A meeting was also held on the same day at Aeolian Hall at which several prominent speakers, including Lord Bryce, Mr. A. F. Whyte and Mr. Seton Watson spoke in favour of our independence.
Soon afterwards another event of great importance for the mutual relations between Czecho-Slovaks and Great Britain took place when Thomas G. Masaryk was appointed professor at King’s College, London and delivered his inaugural lecture on October 19th, 1915, in which he outlined his political scheme for reorganising Central Europe through the creation of an independent Poland, Bohemia and Greater Serbia. The lecture acquired the character of a political event, as Mr. Asquith, then premier, sent a cordial message to the meeting congratulating King’s College upon securing Professor Masaryk’s services. The British Press greeted him equally enthusiastically as the promoter of friendship between the Anglo-Saxon and the Slav races.
It is not the purpose of this articles to describe in detail the manifold activities of Professor Masaryk Since his arrival in England, yet it is impossible to speak about the ties of friendship between Great Britain and Bohemia without mentioning his name as the chief promoter of this friendship. His world fame as scientist and politician, his strength of personality, frankness, sincerity of conviction, and clearsightedness, not only won for him the affection and respect of numberless friends, but enabled also our cause to be better known and understood. Apart from his lectures at King’s College and his diplomatic and political activites as leader of the movement for Czecho-Slovak independence, Professor Masaryk did not miss any opportunity of informing the British public of our aspirations through the medium of the Press. Thus several of his articles appeared in the »Pall Mall Gazette«, »Weekly Despatch«, the »Times« and other journals, and he was also chief collaborator of that splendid English Review of foreign politics, the »New Europe«, when it was first started in the autumn of 1916. About that time also the Czech Press Bureau has been opened by him in Thanet House, Strand, which was working there up to the end of the war, when our Legation has been opened in Grosvenor Place.
The daily Press has been very friendly towards us. »The Pall Mall Gazette«, »Times«, and the »Daily Chronicle« especially have readily published news and statements about Bohemia. Well written
