e new hundred-crown note. American relief-work and Mr.
Hoover enjoy great prestige, and altogether there is for the time being
the atmosphere of an enduring friendship.

The Czechs adopted a Parliamentary system, but finding that "one man
one vote" brought to power new revolutionary elements, the system was
quickly defunctionized. The administration is now appointed by the
President, and he, having been elected by acclamation, "President for
life," is in the nature of elective autocrat. However, after Masaryk,
the term is to be limited to seven years, and a president may not serve
two terms. The largest parties in the Parliament are the "Germans" and
the "Social Democrats," each of which has seventy-two deputies and
about forty senators. The National Democrats, who might be called the
Masaryk party, are in the minority of nineteen deputies and ten
senators. This party, nevertheless, is likely to maintain and hold the
intellectual leadership of the nation. Czecho-Slovakia is not a
peasant State like Bulgaria and Jugo-Slavia, but ex-Austrian bourgeois,
with a large proportion of educated people.

It is a thick-set, burly, rather obstinate people, with imperturbable
eyes. It is difficult to persuade one of the Czechs to do a thing
against his will, or to compromise between his opinion and yours. Much
more difficult to persuade than a Russian. And they are not as
obedient as the Germans, or as amenable to splitting a difference as
the British. It has been said they are Russian translated into German.
Not polite or charming, but matter-of-fact, and a trifle on the rude
side. There is in them a good deal of moderateness of gift, but they
seem far more practical than the rest of the Slavs, and more virile.
They have been Germanized and dullened by Austria, but in many respects
they are more capable than the Germans. They seem to be the most
capable people in their part of the world.

I met Dr. Benes, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, deputy-President in
Masaryk's absence. It was on his initiative that the Little Alliance
of Czecho-Slovakia and Jugo-Slavia was founded, with the support of
Italy and eventually including Roumania. Whilst this was nominally to
prevent the return of the Hapsburgs or the reuniting of Austria and
Hungary, it has also had another function--that of drawing together all
the States deriving territory from the break up of Austria--even
uniting Italy and Serbia, up till recently preoccupie