CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Hail Benes! Hail Stalin!

A twelve-day round of caviar and vodka, of toasts and talks, came to an end. From Moscow shrewd little Dr. Eduard Benes rode a special Soviet train to his liberated homeland.

At Humenne, in the burgeoning Slovak countryside, he switched from train to auto. Along the road peasants cheered his triumphant return from six years exile, welcomed him in the old Slavic way with bread & salt.

Dr. Benes drove under innumerable victory arches decked with his and Stalin’s portraits. His careful eye noted the slogans everywhere: “Glory and gratitude to the liberating Red Army! Hail to our liberator, Marshal Stalin!”

In historic Kosice, a band played and the President accepted the resignation of the Czechoslovak Government in Exile. Then he announced the new: provisional Cabinet arranged in Moscow.

It was a coalition of Socialists, Social Democrats, Communists, Catholics, Agrarians and Independents. Its Premier: Social Democrat Zdenek Fierlinger, rotund ex-Ambassador to Moscow and prime protagonist of friendship with Russia.