relations. I should be happy if we were really able to take  
a step forward and thus ensure in the future a propitious  
development of the relations beeween the Holy See and the  
Czechoslovak Republic. This is a benefit which is surely   
deserved by our Czechoslovak people, so sorely tried, so  
terribly persecuted and so unspeakably martyred both in the  
Czech territories and in Slovakia under the present regime  
controlled there by Nazi Germany.
 
 
 
 
The difficulties, too, which after the war might confront   
us in ecclesiastical and religious matters as a  
result of the strain of the war events could be avoided or  
at least reduced to a minimum. Such a result would redound  
to the advantage of both interested parties, the Holy See  
and the Czechoslovak Republic.
 
 
 
London. May l0th, 1943.