received from Dr. Sychrava a telegram of alarm urging me to return at once to Paris, because matters were in preparation which might have very far-reaching and even dangerous consequences for us.
On arriving in Paris on Sunday, October 13th, I found the atmosphere there charged with excitement. The political world and official circles were thinking of nothing else but the Allied discussions and negotiations concerning the events which had happened in the meanwhile, and which were of vital concern to us also.
In the face of these events and reports I asked myself what we should do under such circumstances, and how they might affect the preparations which we had just undertaken and the plans connected with the declaration of independence, which we had intended to realize within the next few weeks. I conferred with my friends in the secretariat of the National Council. The news from Austria concerning the plans of the Viennese Government made me feel uneasy, but, on the other hand, the news as to the action of the National Committee in Prague, which had also just arrived from Geneva, gratified us. At the same time the uncertainty as to how President Wilson intended to reply to Austria-Hungary was a source of anxiety to us and our friends. His reply to Germany had been couched in severe terms, and on the whole, in a number of circles in Paris, it was not expected that he would be severer to the Habsburgs than to the Hohenzollerns. This being the case, a number of our friends began to fear that the idea of a separate action with Austria-Hungary might again emerge. They found a reason for this conjecture in the circumstance that the repetition at Paris on October 15th of the congress of Austro-Hungarian nations which had been held in Rome, had been postponed in view o the fresh developments and also at the request of the French Government. Our French friends asserted that this had been done at the request of England. During this time it may well be imagined what tension there was amongst us in the Rue Bonaparte. Not knowing exactly how things were, we of the
