BENES, EDUARD (1884— ), Czechoslovak statesman, was born May 28, 1884, in the village of Koilany, Czechoslovakia. His parents were poor peasants, but the boy was educated in the faculty of philosophy at Prague university, where fees are small and are wholly remitted in the case of poor students. He con tinued his education at the Sorbonne and the Ecole de Science Politique in Paris, then at Dijon, where he graduated as doctor of laws (1908). In 1909 he was appointed professor of economics at the Prague Academy of Commerce, in 1912 lecturer, and in 1922 professor in sociology at the University of Prague. When the World War broke out he was still a young man of 3o, but was already one of the leaders of the Czechoslovak nationalist movement, and soon became Dr. Masaryk's right-hand man in the work of intensive nationalist propaganda which was pre cipitated by the World War. In 1915 he went to Paris to work as a journalist and diplomat in the cause of Czechoslovak libera tion from the Habsburg yoke. There he collaborated with Dr. T. G. Masaryk and Gen. Stefanik in support of the Allied cause. In that same year he was made general secretary in the Czecho slovak National Council, the executive body of the national move ment, which in 1918 was recognized by the Allies as the Czecho slovak Provisional Government.
Place in European Politics.—Dr. Bend became Foreign Minister in the newly formed government, and himself formed one government (1921-22). He was the head of the Czecho slovak Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference (1919-2o), and a signatory of the Peace Treaties. He was appointed Czecho slovak representative at the League of Nations in 1920; was elected a member of the League Council in 1923, and re-elected in 1925. He was co-founder of the Little Entente in Aug. 1920, part-author and keen advocate of the Geneva Protocol of 1924, and represented Czechoslovakia at the many diplomatic con ferences to which she was a party after the War. On behalf of his country he initialled the Locarno Treaties on Oct. 16 1925, and signed them in London on Dec. 1 1925.
The outstanding personality of Bend in the post-War years was, not unnaturally, the cause of controversy among students of affairs in western Europe, especially in Great Britain. British opinion of the Left criticized him on the occasion of several Franco-British diplomatic crises between 1920 and 1924, especially those created by the Genoa Conference and the Geneva Protocol, on the ground that his orientation was toward Paris rather than toward London. Others criticized him on the alleged ground of "interference" between Paris and London; and yet again, that his policy was that of an opportunist. The view, however, that is supported by the evidence of Dr. Bend' public statements and by his record of action, appears to be that he regarded Czecho slovak political independence, in the first instance, as due largely to the Franco-British Entente and was therefore anxious to pre serve the continuance of that entente. Franco-British diplomatic quarrels caused him anxiety, both for the particular interests of Czechoslovak security and for the general interests of European stability. At the same time, he showed himself to be an unsenti mental realist, holding the view that a negative attitude in diplo macy was a blunder, irrespective of the merits of the case.
His object was the political and economic consolidation of Czechoslovakia, to be effected through the regional method of the Little Entente and through a general European stabilization. He adopted a most progressive policy toward Russia, Czecho slovakia being the first country in Europe to restart trade with that country. In common with the statesmen of most of the small nations in Europe, Dr. Bend wished to see the principle of universal compulsory arbitration enshrined in international law. He partly evolved and subsequently advocated the Geneva Protocol of 1924. To Dr. Bend the main attraction of the protocol was that it would, in his view, safeguard the interests of the small states, and best serve the interests of Europe.
It was not till the eve of the Locarno Conference in 1925, that he abandoned his public appeals on behalf of the principles of the protocol (even though the protocol itself was a dead letter by then) ; and he made it clear, when the Locarno treaties were initialled, that he regarded them as an instalment of the protocol idea. Dr. Bend never concealed that in his view and in that of his Yugoslav and Rumanian colleagues it was an important func tion of the Little Entente to prevent any Hungarian or Habsburg coup against the 1919 settlement. It was largely due to his influence that the two attempts of April and Oct. 1921, to restore the Habsburg regime at Budapest, failed. Dr. Bene§ has shown himself to be progressive in policy, and exceptionally well in formed. His unbroken period of office, his work for the League of Nations and the close touch he has maintained with European affairs during seven years make him one of the most influential of post-War statesmen in Europe. After the Locarno treaties were negotiated he at once began laying the diplomatic foundations for a "Locarno" treaty for the east of Europe, to which Hungary should be a party on the analogy of Germany's participation in the western pact. He is the author of some 12 volumes on political and sociological subjects. When Professor Masaryk retired, Dr. Bend was on Dec. 18, 1935, elected to succeed him as president of the Czechoslovak republic. In 1938, when the question of the German minorities in Czechoslovakia was forced into the front of European politics, Dr. Bend was attacked by German propaganda as no head of an independent State had before been attacked by a country with which he was not at war; and on Oct. 15, 1938, owing to the new conditions arising from the signing of the Mu nich agreement, he resigned his office and became an exile from his country. (See CZECHOSLOVAKIA; LITTLE ENTENTE.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Periodic pamphlets, reproducing his public stateBibliography.-Periodic pamphlets, reproducing his public state- ments, issued by Orbis (Prague, 192o-25) ; E. Benes, Five Years of Czechoslovak Foreign Policy (1924) .