Patriot Who Fought For Independence

Chronicle (Levin), 6 September 1948, Page 5

Patriot Who Fought For Independence

(N.z;p.a,

—Reuters

, Copyright)

LUNJJUA, sept. a. Dr. Edouard Benes, tlie i'ormer President of Czechoslovakia, died in Prague tliis evening, He will be given a Btate funeral, Dr. Benes and his wife lived in, virtual impr.isonment siyce the. ^Gott". wald Conmmnist eoup seven moiitlu?, ago. Dr. Benes resigned as President. . in J une. , An oftieial apnoUncemeht' said: "Dr. Benes died today, at 5.15, p.m., in his .•illa at Sezimovo Usti. Dr. Benes did not regain consciousness during; the aftemoou. The last st ages were entered about 3 p.m., local time. The President was dying quietly, witliout a strnggle, as if he was ' falling into a ,deep sleep, surroimded by his family." It is understood tliat, whatever ceremonies take place in Prague, the burial will be outside the capital. Dr. Benes had expressed the wisli to be buried in the villago cenieteiy at Lany, near his leacher and predecessor, the late Presiden JNtasaiyk. Di. Benes, who was a inember of the Roman Catholic Church, spent the last two montlis of his life revising his memoirs. News of hiiu was searce after the .Communists gained power in Februarv, and only two official appearances were recorded after tliat time — whgn he atl ended the funeral of Jan Marasyk on JMarch 13 and the 600th anniversarv of Charles University in Prague on April 7. Representatives of democratic Czeehs and Slovaks issued the following statement in London: "Dr. Benes leaves us as the last of three men who, during the .First World War, stood in the foreground of the struggle of the Gzechs and Slovaks for a common, independent, democratic Czech State. Thomas Masaryk, Milan Stefanik and Dr. Benes founded the Czech Republic on tlie ruins of the feudal Hapsburg ^ronarcliy. ' ' The statenient added that the Czechs and Slovaks were facing a difficult trial, but would not re.jeet the ideals of tlie nation 's founders and would sex'erely judge those who failed to observe them. Extra police were called out tonight to elear a way througli a mass of several hundred inourners janilied against the gate of the Benes estate, says Reuter's Prague correspondent. Hundreds more stfeamed along tlie roads through the village,