exaggeration that Masaryk, by plainly expounding our demands, had shown how the Allied war-aims against the Central Powers should be defined and submitted as a programme to official circles and to the public. President Wilson expressed what in their essentials were the same or cognate ideas—they were in a more general form, as they were concerned with less concrete matters in his famous messages during 1916 and 1917.
Masaryk’s visit to Paris was an important political success. In London, too, he had done extremely well having, through the efforts of our friends, Mr. H. Wickham Steed and Dr. R. W. Seton Watson, been appointed professor at King’s College. On October 19, 1915, he had delivered his inaugural lecture there, the subject being the part played by small nations during the war. The chairman on that occasion had been Lord Robert Cecil, and Mr. Asquith, who was then Prime Minister, had sent a message emphasizing the fact that the Allies were waging war for the protection of small nations. This official English support was now enhanced by official political support on the part of France. Our work thus acquired a starting-point and a basis for extended activity.
Masaryk’s lecture in London, just as his lecture on the position of the Slavs in the world, arranged at the Sorbonne on February 22, 1916; his account of our aims which was given to Briand; various manifestos which he produced in England on other occasions; his memoranda submitted to the Allies and particularly his New Europe, which forms a complete synopsis of all these ideas and views; further, our journalistic activity in La Nation Tchèque from May 1, 1915, onwards; a number of official memoranda produced by the Secretariat of the National Council; my lecture at the Sorbonne issued as a pamphlet in 1916 under the title Destroy Austria-Hungary; and several other manifestos—all this formed the basis of our programme.
We soon produced an impression in Western Europe, not only because we were well informed politically, and supplied accurate diagnoses of Central Europe, but also because Masaryk was able to explain from the philosophy of history the significance of the World War, and how it should be regarded by Western Europe. Apart from Wilson’s later arguments, this formed the only complete synthetic interpretation of the World War, its significance and meaning as a whole, and that is why our ideas had so much influence on all those who examined them in any
