The minister who might be in Paris in absence of the others could, for the interim, manage the remaining ministries. It would also be necessary to establish legations at Rome, Paris, London, Washington, and Tokio, and also to appoint our representatives to the Serbian Government, with the title of Chargé d’Affaires, at least for the time being. . . . In view of situation I am compelled to begin making these new arrangements now. Considering the last declaration and the situation as a whole, I regard it as somewhat dangerous not to start without having our juridical status precisely defined, or without immediately transforming the National Council into a regular Government. I see from the Austrian papers that our people at home are reckoning upon this. Kindly let me have a telegraphic reply to all these questions, and inform me of your fundamental views.—Beneš.
I received a reply on September 26th through M. Vesnić, the Serbian Minister. Masaryk expressed his complete satisfaction with everything we had done in Paris, and at the same time he declared himself entirely in agreement with the scheme for constituting a Government and with the other measures proposed in my telegram. The date upon which this reply was dispatched was then taken as the date when the provisional Czechoslovak Government was constituted.
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Having thus completed all necessary preparations, and after obtaining the requisite consent of all the parties concerned, I considered it essential to send a final detailed report to Prague, and in this way prepare our political circles at home for all that was now to ensue. In a message which I sent on September 11, 1918, I summarized the facts and the contents of the document defining our international status, and I emphasized the unequivocal character of the Allied declarations in order to counteract any contrary statements on the part of the Austrian Press and Government which might be calculated to mislead our people at home.
In my message to Prague I also referred to our decision concerning the immediate development of a State organization, with a regular Government and the whole of the diplomatic apparatus. As a provisional step, the Government was to consist of a Prime Minister, which post had been accepted by Masaryk, Minister of War (Štefánik), and a Minister of Foreign Affairs (myself), while the remaining portfolios were to be assigned to politicians in Bohemia. I emphasized the fact that we regarded
