The separation of the two has been decided upon, in principle and a commission is sitting on which the government and all shades of religious opinion are represented. It hopes to reach an agreement on the plan of separation. In the meantime the urgent question was the compulsory instruction in religion in all elementary and secondary schools, and a compromise was put into effect by the minister of education, according to which religion has been omitted from the course of study in the higher grades of the secondary schools, and in the lower grades children whose parents are unconnected with any church do not have to attend religious instruction. Within the Catholic Church itself a movement has appeared, supported by many priests, which aims at the introduction of changes into the administration of the church tending to greater democracy, at the substitution of the language of the people for Latin in liturgy and at permission to priests to marry. Many parish priests did not wait for this permission, but married at once, and in October fifty one of them were excommunicated by the new archbishop of Prague, Dr. Francis Kordač.
The place of Jiří Stříbrný who resigned his post of minister of railways was filled by the appointment of Emil Franke, chairman of the Czechoslovak Socialist Club of the Assembly. A more difficult problem was to find a finance minister in place of Cyril Horáček who resigned, because the burdens of the office were too great for him. After a long search for the best man available among the coalition parties the president appointed Kuneš Sonntag, a republican (agrarian) deputy from Moravia who will have the assistance of an expert undersecretary. Among other appointments of interest to America is the selection of the well-known author John Havlasa for minister to China; Havlasa lived for several years in America. Jan Masaryk, the only living son of President Masaryk, was appointed first secretary of the Czechoslovak legation in Washington, and is expected to arrive soon with minister Štěpánek.
Courtesy of the Czechoslovak Information Bureau.
Fifth Anniversary of the Organization of Czechoslovak Legions in Russia, Prague, Sept. 28 , 1919.
American Flagg was donated to invalids from Siberia at San Diego, Calif.
