3,000 crowns for the Czechoslovak revolutionary movement was sent through the agency of an Austro-Hungarian Government department—the Austro-Hungarian Post Office Savings Bank. The money reached Professor Masaryk safely, and the receipt of it was acknowledged on an open postcard, which was sent to me.
I have already mentioned that these obstacles irritated me very much and I made no secret of this to a number of my friends. Finally, I decided to collect money for the movement in a somewhat wider circle, including members of the Progressive Party and a number of party colleagues and friends of Masaryk. I very soon dropped this idea, for at the very first attempt I saw how useless it was. I applied to two prominent party men, both of whom were known to be extremely well off. One of them, after a long conversation, slipped 100 crowns into my hand one evening, and the second, a few days later, while we were in a café together, discoursed to me at great length about his upright conscience and his views of these matters, whereupon he gave me nothing. The total amount which I received from Dr. Šámal and Dr. Scheiner for the movement was 11,000 crowns, the greater part of which was obtained, if I am not mistaken, by a collection among a small circle of their friends. During my second visit to Switzerland I related these experiences to Professor Masaryk and those who were working with him. He expressed his disappointment very outspokenly. One meeting of the “Maffia” in March 1915 was taken up with money matters. There was some discussion about certain funds from Russia, of which I had no clear knowledge, and were supposed to have been deposited at the Bohemia Bank in Prague. It was suggested that we might be able to use them. The debate on that occasion was only of a general character and it was proposed that the matter should be looked into. Whether anything was done about it later on, I do not know, but as far as I was concerned this discussion led to no further supply of funds for our movement abroad.
It thus came about that during my second journey to Switzerland Professor Masaryk indicated to me that the only people who could save us were the Czechoslovaks in America. Somebody would have to be sent there to collect money among our friends. I mentioned my brother, Vojta Beneš, and Professor Masaryk agreed, his only stipulation being that
