that the Little Russian language must first be developed by popular writers on the basis of the local dialects, for I feared the growth of a jargon, or of an artificial amalgam of words bureaucratically put together. Nor did I see why the pro-Russian minority which professed Great Russian ideas should suffer educational disabilities. We have something similar among our own people—analogous not identical—in the use of Slovak as a written language.
Mr. Voska.
Before describing the closing stages of my work in the United States I must complete the account of our propaganda which had been organized there, from 1914 onwards, with the help of Mr. Voska. I have often mentioned it and have explained how, through him, I got into touch with the Allies at the beginning of the war. Towards the middle of September 1914 Voska went from Prague to London and thence back to New York, where he reported to my American friends, to Mr. Charles Crane particularly. He unified the action of the Czech press in America and helped to combine into one unit—the “Czech National Alliance”—the organizations which had been created in the various cities of the United States on the outbreak of war. At the same time he established relations with the American press and, soon afterwards, with the American Government itself. He built up a complete Intelligence Service. At an early stage, some of his acquaintances and friends managed to ascertain that the Embassies, Consulates and agents of the Central Powers were carrying on espionage and Secret Service work in America against the Allies; and, with the aid of Allied officials, Voska took counter-measures. Mr. Steed had recommended him to the correspondent of “The Times,” who, in his turn, recommended him to Captain Gaunt, the naval attaché to the British Embassy in Washington. Among the Czechs who helped him freely was Mr. Kopecký, an official of the Austro-Hungarian Consulate at New York and afterwards our first Consul in the United States.
German propaganda in America was conducted especially by Dr. Albert, the commercial attaché, who therefore came under our notice. How his portfolio was taken from him on the New York Elevated Railway is an amusing story that was told at the time. In various factories, and in munition works particularly, the Germans were organizing strikes; and plots were being hatched against the vessels which were carrying
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