British Queen to send greeting marking Jan Masaryk's anniversary
Prague, Sept 6 (CTK) - British Queen Elizabeth II will send a short greeting on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the birth of former Czechoslovak foreign minister Jan Masaryk on September 14, Michal Basch, Mayor of Prague 2 where Masaryk's plaque will be unveiled on that day, told CTK today.
British Ambassador Linda Duffield will read the greeting from the British Queen, who met Jan Masaryk (1886-1948) during WW2, within the unveiling of a memorial plaque on Masaryk's native house in Prague-Vinohrady on September 14, Basch added.
A representative of the U.S. embassy is to attend the ceremony as well.
"The plaque was initiated by Jan Masaryk Society, in particular by [its former head] Mr Sum," Basch said, referring to Antonin Sum, Jan Masaryk's former secretary, who died in August.
The commemorative event is held by the Prague 2 district, Jan Masaryk Society as well as the Rotary Club Prague, since it was exactly Jan Masary who brought the idea of Rotarians to the then Czechoslovakia in the 1920's, Basch recalls.
Another memorial of Jan Masaryk in Prague is in the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Cernin palace. The bust is in a passage at the palace courtyard, near the place where Masaryk tragically perished as he fell out of the window in March 1948, shortly after the February Communist coup.
Jan Masaryk, a son of the first Czechoslovak president Tomas Garrigue Masaryk (in office 1918-35), was a member of the Czechoslovak exile government in London during World War Two. After the liberation in 1945, he occupied the post of foreign minister.
Shortly after Communists seized power in the country, Masaryk was found dead under the window of his flat in Cernin palace on March 10, 1948. Though the official Communist version said that he had committed suicide, speculations emerged at the very beginning saying that he had been murdered.
Some investigators and psychiatrists concluded that someone had either thrown Masaryk out of the window or forced him to jump down, however the case has never been fully clarified.