The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 3/The Message from Czechoslovakia

by Sedley C. Peck

The Message from Czechoslovakia

By EX-LIEUTENANT SEDLEY C. PECK, U. S. Army.

Detached from Hoover Mission in Czechoslovakia.

Dr. Alice Masaryk, as president of the Czechoslovak Red Cross, has sent Miss Emma Novákova to America as her personal representative to carry a very vital message to the friends of Czechoslovakia in this country. Miss Novákova is accompanied by the writer of this brief article, who has just returned from several weeks of active work in child relief in the suffering country. Miss Novákova and Lieut. Peck are at present touring the United States to talk to Americans and carry to them the message from Dr. Alice Masaryk.

As soon after the armistice as it was possible to secure transportation, the American Relief Administration sent a Food Relief Mission into Czechoslovakia. This Mission was headed by Doctor Lionel Hutchinson, who had been for some time one of Mr. Herbert Hoover’s most trusted allies. This Mission has as its duty the distribution of food relief under the Congressional appropriation for the food relief of Europe.

It is the purpose of this article to dwell chiefly upon the activities of American relief as it concerns the feeding of children The American Mission for Child Relief was headed by Capt. Joseph T. Shaw of New York and was composed of fifteen officers of the American Army of experience in the particular work to be done. This Mission organized the C. S. N. B. C. R. (Czechoslovakia National Bureau for Child Relief), the first work of which was to unite the various relief organizations which already existed.. These were several in number, each representing a different religion or political party. Under the head of the C. S. N. B. C. R. the president of the Czechoslovak Red Cross and the leading officers of the other relief organizations worked in harmony and in a very short time the C. S. N. B. C. R. had reopened the war kitchens and was prepared to feed as many children as there were supplies to feed. Actual feeding began the first of May of this year.

In asmuch as supplies were very meager and transportation in appalling condition, it was necessary to make a thorough investigation of the food needs of the country before attempting any actual feeding. It was found after such careful investigation that there were in round numbers 1,000,000 children in Czechoslovakia who were suffering from malnutrition. In the city of Prague, for example, 82% of all children below the age of 14 years were suffering from diseases brought on by malnutrition, namely, tuberculosis, rickets and enemia. The death rate amongst the children was appalling, reaching in some districts, for example—Kladno, in the center of the mining district, about 66%.

The combined efforts of the C. S. N. B. C. R. with all of the other organizations and the official assistance of the Czechoslovak government of 6,000,000 kronen per month (the American subvention was 12,000,000 kronen per month), totaled just enough to feed only 300,000 children. The other 700,000 near starving children it was impossible to reach. Though bad enough at the present moment in the middle of summer, the situation which will be faced by the country the coming winter is almost beyond human comprehension. The Congressional appropriation for Food Relief in Europe will soon be exhausted, leaving even the 300,000 children now being fed dependent up on some other agencies for their support.

Czechoslovakia looks to America in this crisis. When the writer left Prague but a few weeks ago he was charged by President Masaryk to carry the message to America that Czechoslovakia is not a beggar nation; that the country is rich in potential productivity—but at the present time the country finds itself in an emergency of a most extraordinary sort which is not of its own making and in which it needs outside assistance. It is an emergency comparable to the condition of a prosperous man in a neighborhood who has suffered the burning of his home. For a certain time he is dependent upon his neighbors for shelter and food and clothing. But receiving this assistance, he will soon rebuild his house, re-clothe himself and re-stock his larder. At the present time Czechoslovakia has an empty larder, because the Austrians, following a diabolically prepared plan for the starvation of an entire nation, had driven every cow, horse and sheep which could walk out of the country, before they surrendered; had burned all agricultural implements which could be gathered together; had eaten or destroyed all grain seed which could have been used for the next year’s crops; and before all this of course had drafted the entire effective manhood of the nation into the hated Austrian army. It is in this emergency that Czechoslovakia finds itself, and it is in this emergency that she appeals to her neighbors to assist in the rebuilding of her home and the restocking of her larder.

It is not only the president and leaders of Czechoslovakia who look to America, but throughout the nation the visitor at the present time is impressed with the gratitude of the people towards America. It is safe to say that there are more American flags in Prague, the capitol of Czechoslovakia, than there are in Washington. In all of the stores are hung the pictures of President Masaryk and President Wilson. The chief railroad station of the city which was formerly known as “Francis Joseph Station” is now called “Wilson Station.”

The American Mission after its investigation came to the conclusion and so reported to Mr. Hoover, who is everywhere proclaimed with President Wilson as the savior of the nation, that the Czechoslovak people were a nation which challenged our attention, commanded our respect and deserved our utmost support.

This is not a commercial story, or it would be very easy and pleasurable to tell of the ceramic industry, of the objets d’art industry and metal work, of the glassware, garnet jewelry, bead-work, laces and embroideries, in which these people excel. No commercial authority has any fear for the industrial or commercial future of the country as soon as the present terrible emergency has been safely got over.

One needs but to mention Kubelík, Kocián, Hermann, Destin and Cavan to conjure up a vision of the musical artistry of Czechoslovakia. One needs only to mention Dvořák, Smetana and perhaps Friml amongst the composers who are rapidly supplanting the heavy Teutonic music that has been forced upon our senses over the last thirty years to realize that the musical perfection of Czechoslovakia is firmly intrenched. No one can sit in the magnificent Opera House on the banks of the Vltava River in Prague and read the inscription over the stage “From a Nation to Itself” and fail to feel the inspiration of this place. It is in this Opera House which was builded by the small subscriptions of the common people, that the spirit of the “warriors of right” has been kept alive. The Austrians never permitted public gatherings to discuss political affairs, but in the language of music the Bohemians met and communed and kept alive their magnificent traditions. It was the one language which Austrian secret service with all its efficiency could not understand.

One has only to hear a rendition of “Má Vlast” or “Libuše” to kow that in dealing with the Czechoslovak people we are dealing with a people who possess the saving grace of Soul—a soul which 300 years of unspeakable oppression has been unable to kill.

Dr. Alice G. Masaryk in her official capacity as president of the Czechoslovak Red Cross has appointed Mrs. Charles Motak of 1342 Second avenue, New York, as her personal representative in America. Mrs. Motak will at all times be prepared to receive requests for information or offers of assistance in regard to the relief work covered by the Alice Masaryk Fund, as well as other Czechoslovak Red Cross activities in this country.

The very important relief work has at last been put on a sound business basis and the treasurers who will now handle the money and receive and acknowledge subscriptions to the Fund are both well known and universally trusted friends of Czechoslovakia. These treasurers have been appointed with Dr. Alice G. Masaryk’s approval and are:

Mr. Thomas Čapek, President, Bank of Europe, New York City.

Mr. Michael Bosak, President, Bosak State Bank, Scranton, Pa.

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