DR. BENES'S LIFE WORK.

Chronicle (Levin), 6 September 1948, Page 5

DR. BENES'S LIFE WORK.

Professor, intriguer, statesman, Dr. Edouard Benes devoted his life to the fonnation and the piloting of a democracy in an era of' dictators. Born at Kozlany, Czechoslovakia, on May 28, .1884, lie was tlie youngest of 10 children in a peasant family, but worked his way through the universities at Prague, Sorbonne, Paris, Berlin, London, and Dijbn. When the First World War caine, the br'oken leg which had stopped him playing football also saved hiiu from being called up. Joining forces with his former history professor, Tliomas Masaryk, and other Czech patriots, Dr. Benes eirtered the. Maffia, a secret society formed to liberate Czechoslovakia from the Austro-IImigarian yoke. Even liunted by police, moving furtively between Vienna and Prague, Dr. Benes kept hard at work, agitating and planning' for the establishment of Czechoslovakia as a- sovereign State.- v In this his ingenuily was remarkable. He would s[>lit postcards in tw.o, insert code messages, and join the pieces together again; he was oue of the cleverest intriguers of his day. Together with Masaryk, lie made a masterly presentation of Czechoslovakia 's case at the Peace Confereuce. In 1918 , he became the first Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia, and in 1935 its President after the death of President Masaryk. At the time he was Europe V youngest President. Dr. Benes was notcd^as a diplomat. Lord Curzon, intrpducing Jqm to Lord Baldwin, said of him: "This is the little inan we always send for at Geneva when we're in trouble, and, by •Tove, lie gets us out." Oue of his most brilliant diplomatic successes was in 1922 when, on the eve of the Genoa Conference at which Lloyd George was to propouhd a scheme for the economic rehabilitation of Jlurope, a dangerous rift kept the