Czechoslovakia

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24909, 24 June 1946, Page 4

Czechoslovakia

The election of a Czechoslovak Constituent Assembly three weeks ago left unanswered, as the “Daily “Mail’s” correspondent in Prague then reported, the question whether the constitution the Assembly would devise would tend towards Soviet ideas or to those of the Western democracies. Yet there were other observers in Prague—those who wrote for the “ Manches- “ ter Guardian ”, “ The Times ”, the “ Fortnightly ”, and the “ Sydney “ Morning Herald ”, for example—who, even earlier, had few doubts what the answer would be. Those doubts are the fewer for the Assembly’s decision, unanimously reached when it met for the first time last week, to re-elect Dr. Benes to the Presidency. As one of those observers wrote, four months ago.

Czechoslovakia has two assets which are not only material. In Dr. Benes the Czechs have as President one of the great European statesmen, of any age; and in his Czechs Dr. Benes has a stubbornly independent and reasonable people, with shrewd political sense. . . . The Czechs are a small nation, least touched of any European peoples by the vulgar insanity of prestige, and they are Slavs—two reasons why an alliance with their powerful Slav neighbour is natural and easy for them. What is more, they know an historical necessity when they see it. In the light of Munich a blind man might have seen that the only secure basis of a foreign policy in the future lay in friendship with Russia. President Benes has better sight than most. His alliance with Russia was the deliberate choice of a statesman doing a necessary thing frankly, with a good will, and in time. Had he done it at the last minute, with bad will, he might have had to convince Marshal Stalin of his honesty by fitting a totalitarian mask over the sturdy Czech face. And in their relief in being rid of the Germans, the Czechs would have accepted any regime marked “Liberation model” and vouched for by their active Communist party. That they are far on the way to becoming a parliamentary democracy again they owe to the prudence and political tact of a President determined to help them retain and use their qualities of stability and balance. ... In a few weeks or months the first normally elected parliament will take over. “We are already a democracy and we shall remain a democracy”—Dr. Benes’s words—is part statement and part vow. It can be taken seriously as both.

But the doubts are not dissipated, i Dr. Benes’s first function has been to accept Mr Fierlinger’s resignation and offer the Prime Ministership to Mr Gottwald, the Communist leader and a former member of the executive of the Comintern. Mr Gottwald is not strong enough to govern alone. It is conceivable, but improbable, that he will seek to govern with the support of the Social Democrats alone. With them he would command a majority of four in the Assembly. The Government will almost certainly, therefore, be another broadbased coalition such as Mr Fierlinger headed. In that coalition, according to the Prague correspondent of “ The Times ”, Slovakia will probably hold the balance; and Slovakia voted overwhelmingly for the Conservative ticket. It would seem as probable, then, that in writing her constitution Czechoslovakia will be able to preserve social, juridical, and governmental habits foreign to the Soviet system. But the real balance may be held not by Slovakia but by Russia. Teschen is back in Czech hands, uneasily. If it stays there, peacefully, Czechoslovakia’s economic life will flourish. If it does |

not, if the Polish demand prevails, Czechoslovakia’s economic life will be strangled; and whether Teschen becomes Polish will depend, greatly, perhaps decisively, on Moscow’s pleasure.