English Translation

6 said that measures against the legionaries were rightly interpreted as a groundless persecution of an arbitrarily selected group of the Czech population, which could also be followed without reason by a second and further groups, and the Czech people would have to win the conviction that all Czechs should gradually be taken, not because they were not good subjects of the empire or would neglect their duties towards the empire, but only for the reason that they are Czech ethnicity. Such a development, which I believe would be an immediate consequence of a package of measures against the legionaries, would certainly be extremely undesirable, can certainly not be in the minds of your Excellency and would take paths which I consider to be inconceivable for my person. If I was obliged to explain these circumstances to your Excellency in more detail, I have done so for the following reason: It must be borne in mind that the members of the former Czechoslovak legions are mostly recruited from the circles of the small people. It is a mistake to identify the so-called legionary attitude, which by the way does not exist as a special attitude at all, not the attitude of the Czech intelligence. Among the intellectuals in particular, there is a very small fraction of the former legionaries, most of which are found among the country's farmers, the workers, the craftsmen and the employees of the lowest categories.