costs I wanted to keep a record of them for every eventuality. And so, later on, when in danger of being searched, I destroyed many documents, but saved these jottings. Finally, when in September 1915 I went abroad, I put them, together with other notes on discussions with Professor Masaryk in Switzerland, on meetings of the “Maffia,” and a number of messages sent by Masaryk to Prague, into a bottle which I buried in a garden in the country place where I was spending my holidays.(5)
We then decided how we were to keep in touch with each other after Masaryk’s departure. We first of all agreed upon code-words for telegraphic communications. We arranged whole sentences which were to mean that such and such a person was in prison, that Čas was suspended, that there was danger either of the betrayal or arrest of Masaryk, that further persecutions were being prepared, and so on, as the case might be. Our relations with Kovanda made it possible for us to learn of these things in time. We also discussed, at least in rough outlines, how we were to keep in touch should Professor Masaryk not return.
Professor Masaryk left Prague on December 18, 1914. It was arranged that he would return about February 1st by way of Geneva, where he would receive telegraphic information as to whether he could do so safely or not. Should he not return I was to act as a link between him and the politicians with whom he was co-operating at Prague. These details were arranged shortly before our last meeting at Dr. Bouček’s in the first week of December 1914. At this meeting Professor Masaryk described his plans and his intention of returning once more. But he also sketched out what he intended to do if he should be prevented from coming back to Prague. He announced to his friends that for this eventuality he had authorized me to direct the work and to keep in touch with him.
He brought to this meeting a number of documents which had just arrived from Vienna, and he spoke about his last interview with Thun. He again expressed his doubts about the Russians and ended up by giving his conception of what our future State would be like. With regard to the form of the State he was decidedly in favour of a republic and regarded a kingdom as a necessary evil. The Russian dynasty was referred to in this connection, but Professor Masaryk insisted that he would give the preference to some Western dynasty (he men-
