Personal and                                 Paris, September 16, 1939.
Confidential
 
Dear Mr. President:
 
     As you know, Benes arrived in Europe intending to set up a "provisional government of
Czechoslovakia". He naturally ran into a series of snags.
     In the first place, both the French and British took the position that they had refused to
admit that Czechoslovakia had ceased to exist as an independent state, and were still recognizing
the competence of the Ministers of Czechoslovakia in both Paris and London. They desired to
continue to recognize these Ministers as representing the Czechoslovak State until it should be
possible to recreate a Czechoslovak State. They could see no basis for a Benes provisional
government, except Benes's desire to place himself at the head of something again.
                                   Moreover,
 
The Honorable
 
Franklin D. Roosevelt,
 
President of the United States of America,
 
Washington, D. C.