to Hlaváč, the correspondent of Čas in Vienna. Hlaváč did not agree with Masaryk’s revolutionary policy. From time to さ time he used to come to Prague, where I had met him at the office of Cas. He had told me what was going on in Vienna and had proved to his own satisfaction why Germany and Austria would win and why Masaryk and all of us in Prague were mistaken in our attitude.
Masaryk had asked me to visit Hlaváč in Vienna and give him some account of the motives of Masaryk’s action. I was also to obtain fresh information from the official circles there.
I carried out both these commissions. I spent a full three hours walking with Hlaváč round the Imperial Castle, explaining to him why every Czech worthy of the name must identify himself with the revolutionary movement. Nevertheless, I did not convince him. He had recently returned from Italy and refused to believe that it would enter the war against Austria-Hungary.
As soon as I reached Prague I visited Dr. Šámal and Dr. Scheiner and asked for a meeting of the “Maffia“to be arranged. I also paid a visit to Dr. Kramář and delivered to him the messages from Masaryk and Svatkovsky. He was very much startled by what Svatkovsky said and he agreed that our task must be approached more resolutely. The Russian reverses at Gorlice and in the Carpathians, which occurred a very short time after that, depressed him very much, but at the same time they strengthened his determination. He again agreed that our action must be taken openly and also that somebody must join Masaryk. On the other hand, he did not abandon his fundamental point of view and his opinion of events in general. He still believed in the victory of Russia and, in fact, he thought that it would come during the war when Vienna would apply to him to save Austria from a catastrophe.(11) I again realized how impossible it was to reconcile the two sets of ideas. Nevertheless, on this occasion Dr. Kramář’s views had been sufficiently shaken to make him wonder whether, after all, he ought not to go abroad. In view of the fact that I had discussed this matter with the other members of the “Maffia,” particularly with Dr. Rašín, from this moment onwards it became of urgent interest and was the chief subject to be considered at the very next meeting of the “Maffia” at which I gave a report on my journey to Switzerland.
Dr. Rašín approved of the plan by which Dr. Kramář was
