And so I was sent to Dr. Kramář by Professor Masaryk and Svatkovsky in order that I might tell him of their impressions and deliver their messages. Svatkovsky asked me in particular to tell Dr. Kramář from him that something really must be done against Austria, and both expressed the view that it would be best if Dr. Kramář were to leave home and engage upon work abroad.
The last subject of our discussion was the question of how Professor Masaryk was to keep in permanent touch with our people at home. He told me to form a secret committee from among our political workers. In the manner of the Russian revolutionary methods, such a committee would have numerous ramifications at home; it would illicitly keep up communication with abroad and would be permanently in touch with official Czech and Viennese politics. From behind the scenes it would exert an influence on the conduct of policy at home and would keep the organized political émigrés informed about what was happening there. He also mentioned to me that it would be necessary to distribute this organization over the rural districts, to have a secret printing-press, and devoted helpers prepared at once to replace any of the members who might be arrested.
The share which Professor Masaryk entrusted to me was to maintain the connections with abroad and thus to co-ordinate what was being done at home. This would mean being in touch with the members of the Committee, collecting material and dispatching it abroad with the help of couriers. From time to time I should also attempt to make similar journeys myself. Masaryk urged the need of being always prepared for arrest and of having a substitute in case this should happen, because the connection with Prague must never be interrupted. We arranged with Svatkovsky a telegraphic code, a scheme for the sending of couriers, and the type of news, especially that of a military character, in which he was particularly interested. He promised me that at the beginning he would place some of his own couriers at our disposal.
(b) First Meeting of the “Maffia”
11
When this had been accomplished I returned to Prague. At that time the atmosphere in Bohemia was tense. The frontiers were almost entirely closed and the defeats in Serbia and on
