The Czechoslovak Minister called at his request and handed me the
attached memoranda urging recognition of the Czechoslovak Government.
One memorandum is by the Minister himself and the other by a Czech
organization and Czech officials.7 I
replied that I and my associates would be glad to give the fullest
consideration to these documents.
I inquired if the Czechoslovak people were divided, and he said they were
not except in the case of a German-controlled individual here and there.
I assured him that this Government and this country are just as friendly
and cherish the same deep friendly interest toward the people of his
country that they do toward the people of every other country in similar
distress.
[Annex]
Memorandum by the Czechoslovak Minister (Hurban)
The United States Government has recognized neither the so-called
Munich Agreement nor the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Germany.
From the point of view of the United States Government, the
Czechoslovak Republic exists de jure. The
uninterrupted recognition of Colonel Vladimír S. Hurban as
Czechoslovak Minister to the United States is considered a practical
interpretation of this attitude.
Before the organization of the Provisional Government of
Czechoslovakia in London and its subsequent recognition by the
Allies, the attitude of the United States Government was perfectly
understood and fully appreciated by the broad Czechoslovak masses
and their leaders. However, since the establishment of the
Provisional Government under the presidency of Dr. Eduard Beneš
whose resignation, tendered under extreme duress, must not be
considered valid, the negative attitude of the United States
Government toward the Czechoslovak Government has had most
unfavorable repercussions in the struggle against German domination.
This is true from the international as well as the national point of
view.
The fact that Mr. Anthony Drexel Biddle was appointed as United
States envoy to all the refugee Governments in England with the
exception of the Czechoslovak, carries not only negative
implications for the Czechoslovak Government but has the positive
effect of weakening the international prestige of the Czechoslovak
Provisional Government. The de jure
recognition of the Czechoslovak Republic, significant as it is, is
not sufficient in view of the fact that a Czechoslovak Government,
recognized by the Allies, exists. The Germans immediately seized
upon and stressed this point, and reports from Czechoslovakia
indicate that the German authorities are making political capital of
the fact that the United States Government has not recognized the
Czechoslovak Provisional Government. Reports from London, on the
other hand, indicate that the relations of the Czechoslovak
Government with other States and their representatives, are being
impaired because of the weight attached to the question of
recognition by the United States.
The discriminatory attitude of the United States Government which
singles out the Czechoslovak refugee Government from all other
refugee Governments, has a still more unfavorable effect upon the
Czechoslovak people, upon those who suffer heroically under Nazi
domination as well as upon those who fight heroically with the
Allies. The broad masses, especially in Czechoslovakia where all
means of public enlightenment are in the hands of the Nazis,
interpret the policy of the United States as a retraction from the
very definite position
[Page 24]
taken
after the Hitler coup in March 1939. To a lesser degree but still
very important, is the influence upon our fighting forces. Although
recognized as one of the best from the military point of view, they
cannot feel they enjoy equal prestige with their comrades, Polish,
Dutch, Norwegian, etc., in the eyes of the United States.
Since the policy of the United States toward the Allies who are
fighting the totalitarian States is definitely fixed, the
recognition of the Provisional Government would lend tremendous
moral support to the Czechoslovaks and would be a strong factor in
encouraging all other nations who are or are likely to become the
victims of German world domination. It would be of most disturbing
significance to Hitler in his drive to dominate the Balkans and the
near East.
