The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1937. The Greatness Of Masaryk

Southland Times, Issue 23306, 16 September 1937, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1937. The Greatness Of Masaryk

The death of Dr Thomas Masaryk, reported in a cable message yesterday, comes at a time when his countrymen, lamenting the loss of a great man, may be excused for feeling an added weight in the problems which now confront them. It is true that Dr Masaryk ceased to be President of Czechoslovakia m December 1935; but even though he was an old man his presence must have been a support to his successor, and an inspiration to the people. Something will remain. The power of a life devoted to great ends does not immediately fade, and Masaryk has left writings as well as a record of personal achievement. There is material in his biography for a story of action and ideas which could make the dictators of modern Europe seem mountebanks thrust into power by the accidents of destiny and held there by the desperate faith of bewildered peoples. ‘He was a man of humble origins, blessed with that native breadth of mind which is a gift shared by peasant and aristocrat, without reference to lineage or background; and in his long life of service he escaped the inhibitions which lead inferior and narrow intellects in pursuit of sectional gains. It was the Czech people for whom he planned and worked, and when the free republic of Czechoslovakia was shaped from the outer ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire he remained true to democratic principles, avoiding the fever of high places which drives lesser men to worship power for its own sake, and making his ideal of a liberated nation the ideal also for the quieter tasks of peace. It could be said that Masaryk was fortunate in his period. The outbreak of war gave him an opportunity for which the years of politics and journalism and academic training could be seen as an almost inevitable preparation. But it is nearer the truth to say that he made his opportunity where other men would have found a mere chaos. In the years of-the war he appeared in different places across Europe and in the United States. His great aim was to persuade the Entente countries to recognize a new nation of the Czechs and the Slovaks. This was the logical development of the national movement for which he had laboured under the Hapsburgs. The difficulty of his task lay in the obscurity of the peoples he represented. He saw clearly that in the confusion of war, and of its aftermath, there was a danger that his countrymen would be overlooked, or pressed down into some new servitude. Therefore he travelled and worked on what could be described as a task of national integration. He found his countrymen in neutral capitals and prison camps; everywhere he drew them into this minor crusade and fired them with his own passion for freedom. It was actually in America that he founded the new state of Czechoslovakia, arranging a unity pact and issuing a declaration of independence. It was there, too, that he was proclaimed first President of the new republic. But this does not mean that he did his work in a safe distance. Although he was past 60 when the war began he was constantly embroiled in conspiracy in the four years that followed; his travels led him into dangerous places (Moscow during the Revolution was one of them); and more than once there were, attempts on his life. These were his great years—but only because he had fitted himself by a complete experience to use them to his purpose. For most men, the task would have ended with the proclamation of the republic. The hero of revolutionary times is seldom fitted for the sober tasks of consolidation. But the man who had learned to reason, and to develop the floating thoughts of a liberal mind into a system of philosophy related to the essential facts of his country’s background and history rather than to a common region of abstract ideas shared by world thinkers was really more fitted for this post-war effort than for the heroic activity that preceded it. His steady faith in democracy carried him through difficulties which were swamping older and stronger nations. When he retired at the end of his fourth and final term in the Presidency The Times referred editorially to his sound and sane liberalism.

By precept and example he has victoriously defended the liberal causes which have been temporarily lost or continually endangered in Central Europe since the war. As in the pre-war years he never allowed his dislike of the semi-despotism of the Hapsburgs to drive him to worship at the shrine of Tsardom, so during his Presidency the growth and activity of a Communist faction has never tempted him to take the least step in the direction of dictatorship. For 18 years he has been both the first citizen of a free country and the chief guide and counsellor of its political progress, and thanks above all to him, the democratic institutions of Czechoslovakia have stood firm against every attack.

At the present time Czecho-

Slovakia is facing new dangers. The neighbourhood of an armed and militant Germany has been anything but comfortable in recent years. On one side of the frontier are rumours of war preparations, the building of military roads that seem to be aimed directly at Prague, and a talk of big guns that can fire a shell 50 miles from hidden batteries. On the other side of the frontier are the increasing activities of the “Henlein Germans” —so called from the name of the man who has fostered Nazism in the Sudetic German minority. Improving trade brought a temporary lull in mischief-making; but according to The Manchester Guardian the followers of Henlein now openly regard themselves as “instruments of Pan-German expansion. The sorry history of intervention in Spain has had a special meaning for Czechoslovakia; her people know that if trouble comes to their own frontier they may find themselves isolated and friendless. But these dangers are not immediate; and every year gives Czechoslovakia a little more of that unity and strength which may ultimately mean salvation. It will not be easy to destroy the independence of this free people when the strength which Masaryk gave them in those first years of the republic are now their best defence in a troubled world. That is why Thomas Garrigue Masaryk has been named “the finest intellect of the century.”