ment already in being. Hence the decisive character of the date on which this Government was recognized. At home, the National Committee proclaimed itself as a Government on October 28, the date now generally accepted as the birthday ofour State. But the Allied Governments negotiated with the Provisional Government abroad as the true representative of the nation and of the State from the moment they had recognized it. Their recognition, given during the war, was valid after the war and above all for the Peace Conference, as is eloquently proved by the inviting of Dr. Beneš to take part in settling the terms of the Armistice with Germany on November 4. Consequently, Dr. Beneš was looked upon as the representative of an independent Allied State, and he signed with the others the Minutes of these historic proceedings. The international significance of this document comes out most clearly if we consider the conduct of the Great Powers towards other States which were in process of formation, especially Yugoslavia and Poland. Serbia was invited to the Peace Conference as an independent Allied State; but it was long before Croatia—which was looked upon as a part of Austria-Hungary—was recognized as a portion of Yugoslavia. Hence the difficulty of securing recognition for Yugoslavia as distinguished from Serbia; whereas Slovakia was regarded by the Allies from the outset as a component part of our United State, although Slovakia, like Croatia, had belonged to Hungary. In the case of Poland the Moraczewski Government at Warsaw, which Dmowski’s and Paderewski’s Polish Committee in Paris did not recognize, was only granted express recognition in February 1919. Meanwhile our Provisional Government had been exercising its functions abroad from the very beginning of the peace negotiations.
When the Armistice negotiations began, the French Government drafted a plan for the Peace Conference. Dr. Beneš sent me a report upon it, and the French Ambassador in Washington, M. Jusserand, handed it to the American Government on November 29. It distinguished between Czechoslovakia and States like Yugoslavia which were in process of formation. Nobody doubted that these States would be formed—indeed, the Allies regarded their formation as part of the peace programme—but there is a difference between a programme, a promise, and real complete recognition. Our National Council abroad had been recognized by the Allies as the supreme authority over our army abroad—this is what I had worked for so hard in Russia—and therefore as a Government, if only a
