The Prophet

"I do not know when it will break out; possibly in a year, perhaps in two or three. . . . The first to suffer the blow will b: Poland. . . . France will pay horribly for her betrayal of us. And Chamberlain --he will still live to see the results of appeasement to Hitler and Mussolini. Hitler will attack all--in the West and even Russia--and in the end America, too, will be in it."--Dr. Eduard Benes, Nov. 21, 1938, in London.

The prewar world got just a little tired of hearing CzechoSlovakia's President Eduard Benes tot up errors and point out mistakes. Too often he was uncomfortably right. But he was then a figure of world stature, and the world had to listen even when it did not heed the smart, tubby little man with eager eyes and a thought-lined face.

This week Dr. Benes arrives by plane from London to meet his greatly admired friend, Franklin Roosevelt, for the first time since May 28, 1938. In the five years, Dr. Benes' place in the world has changed. He comes to the U.S. as a President in Exile, a prophet whose predictions usually go unheard, a statesman troubled by defections within his . own political family and by the studied doubts and indifference of some statesmen among his allies. In Washington, however warmly he may be received at the White House, he will not escape that indifference. The U.S. State Department does not entirely approve of Dr. Benes.

Diplomacy in Exile. Benes is a self-educated peasant who was born 59 years ago under Habsburg rule, studied philosophy at Charles University in Prague, later at the Sorbonne, holds five honorary U.S. degrees. With the late great Thomas G. Masaryk, he spent a lifetime fighting for the creation and development of Czechoslovakia. He became its second President 17 years after his country was fashioned at Versailles, saw it dismembered by the Germans, abandoned by France and Britain in 1938.

Now he is fighting to recreate his nation. The way he goes about it is what Worries others. Simplified, the Benes policy is: Know your enemies and play ball with your friends. Benes' principal enemy is Adolf Hitler. His friend and latter-day patron is Joseph Stalin, with whom a Czech army is fighting, and who, with Britain, has guaranteed restoration of Czechoslovakia's pre-1938 boundaries.

Benes is in agreement with Winston Churchill on the broad outline of postwar European regional federations; his longtime championship of them has recently revived his prestige in London. He is in agreement with Stalin on the principle of strong Russian participation in eastern European affairs. He agrees with Washington on the need for clear understanding between Russia, Britain and the U.S. on the pattern of postwar Europe.

Troubles in Exile. As a democratic liberal who has the confidence of Premier Stalin, President Benes might in some circumstances have been a useful intermediary, both in such matters as the current Polish controversy, and in the larger field of postwar relations. In the circumstances as they actually are, President Benes probably will not and cannot fulfill this function. In the opinion of some who are shaping policy in Washington, Dr. Benes is too much of an opportunist; too close to Joseph Stalin, too deeply obligated to the U.S.S.R. And there are other reasons, including the fact that his own political position is under attack from Slovak extremists.

The Catholic Slovak league (some leaders of which even in the U.S. have openly applauded Hitler's puppet regime in "independent" Slovakia) bitterly opposes him. Some of his fellow Czechs dislike his commitments to Russia. A personal friend of Polish Premier Wladyslaw Sikorski, Benes is hated by Polish extremists, partly because he insists that any federation between postwar Poland and Czechoslovakia should be adapted to the wishes of the U.S.S.R.

Business as Usual. Perhaps with these difficulties in mind, Dr. Benes proposed to visit the U.S. several months ago, would have come sooner if he had been encouraged to do so. He is a shrewd enough politician to know that a demonstration of White House friendship should improve his position among his dissident countrymen. Before he left London, his Foreign Ministry announced that he will stay strictly away from the Russo-Polish affair ("the issue is between Poland, the Soviet Union and the western democracies"). And Mr. Roosevelt had already chosen his emissary to Moscow: Joseph E. Davies.

But Dr. Benes will have much to discuss with President Roosevelt: commitments on CzechoSlovakia's postwar composition and sovereignty; his views on eastern Europe, including his ideas for federations of small states, complete accord with Russia, and the urgency of reuniting Yugoslavia's warring factions. He also will seek to raise the CzechoSlovakian Legation to the embassy status now accorded to six exiled Governments.

He will not make the countrywide tour of the U.S. that he had planned. Reason: the State Department reduced his itinerary to appearances in New York and Chicago (which CzechoSlovaks call their "second largest city"). One of the cities omitted from his tour is Philadelphia, where expatriate Thomas Masaryk in 1918 signed the declaration which proclaimed the existence and freedom of Czecho-Slovakia.

After his visit to the U.S. is completed, Eduard Benes will continue his travels. His next destination: Moscow.

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