Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/183

 An important interview with President Masaryk appeared in the "Outlook" of April 16. It was secured by Gregory Mason on March 1, and as on that date the topic of uppermost interest in Prague was the discovery of German conspiracy against the safety of the Czechoslovak Republic, it was natural that Dr. Masaryk in his interview emphasized the fact that German mentality has as yet undergone no change. To our readers Masaryk’s views on Russia will probably prove of most interest. We quote from the Outlook:

“What do you think the Allies ought to do about Russia, Dr. Masaryk” I asked.

His always thoughful face grew more rigid. He half turned in his chair and his eyes, too, seemed to look across to the opposite hill and rest on that symbol of Russia, fantastic and beautiful.

“A man who could answer that question justly would perhaps be the biggest statesman of his time,” said the Czechoslovak leader slowly, just the tremor of a smile breaking the seriousness of his face. “I think the biggest problem for the Allies is Russia. We must do something, but what? Yet we must do something; we cannot let Russia drift any longer. In my opinion, we must intervene, justly, consistently, and decisively. However, that is only my opinion. But it is self-evident that we must make up our minds to do something. The greatest need of the Allies is a policy toward Russia.”

The American Relief Association has taken charge of the sending of money from this country to Central and Eastern Europe. The plan under which it operates deserves to be thoroughly advertised among foreign speaking people of the United States who desire to send food to their relatives in Czechoslovakia and near-by countries.

By an order of Fred I. Kent, director of the Division of Foreign Exchange of the Federal Reserve Board, all dealers in foreign exchange in the United States—and that includes banks, express companies, steamship ticket agencies etc.—must transmit money received by them for payment in Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, Poland, Roumania and neighboring states through the American Relief Administration. This organization will periodically notify Mr. Hoover in Paris of the amount of money, received let us say for payment in the Czechoslovak Republic. Mr. Hoover gives the Czechoslovak government the equivalent of this money in American food at whole sale prices, and at the same time a list is mailed to the Czechoslovak government of persons to whom money was sent by their American friends. These individuals then can use their credits to buy at home American food at smaller cost, than if it had been bought here and sent to them by parcel post.

Funds from this country will continue to be sent through bankers, but bankers must transmit exclusively through the Relief Administration. It is very gratifying to the Czechoslovaks that tentative rates announced by the American authorities show the Czechoslovak crown to be worth a great deal more than the Austrian crown. A dollar buys 20 Austrian crowns and only 15 Czechoslovak crowns.

MY ANTONIA By Willa Sibert Cater,. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.

This is a story of pioneer farmers in Nebraska, the men and women who lived in dugouts and were the first to bring under the plow the fertile rolling prairies beyond the Missouri. In form it is a record of the memories of a boy who grew up among the Bohemian and Scandinavian settlers and returned to visit his early home many years later, when he was a successful lawyer in New York. There is no plot, but the story centers around Antonia Shimerda, a remarkable Bohemian girl of strong character and unusual vital force. The story has a peculiar ending in leaving us a picture of Antonia as a farmer’s wife with nearly a dozen children around her.

To Bohemian farmers of Nebraska and neighboring states, especially the older generation, the book is sure to appeal. It makes real those early days of hardship and its descriptions of prairie life and scenery are well drawn.