been brought closer to Professor Masaryk by what he had said to me, and I felt grateful to Providence for having allowed me to work with him at so great a task. Thus it was that I returned to Paris strengthened and encouraged for further work.
(b) The National Council and the Prisoners of War in France
42
I returned to Paris on August 17th and at once set about my new and onerous tasks as arranged with Masaryk. The formation of an army in France was now to enter upon a stage of practical realization. It was now necessary to make preparations for receiving our prisoners of war from Russia, and also for systematically organizing those who were already in France. At the same time considerable activity had to be started in connection with our prisoners of war in Italy. After the marked success of the Press campaign in France in June, July, and August 1916, which had aimed at the destruction of Austria-Hungary and had taken advantage of Brusilov’s offensive, as well as of the
