Demonstrates Betrayal...

Northern Advocate, 11 March 1948, Page 5

Demonstrates Betrayal...

A British Foreign Office spokesman said nothing more clearly demonstrated the character of recent events in Czechoslovakia and the betrayal of that country by a minority taking orders from abroad than M. Masaryk’s death by his own hand. Asked whether the suicide might have resulted from criticism abroad, the spokesman said the criticisms were directed not against M. Masaryk personally, but against recent events in Czechoslovakia.

Mr Attlee, in a statement on M. Masaryk’s death, said: “Free men will always honour M. Masaryk’s name. I had known M. Masaryk for years and recall his firm stand against Nazi oppression.

“His death is a great shock. He was essentially a lover of freedom, and it may well be that he could not endure living in the suffocating atmosphere of totalitarianism when all he had striven for was being ruthlessly destroyed.”

In the House of Commons this afternoon Mr Bevin said M. Masaryk’s name and his father’s will always live in Britons’ affectionate memory. Mr Churchill said: “We knew M. Masaryk during the war’s dark years and appreciated the working of that competent mind and resolute, unflinching soul. "We mourn his heavy loss, but one cannot help rejoicing that the famous name he bears will continue to be an inspiration to Czechoslovakia’s peoples.” The British Parliamentary Labour Party heard the news in what was described as an “appalled silence.” The Colonial Secretary (Mr Creech Jones) told Reuters: “We are all

grieved about the part M. Masaryk played in the past few weeks. He was a charming and delightful person, and the fiercest democrat at heart. "It is a ten-ible tragedy.”

The news of M. Masaryk’s suicide made a deep impression in diplomatic and political circles in Paris, says Reuters correspondent. Anxiety was expressed in the lobby of the National Assembly about Dr Bencs’ personal safety. A Cabinet spokesman said M. Masaryk’s death was a great loss, but, in view of recent developments in Czechoslovakia, it was not a great surprise.

In Washington, Juraj Slavik, former Czechoslovakian Ambassador to the United States, said M. Masaryk’s death would make the Czechs really understand what the Communist coup meant. “This action will have the same significance as Munich," he said. “It will be a terrible shock to the nation.

“It will do more than anything else to awaken them to the realisation of what has happened. "This shows that M. Masaryk was a really great patriot. "His death will set an example for others to live to resist the terror.

"Nothing that he said while a prisoner could have been considered as coming from liis heart."

Slavik resigned the Ambassadorship last week as a protest against the Communist coup.

At Lake Success, Karel Lisicky, Czech chairman of the Palestine Commission, said he believed M. Masaryk’s suicide would have a great effect on the health of President Benes, who, he said, was far from well.