duel with Berlin, made me wonder the whole time whether this implied that discussions with Vienna were proceeding elsewhere and on different terms. There were various indications which led me to suppose that Vienna, while approaching Wilson officially, openly, and in concert with Germany, was intervening secretly either in France or England, possibly in both countries. The success of such proceedings was improbable after the reply which Clemenceau and Pichon had recently made to Karl. Nevertheless, the situation seemed to me somewhat dangerous, chiefly on account of the uncertainty as to whether these happenings denoted the end of the war or not.
This led me to continue my previous course of action with the greatest determination and more rapidly than hitherto. I accordingly decided on the immediate realization of the plan which I had prepared for November 8th. The reassuring results of my interview with Berthelot were calculated to strengthen me in this resolve rather than otherwise; and in the course of the interview itself I asked him what the French Government would do if I were to notify it officially that the Czechoslovak Government had been appointed and Czechoslovak independence proclaimed, or if a Czechoslovak diplomatic representative were to be immediately accredited to it. The answer which I received from Berthelot was the only one which I could possibly have expected from him and from a representative of the French Minister at that time: “French policy is based upon the previous agreements with the National Council. France has plainly indicated her attitude by means of the documents which she has signed, and she will keep her word. If the Government is notified of any decision on the part of the National Council, it will certainly at once adopt a favourable attitude towards anything of the kind.” In reply to my further inquiry, Berthelot assured me that if I sent him the notification immediately I should certainly receive the French official reply on the following day.
I returned to the secretariat of the National Council in the Rue Bonaparte, and at once prepared an official note concerning the establishment of an interim Government. At six o’clock in the evening I handed a copy to the Quai d’Orsay and also to the diplomatic representatives of the Allied Powers in Paris. I announced that on September 26th (the date of Professor Masaryk’s telegram sanctioning the realization of the plan) we had established an interim Czechoslovak Government, and that
