Provisional Government. And a Government is the Government of a State. Its status is shown, moreover, by the fact that Dr. Beneš, as Foreign Minister in it, appointed our first diplomatic representatives before the revolution took place at home, and that these representatives were acknowledged by foreign Governments. And though, later on, I, as President, gave Dr. Kramář, the Prime Minister, when he went as a delegate to the Peace Conference, the same credentials as Dr. Beneš received, Beneš had taken part in the peace negotiations before getting his credentials, and all the official Allied documents referred to him as Minister.
As a matter of fact the French Government and political circles in Paris were disquieted by the proclamation of the National Committee and by the events of October 28 at Prague, because it was imagined that the Prague Government was pro-Austrian and that it had been set up against the Government abroad. News of the revolution may have reached Paris by way of Vienna and have described it as a pro-Austrian undertaking. The delegates of the Prague National Committee, who left for Geneva before the revolution, evidently knew nothing of what had happened at Prague on October 28. But at Geneva they understood the significance of the Allied recognition which we had received—especially from President Wilson—and, in their agreement with Dr. Beneš, they approved of the Provisional Government abroad and of all it had done. They also expressly addressed Dr. Beneš as Minister. Thus they confirmed the declarations of the Chairman of the Czech Association on October 2, and of the Prague National Committee on October 19, that the question of Czechoslovak independence was international and not susceptible of settlement in Austria. But under pressure of the home situation, the National Committee was obliged to take action on October 28 and to proclaim itself a Government; and, as we shall see, the Government abroad was presently liquidated.
A distinction must be made between the actual existence of our State and its earlier official beginning as determined by international recognition. The fact of the revolution at Prague and in the whole country on October 28, speaks in favour of the date October 28, 1918. The whole nation saw in the revolution the beginning of a State independent of and detached from Austria and the Hapsburgs. And, finally, the formal circumstance that, on October 28, the nation publicly declared itself independent on its own soil speaks in favour of that date. Indeed, many authorities on constitutional law regard this
