military operations. Nevertheless, it may do us considerable harm in
case we should transfer troops to the Western front. However, the
greatest harm is in the moral effect which this act of wholesale
treachery of the Czechs will have on the military power of the
monarchy. In any case the co-operation of the Czecho-Slovak army on the
side of the Entente will only strengthen the Allies' belief that right
is on their side."

Soon afterwards Italy also generously allowed an expeditionary corps of the
Czecho-Slovak army to be formed from the Czecho-Slovak prisoners of war who
surrendered to her. On May 23, 1918, the Czecho-Slovak troops welcomed the
Prince of Wales to Rome, and soon afterwards they distinguished themselves
on the Piave and were mentioned in one of General Diaz's dispatches and
also in the official Italian _communique_ of September 22, 1918.

From the recognition of the Czecho-Slovak army followed the full
recognition which the National Council obtained from the Allies.

4. While the general secretariat was actively working for these concessions
in the West, Professor Masaryk, after devoting his attention to the
education of public opinion in Great Britain on the importance of Bohemia,
by means of private memoranda and various articles in the _New Europe,
Weekly Dispatch_ and elsewhere, decided in May, 1917, to go to Russia.

In Russia, Professor Masaryk succeeded admirably in uniting and
strengthening all Czecho-Slovak forces, and in organising a regular army of
the many thousands of Czecho-Slovak prisoners there. As we have already
pointed out elsewhere, before the Revolution these efforts of the National
Council and the Czech prisoners, who were always eager to fight for the
Allies, were rendered immensely difficult by the obstacles inherent in the