arranged the introduction of more favourable treatment to our prisoners, as well as our method of contact with them, the supply of periodicals, the carrying on of propaganda for a national army, and at least a partial concentration of them into exclusively Czechoslovak camps. The whole matter was then submitted to the Supreme Command at the front for approval. As from September 1916 I was able to obtain access to the headquarters at Chantilly, where there was a special section for matters relating to us under the charge of Colonel Billote, I applied direct to him both in writing and personally, and asked him for his assistance. Throughout these negotiations I received considerable help from the Ministry of War, on the one hand, from the information department, where Professor Eisenmann was also co-operating with us in this matter, and partly from the organizing department (Lieut.-Col. Cros) attached to the General Staff, where they were already reckoning with the possibility of organizing our army.
The actual work connected with the prisoners of war, which now became an actual fact as a result of the agreement reached with the authorities, proceeded very slowly. For weeks at a time it was necessary to carry on negotiations, and then intervene almost every day in order to overcome prejudices, bureaucratic inaction and pettiness, as well as political ignorance and failure to understand the point at issue.
The final result was excellent. Of the 4,000 prisoners from Serbia who were in France, nearly all passed into our national army in the course of the year 1918.
While this activity was developing, my negotiations with military circles in the Supreme Command at Chantilly were also making progress. Colonel Billote, who was in regular communication with the National Council, had concentrated at headquarters all details relating to us. He used to obtain reports from me and also from Štefánik in Russia, who sent documents dealing with our movement, with Dürich’s activities, and with the progress which his own mission was making. Colonel Billote used to summon me regularly to headquarters, where I discussed everything with him from the point of view of the situation in France.(23)
At French headquarters the Serbian Government was represented by General Rašić, a charming Slav of the old-fashioned type. I entered into touch with him also, and arrived at an
