Page:Two Architects of New Europe – Masaryk and Beneš.pdf/2

28 It is the object of this article to examine in what way Thomas G. Masaryk, President of the Czechoslovak Republic, and Edward Beneš, Minister of Foreign Affairs, are qualified to be considered among the new leaders of a New Europe. They hold the fate of Czechoslovakia in their hands. Her foreign policy has been the expression of their ideals and plans.

We shall examine first the origins of their policies and then point out how they have deliberately planned to build up a new Central Europe which would act as a wedge between radicalism and reaction and help to rejuvenate a wasted continent. If space permitted we should also count among these leaders in Central Europe such men as Jaszi, the Magyar statesman; Renner, ex-Premier of the Austrian Republic; Jonescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rumania; Trumbić, formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Davidović, formerly Prime Minister, of Jugoslavia; and Paderewski, formerly Premier of Poland. We shall analyze here only the Czechoslovak roots of a New Europe.

It is a platitude in Czechoslovakia to say that Masaryk is the prophet of the new regime and Beneš his ablest disciple. Nothing truer, however, has ever been said because for years their relationship was that of teacher and pupil.

Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was born in 1850 of Slovak parentage in Moravia (now a province of Czechoslovakia).