CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Revolution by Law?

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The Prospect. Neither the U.S. nor British Governments so far include Czechoslovakia in their indictment of police states in other parts of Russia's sphere. And both Governments keep a close watch: the U.S. has stationed one of its ablest diplomats, Ambassador Laurence Steinhardt, in Prague. British Laborites, who see Dr. Benes' "middleclass revolution" as akin to their own, have set up a Parliamentary Czech Committee.

So long as Czechoslovakia's "main orientation" lies eastward, security-conscious Russia may well let Benes keep a democratic showpiece in Central Europe. But if Moscow grows suspicious, if the Big Three finally fall out, if the U.S. pulls out of Europe, if lines of force are drawn, what then? Dr. Benes knows full well that Czechoslovakia's survival as a free state, now as in 1938, depends on the good will and vitality and friendship of a free world.