It was in accordance with the terms of this reply that, when leaving for Paris on October 10th, I instructed Hlaváček, who was in charge of the Rome branch of the National Council, to continue organizing our prisoners in the camps, and to assure them that the organization of the actual army was only a matter of time. On no account, however, was he to proceed with the formation of labour corps. My intention was, immediately on my return to France, to hasten the formation of the army in accordance with the scheme agreed upon, as in the meanwhile the first contingents from Russia were announcing their arrival. This would confront Italy with a fait accompli as regards the Czechoslovak Army in France, and judging from the situation in Rome, as I had seen it, I was sure that this was a new argument which would have a decisive effect in Italy.
I did not, however, return to Rome for the completion of the work I had begun there. On my return to Paris my time was fully occupied with urgent business until March 1918. Then, too, Štefánik, on his return from America, expressed the wish to go to Italy himself for the purpose of settling the military problem there. Under these changed conditions I accordingly devoted myself to military work in Paris, to the preliminary arrangements for the Congress of Oppressed Nations, which was held at Rome in April 1918, and also to our affairs in England.
