Evening star., 1939-03-18

Vladimir Hurban (right) ia
the State Department yesterda
anything. Fifty good soldiers are
the equal of 1000 Red Guards"
Came Here in 1918.
The Czech Committee in Vladi-
vostok early in the summer of 1918
sent Hurban to the United States
to report to Masaryk in Washing
ton on the Czech legion situation in
Siberia. Hurban arrived here Au-
gust Z. The Russian problem was
a knotty one at the time to the
United States and the Allied armies,
and they were cheered at Hurban's
report that the Czechs had the sit
uation in hand.
Hurban arrived here a captain.
Masaryk raised him to the rank of
colonel and made him his military
adviser. COL Hurban led some
Czech troops across the White House
lawn in review for President Will
son, who supported strongly Ma
saryk's ambitions for an independ-
ent Czecho-Slovakia.
Before he left Washington for Eu-
rope with Masaryk in October, 1913,
Hurban became engaged and
watched his first golf game. The
club-swinger was John D. Rocke-
feller, who urged Hurban to take
up the game. Hurban recalls:
II was skeptical. 1t seemed so
odd for an important man like Mr..
Rockefeller to push a little white
pill around. Not until I went to
Egypt in 1924 did I have the nerve
to try it. Now I play occasionally
with my wife. But I still don't. un-
derstand why so many busy people
take the game so seriously"
He wooed his wife in Landsford,
Pa, but he had met her long ago
in the Carpathians. She was
Slovak, too, Olga Boor, whose father
had brought her to the United States
when she was a child to put the
Boor family far from the reach of
Magyar persecution. He married
her in 1919. when he came to
Washington as military attache at
the Czech Legation. He helped open
the Czech Legation. Perhaps that
is one reason why now he refuses
to help close it.
Saw Birth of Republic.
Meanwhile, the war was coming
to its close, and the smouldering
distaste for Germany and Austria
and Hungary long held by Hurban
was about to bear fruit. In October.
1918, Masaryk, who was accom-
panied to France that month by
Hurban, and his right-hand man,
Edouard Benes, together proclaimed
the Czecho- -Slovak Republic. Hur-
ban was present at its birth. Per-
haps that is one reason why he
refuses to admit its death.
The republic became a geographic
fact when the war ended. The most
exciting period in Hurban's life was
ended His aspirations Of freedom
for Slovakia from Hungary were
realized. He put behind him the
life military in favor Of diplomacy.
Since 1919 he has besn a servant
of the government. He never par
ticipated in Slovakian demands for
greater freedom in the Czech re-
public. And the fact that Slovakian
demands for autonomy eventually
undid the republic has failed to
move him from his insistence that
he still represents Czccho-Slovakia
in the United States.
Hurban remained at the Czech
Legation in Washington - which
then was in the 1000 block of s
street NW.-until 1924. His next
tour was as Charge d'Affaires in
Egypt. In 1890 he was appointed
Minister to Sweden, Norway and
Lithuania, with headquarters In
Stockholm. In 1896 he was named
Minister to the United States and
Cuba.
Col. Hurban is a serious, military
looking appearing man, about s feet
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mined looking. Almost since the
day he got here he has been uneasy
about his country's future, for 1t was
In 1896 that the agitation Of Konrad
Heinlein for freedom from Czech
domination of the Sudeten Deutsch
In Bohemia began to gain mo-
nentum.
Negotiated Trade Pact.
His chief diplomatic triumph here
was the negotiation Of the Czech
United States trade agreement,
which was signed March Z, 1888.
The Treasury Department; this week
recognized the fact of German con-
troll Of what was Czecho- -Slovakia by
ordering abolished the tariff con-
cessions granted to Czech goods un-
der the agreement.
When Austria succumbed to Hit
Ter . few days after the completion
Of the Czech United States trade
pact ,Hurban's alarm grew. He went