IV
(a) Masaryk’s Messages to our Politicians
15
In the second half of March Professor Masaryk asked me in one of his messages to come to Switzerland. He said that there must be a closer agreement between Prague and abroad, and that messages and reports in cipher were inadequate as a means of communication. I therefore took advantage of the Easter holidays and started off for Switzerland. This time I had great difficulties in getting a passport. I was rather favoured through being in touch with Counsellor Olič and by the fact that I was living in his house. I told the authorities that the reasons for my journey were of a scholastic character.
At the same time I had begun to lecture at the University on the philosophy of war. In Naše Doba I reviewed a whole batch of war books, both native and foreign, and Viktor Dyk, the editor of Lumír, published in that periodical in essay form one of my university lectures in which I had quite openly declared that our nation must engage in a revolution. This escaped the notice of the police, so when the Chief Commissioner of Police sent for me to ask the reasons for my journey, I told him that I had an academic interest in these questions, and he gave me a passport with his own hands.
I spent about a week with Professor Masaryk at Geneva and overstayed my leave. On my return I apologized to Dr. Řežábek, the head of the Commercial Academy, for arriving after the commencement of the term, and I told him quite frankly what the reason was. Dr. Řežábek had previously surmised what I was about and heard with the utmost satisfaction what was going on abroad and what Professor Masaryk was doing.
In many respects this second visit to Switzerland was of greater political importance both to Professor Masaryk and to
