CZECHOSLOVAKIA NOW
By KENNETH LINDSAY, M.P.
ONLY a prolonged visit by a highly experienced traveller in Eastern Europe could do justice to the present condition of Czechoslovakia—key State as it is in interpreting Western and Eastern culture and points of view. But a few impressions after an intensive study of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia for two hospitable weeks may have its value. Czechoslovakia is in a category all its own among the countries that lie within the Russian orbit. It is true that pictures of Benes and Stalin (sometimes Masaryk is added) appear in all the nationalised factories, that the hammer and sickle emblem is widely evident, that the Mayors—actually chairmen of local committees—in almost every. city visited are Communist, that key portfolios in the new Government (Interior, Information, Finance and Internal Trade) are held by Communists, who gained 39 per cent. of the votes in the recent election. It may even be that an undue proportion of exports is directed to Russia. But it is also true that three other parties between them polled 61 per cent. of the votes, that the elections were fairly held, that a National Coalition Government has been formed with a joint programme agreed by all parties, that no Russian soldiers were visible except some 5,000 offcers and men recuperating in some of the larger hotels at Karlovy Vary, that the Central Government repudiated one or two recent attempts at mob law when the Communists tried to overturn local appointments duly made by the various political parties. It is perhaps worth mentioning the exact form this mob law took at Olomouc and Pilsen. The procedure adopted was to call out the workers in nationalised industries, and in mass parades and demonstra- tions to use the strike for political reasons to reinstate a Communist as Mayor against the declared appointments of the political groups. The most important recent event is the formation of the National Government and the two-year programme, with its insistence on stepping up production, its emphasis on freedom of speech, con- stitutional rights, unity of the Republic, and friendship with Britain, America and France as well as Russia. One phrase is worth re- peating : " The bureaucratic and police system of State administra- tion must disappear from our public life for ever." In the ensuing debate, part of which I heard, this point was hammered home by many speakers. For example, Dr. Chytel, M.P. (Catholic People's Party) said, "Constitutional adjustment of the rights and liberties of the citizen will need more attention than it has received up to now." Dr. Krazino, M.P. (National Socialist Party), said, " Any restriction of liberties by police measures is alien to us and a typically undemocratic phenomenon." Dr. John, M.P. (Social Democratic Party), said, " We must create a special individual type of demo- cracy." Again, Dr. Benes himself on a recent tour declared, Democracy means discussion: the new democracy will be politically free and humanitarian." This is the language of Masaryk himself. It may be asked : Why a National Government and why an agreed programme of two years' reform ? To answer these questions one must go back to Munich and the years of the German Protectorate. What has happened in the last eight years to this gallant Central European democracy? First and most important, it has been occu- pied and humiliated ; secondly, the actual liberation was performed by Russians ; and, thirdly, its intellectual life has been mutilated and thousands of professors, teachers, and journalists (many Jews) have been executed or imprisoned. From the University of Prague, which has been closed for six years, fifty full professors have been executed ; out of five-hundred teachers in Morayska-Ostrava, forty- one were executed and fifty imprisoned. These facts alone explain much that has happened in the last eighteen months and much that is happening now. Czechoslovakia is admittedly in a strongly nationalist mood, and little wonder. The longer view might ques- tion the wholesale expulsion of Germans—even though the mechanics of camps and transportation are now above reproach—but few Czechs could be found to take the longer view, even though labour shortage is becoming the most acute economic question. Occupation and its after-effects are written everywhere. It is true that the Skoda and Bata works suffered some fifty per cent, damage ; that Moronska
Ostrava and Karlovy Vary had their share of bombing ; that pock- marked houses and farms can be seen in many other places ; but all this can be restored and, indeed, is being miraculously restored.
Other things affecting the mind and the body will take a genera- tion to obliterate. The intellectual isolation, the absence of books,
the sad physical condition of many schoolchildren—these and more imponderable assaults on the spirit will need long and patient heal- ing. If I could dare to counsel British public opinion, whether on the Left or the Right, it would be to show patience in all dealing with this gallant country. It is too soon to pronounce any dogmatic opinion on the experiments in nationalisation. In the majority of industries the German, Hungarian or Jewish owners of concerns are no longer alive, and the State has stepped into the ownership. In a few large industries British, -American or Swedish owners are awaiting their terms of compensation. Production is improving, but serious problems need solution, especially in the coal areas. Foreign trade is only about one-sixth of pre-war, and when U.N.R.R.A. ceases this year there will be little reserve to buy food- stuffs and raw material which are required to rebuild export trades. Hence again the two-year plan and the insistence on work.
It is, however, on the cultural side that our closest links can and must be made. The problem of East or West has existed for the Czechs since the tenth century, and therefore is no new dilemma. However Europe may be divided, the Czechs, with their national heroes, Huss, Comenius and Masaryk, belong to the moral, political, cultural and religious traditions of Western European civilisation, to the Bible, Greek philosophy and Roman law. Which way, then, is this Slavonic country with a thousand-year-old Western tradition to go ? Only a Czechoslovakian is entitled to answer so fundamental a question. For my part, I fervently hope that nationalism will remain, mellowed by time and experience. I hope democracy will remain, enlisting new forms and economic experiments, but pre- serving the essential unity of the Republic. I hope above all that Czechoslovak culture will flower again and contribute much to European civilisation. The sturdy peasant life, the matchless songs and dances, the warm friendship and care for children and aged, these and other characteristics are part of a way of life which must appeal to any sensitive British traveller. Nor is it an accident that gallant Czech soldiers and airmen have made happy homes for over a thousand English girls. Anyone who has talked with these young wives in different parts of Czechoslovakia must know that the bonds of friendship between our two countries have no firmer champions.
Czechoslovakia is not democratic in our sense ; it is half-way between two conceptions. Indeed, not a few Czech soldiers who lived amongst us during the war sighed for what they called a greater freedom they had known. But they, of course, are the very men who should stay to help rebuild the new Republic. There are a score of threads binding our two cultures together, clubs and societies, soldiers and their wives, and a supreme opportunity for the British Council. One of our most sensitive poets and critics, Edwin Muir, is head of the British Institute ; this summer he and his wife are conducting most successful courses in English for teachers and students. The best British films have a wide following. The demand for British books, for medical journals, for the English language is widespread. The schools have got their own Butler Act, but could do with more of our freedom and flexibility. The University of Prague, which used to have 12,000 students, now has 30,000. Our universities could do much to help their friends in Prague, Brno, Bratislava and Olomouc. There is every desire to turn back on German methods and rclopt more the tutorial system associated with Oxford and Cambridge. Here, then, is a priceless opportunity. Czechoslovakia has no need of more politics from the outside, whether Left or Right. She needs understanding and patience from liberal and humanitarian Britain, sane counsel after six years' nightmare. Her ties with Russia are inevitable and enduring ; her links with the West must be forged anew.
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