DEATH OF BENES EVOKES TRIBUTES

Grey River Argus, 6 September 1948, Page 5

DEATH OF BENES EVOKES TRIBUTES

Government Check On Demonstrators (Received September 5, 10.10 p.m.) LONDON, September 4. Dr. Benes, ex-President >of Czechoslovakia, died on Friday, aged 64. Dr. Benes and his wife had lived in virtual imprisonment' since the Gottwald Communist coup seven months ago. Dr. Benes resigned as President in June. An official announcement stated: “Dr. Edouard Benes, the second President of Czechoslovakia, died at 6.15 p.m. in his villa at Sezimovo. He did not regain consciousness during the afternoon. The last stages were entered about 3 p.m., local time. Dr. Benes was dying quietly without a struggle as if he were falling into a deep sleep. He was surrounded by his family.” Dr. Benes, who was a member of the Roman Catholic Church,. spent the last two months of his life revising his memoirs. News of him was scarce after the Communists gained power in F'ebruary. Only two official appearances were recorded after. that time —when he attended the funeral of M. Jan Masaryk on March 13, and the 600th. anniversary of the Charles University in Prague on April 7. Representatives of democratic Czechs 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 forefront of the struggle of Czechs and Slovaks for a common independent, democratic Czech State. Thomas Masaryk, Milan Stefanik and Dr. Benes founded the Czech Republic on the ruins of the feudal Hapsburg monarchy.” The statement added that the Czechs and Slovaks were facing a difficult trial, but they would not reject the ideals of the nation’s founders and they would severely judge those who failed to observe them. CABINET DECIDES FOR STATE FUNERAL

Prague press correspondents report that at a special meeting on Saturday, the Czech Cabinet decided to give Dr. Benes a. State funeral from the Pantheon in Prague on Wednesday. The Cabinet arranged the funeral rites. He will be buried near his country home at Sezismovo Usti. His body was embalmed on Saturday night for three days’ public display before the burial. The body will lie in state throughout Sunday, in a glass hall at Dr. Benes’s villa at Sezimovo Usti, and will be brought into Prague on Sunday night. There will be a week of official mourning. The Cabinet has granted Dr. Benes’s widow a sum equal to a Cabinet Minister’s salary for life. GOVERNMENT TAKES PARTISAN LINE The police in the Wencelas Square, Prague, told crowds who were wearing black arm-bands and lapel buttons bearing Dr. Benes’s photograph: “Keep moving, or you will be taken in 1" The police arrested half a dozen pedestrians in the Square, including a flower-seller who was offering red and white carnations—the National Socialist Party’s traditional colours. The police also dispersed Czech journalists who had gathered outside Dr. Benes’s home. The police told them that only the Official Government News Agency will be permitted to handle the news. The foreign press correspondents were not affected. The , people, who were deeply shocked, despite the inevitability of Dr. Benes’ death. Weeping and grieving crowds gathered outside Dr. Benes’s home. Soldiers, forming Dr. Benes’s private guard, cried. The Official News Agency obituary notice stated: “Dr. Benes listened to the voice of the people. He recognised the rightousness of then’ indignation against non-Marxist parties.” The Prague radio also adopted a partisan political attitude, saying that it was fitting that Dr. Benes died in September, ten years after Munich, which “was the breaking point of bourgeois democracy and the beginning of peoples’ democracies.”

(Received September 5, 10.50 p.m.) LONDON, September 4. Press correspondents report from Prague that the Czech Cabinet, at a special meeting on Saturday, arranged Dr. Benes’s funeral rites. Messages of condolence poured in from all over the world for. Madame Benes, including one from the King and Queen of England. Diplomats travelled to Sezimovo Usti to express their sorrow to Madame Benes. Prague newspapers published black-bordered official biographies and a few official condolence telegrams, but there are not any descriptive stories being published. Polish President’s Communist Line (Rec. 9.50) LONDON, Sept. 4 The Associated Press correspondent at Warsaw says: President Beirut of Poland, who technically, is a non-par-tisan, but who has long been identified with the workers’ movement has announced that he has accepted “active role” in' Poland’s Communist Workers’ Party. It is understood that M. Beirut’s help is needed to bring about a fusion of the Communist workers and Left Wing Socialist parties.