Tomorrow all Czechoslovaks outside the boundaries of the German Reich will remember and celebrate the 9ist birthday of their national hero, the late president-liberator Thomas G. Masaryk. This great Czech who was born on March 7, 1850, as a poor coachman's son and who later on resided for almost twenty years in a castle that lodged many kings of Bohemia and even emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, not only gave national independence to his nation, but also a new ideological orientation, Masaryk, who was married to an American,' taught his countrymen the so-called Western orientation. The Czechoslovak nation, living surrounded by the bulk of the German people, has been under German spiritual influence for centuries. 'Masaryk made "Westerners" of the Czechs, teaching them English, French and American political, philosophical and cultural' ideology.
After a distinguished career as professor and deputy he led the Czech revolution against the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, helped to overthrow it and became president of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. Having held this high office for 17 years he abdicated in favour of the present president, Dr, Edvard Benes, He died, nearly 88 years old, on September 14, 1937. His grave is to be found on the small village churchyard of Lay, some 30 miles from Prague.
Today, as on March 7, 1940, German policemen will stay around the modest cemetery and they will chase away with the buts of their rifies and bayonets Czech farm women, miners from the neighbouring coal mines, and children, who will try to bring flowers to the tombstone of their beloved president liberator.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.