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British Attitudes to Masaryk

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T. G. MASARYK (1850–1937)

Part of the book series: Studies in Russia and East Europe ((SREE))

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Abstract

At the start of the New Year of 1926 a Berlin magazine asked prominent Europeans: ‘if it came to the creation of a United States of Europe, who should be its president?’ ‘Masaryk, naturally, who else’ answered the famous English dramatist and socialist, Bernard Shaw (Jan Herben).1

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Notes

  1. J. Herben, T. G. Masaryk (Prague, 1946), p. 382.

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  2. 371/4328, C 25, 1267, 1407, 1664, and others. All Foreign Office papers quoted are from the Public Records Office political correspondence under no. FO 371.

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  3. Ibid. Also Minutes of the Senate of the University of London, 1930/31. The suggestion for a Cambridge honorary degree was quietly dropped.

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  4. H. and C. Seton-Watson, The Making of New Europe, R. W. SetonWatson and the Last Years of Austria-Hungary (London, 1981), p. 391.

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  5. H. Bruce Lockhart, Retreat from Glory (London, 1935), pp. 63, 65.

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  6. 371/9678 C 4053, 6 March 1924. See also R. Franke, London und Prag (Munich, 1982).

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  7. 371/3528, 201974.

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  8. 371/3525/5901, 13 April 1919.

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  9. 371/27929, 4 February 1919.

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  10. 371148202, 26 March 1919.

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  11. Lockhart, op. cit., p. 52, and H. C. Seton-Watson, The Making of a New Europe, pp. 400–2. (Masaryk’s letter of 1 February concerning Gosling, Seton-Watson’s answer of 1 March, and Clerk’s letter to SetonWatson of 2 February are on these pages.)

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  12. 371/8575 C 18224, 22 October 1923.

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  13. Manchester Guardian, 24 October 1923.

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  14. 371/10674 C 256, 17 January 1925.

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  15. 371/9678 C 4153, 6 March 1924.

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  16. The Truth about the Peace Treaties, 2 Vols. (London, 1935), vol. n, pp. 941–2. Note that these were Lloyd George’s views in the middle Thirties, not in 1919.

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  17. 371112097 C 3920, 28 April 1927. He made a similar point to Macleay on 24 November 1927.

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  18. 371/7287 C 14030, 5 October 1922.

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  19. 371/3582/201974, 1 June 1920.

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  20. 371/5830 C 14612, 17 March 1921.

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  21. 371/8574 C 5099, 12 March 1923.

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  22. 371/8574 C 9697, 25 May 1923.

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  23. 371/8574 C 9739, 28 May 1923.

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  24. 371/1122 C 10039, 7 September 1926. See also 371/11228 C 11253 and 11228, 18 and 28 October 1926.

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  25. 371/15900 C 1088 and C 9671.

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  26. 371/14329 C 1730, 18 February 1930 and 371/15179 C 2362, 28 March 1931. These are the annual reports for 1929 and 1930.

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  27. 371/14329, C 7524, 30 September 1930 and C 7819, 15 October 1930. P. Newman’s own account appears in his biography of Masaryk (London, 1960), pp. 212–4.

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  28. 371/19492, R 25616 and 3805.

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  29. 371/20375 R 4705 and 5216. All British diplomats were convinced that the Czechoslovaks had great admiration for them. Addison noted that when Lord Cecil visited Prague, as the head of a parliamentary delegation, Masaryk paid him the honour of coming to an official reception at the British Legation in Thun Palace: ‘The admiration for my country is something almost unexplainable. On the whole it is quite extraordinary, and it is, I repeat, to a great extent due to the fact that we have as a nation, the quiet dignity of the elephant and do not attempt to imitate the frantic gestures of the ape which wishes to attract attention to its beauty and agility.’ One wonders what Britain’s principal ally would have thought of this description of itself as an ape! (371/15180 C 5339, 9 July 1931.)

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  30. 371/20376 R 971, 8 April 1936.

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  31. Betts, Masaryk’s Philosophy of History (London, 1948), p. 43. I am of course aware of numerous publications. See G. J. Kovtun, Tomáš G. Masaryk 1850–1937: A selective list of reading material in English (Washington, 1981).

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  32. The Times, 20 October 1915.

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  33. The Times, 30 December 1918.

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  34. The Times, 15 June 1923.

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  35. The Times, 15 September 1937.

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  36. Manchester Guardian, 15 September 1937.

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  37. President Masaryk in Paris, Brussels and London in October 1923 (Prague, 1924).

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  38. 2nd ed., Prague, 1930, especially ch. 4.

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  39. Through Thirty Years 1892–1922, 2 vols. (London, 1924), vol. I, p. 324.

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  40. Masaryk in England (Cambridge, 1943); H. and C. Seton-Watson, The Making of a New Europe; P. Schuster, Henry Wickham Steed und die Habsburgermonarchie (Vienna, 1970) and H. Hanak, Great Britain and Austria-Hungary During the First World War (London, 1962).

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  41. See H. Hanak ‘The New Europe, 1916–1920’, Slavonic and East European Review, vol. XXXIX, 93 (June 1961), pp 369–99.

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  42. Information received from Miss Dorothy Galton; R. Clogg, Politics and the Academy: Arnold Toynbee and the Koraes Chair (London, 1986).

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  43. Manchester Guardian, 25 March 1929.

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  44. H. Nicolson, Some People (London, 1927), pp. 157–86.

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  45. Vol. vm, 24 March 1930, p. 467.

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  46. Birley, Thomas Masaryk (London, 1951), p. 1.

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  47. Garibaldi and the Defence of the Roman Republic, 1848–9, Garibaldi and the Thousand, May 1860 and Garibaldi and the Making of Italy, June-November 1860 (London, 1907–11). The Nelson edition was published between 1920–22. Subsequently Trevelyan added a fourth volume on a related theme: Manin and the Venetian Revolution of 1848 (London, 1923).

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  48. George Meredith, For the Centenary of Garibaldi, 1907, quoted by Trevelyan, Garibaldi and the Thousand, p. 19.

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  49. Vol. 1, no. 1 (June 1922), pp. 4–5.

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  50. R. Gower, The Hungarian Minorities in the Succession States (London, 1937), R. Donald, The Tragedy of Trianon. Hungary’s appeal to Humanity (London, 1928). Baron de Forest, whose vast lands in Czechoslovakia were expropriated, was a former MP. Subsequently he became Count Bendern, citizen of Liechtenstein. George Lane-FoxPitt- Rivers, The Czech Conspiracy (London, 1938).

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  51. Europe: Grandeur and Decline (London, 1967), pp. 179–82.

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  52. Address of the Principal of King’s College, at the unveiling of the bust of Masaryk on the occasion of his visit to King’s. Slavic Review, vol. n, no. 5 (Dec. 1923), pp. 446–9.

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  53. ‘Beneš and Masaryk’, in J. Opočenský (ed.), Edward Benes. Essays and reflections presented on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday (London, 1945).

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Authors
  1. Harry Hanak
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of London, UK

    Harry Hanak (Reader in International Relations School of Slavonic and East European Studies) (Reader in International Relations School of Slavonic and East European Studies)

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© 1990 School of Slavonic and East European Studies

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Hanak, H. (1990). British Attitudes to Masaryk. In: Hanak, H. (eds) T. G. MASARYK (1850–1937). Studies in Russia and East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20576-9_9

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