Czechoslovak College in Great Britain
By Lubor Kunc (lubor.kunc@seznam.cz)
First time
published in the Czechout
I would like to add some new information
to the article of Mr. Spong originally published in one of the previous issues
of the Czechout journal published by the
Czechoslovak Philatelic Society of Great Britain . Mr. Spong summarized a lot of information about Czechoslovak College in Bishop’s Stortford, which he discovered in British
archives.
Mr. Spong discovered, that the Czechoslovak College
was situated in town Bishop´s Stortford (about 50 km far from London) in a building
called Hassobury House (known since 1594) . The school
was founded by Czechoslovak government in close co-operation to the British
government for the teenage boys from Czechoslovakia .
It is tradition to discuss a matter with
all involved parties.
So let’s speak Czech archives and phil. material !
They tell us a lot of information about political background of the school as
well as a tragicomic story from Czechoslovak history.
The Czechoslovak
College was founded in accordance to
Anglo-Czechoslovak Cultural Convention signed in London on June 16, 1947 .
Article 2 of the Convention enables to establish cultural and education centres
of one party on territory of second party .
As result of the Convention, British
government founded
British schools in Czechoslovakia and Czechoslovak government established in 1947
the college in Bishop’s Stortford. I was not able to discover, whether any
other Czechoslovak school in Great
Britain or any other country existed or not
– it is possible, but not confirmed.
The Czechoslovak boys were chosen by
British Council and Ministry of Education of Czechoslovak Republic. The first two years of the programme were successful , but in 1948 important changes in Czechoslovak
political scene with big impact to this programme occurred .
In February 1948 the Communist took over
the government of the Czechoslovak
Republic. The year was
tragic for democracy in Czechoslovakia.
Communist leader Klement Gottwald as prime minister started to build “new
society” as per Soviet concept . The non-communist President dr. Edvard Beneš
as well as Jan Masaryk, son of first Czechoslovak President and Minister of
Foreign Affaires, died, Klement Gottwald
become “the first President representing the workers” and the newly formed Czechoslovak government
consists of Communists only .
Because of their orientation to the Soviet Union, the Communists didn’t support the
Anglo-Czechoslovak students exchange programme.
In 1948 the Czechoslovak representants in the common
British-Czechoslovak Committee caring about the education programme started to
boycott its work. The Communist
“support” to the programme resulted in 1949 by non-issuing of passports for
students chosen to study the Czechoslovak
College in G.B. . Thanks to this action no new students can enrol the
school in 1949 and after return of “old” students home the school was closed .
Great Britain refused such behaviour of Czechoslovak government by diplomatic
notice dated April 24, 1950. The document mentions not only the Czechoslovak College matter, it contains information about actions of
communists police against visitors of British Council office or about visa
problems as well.
The above situation was the main reason,
why Czechoslovak College was closed in 1949. What a pity, because the students
educated as per British standards with friendly connections to foreign people
and with very good knowledge of foreign languages could be important
contribution to the Czechoslovak’s reconstruction after WWII. But exactly these
signs were unacceptable for the Communists, who were aware about importance of
schools for their goals, and who started to build the Czechoslovak educational
system as per Soviet one, which resulted to “firing” all non-communist teachers
and students from Czechoslovak schools in 1948 .
As you can see the period was not mature
for any international co-operation with Czechoslovakia, of course with
exception of Soviet-Czechoslovak one … .
I have found two Czechoslovak stamps,
which can be understood as black humour or bad joke. The two stamps were issued
in frame of a set commemorating the Second Congress of International
Student’s Union in 1950. The stamp with face
value of 3 Crowns celebrates “Making the education system more democratic” and
the 5 Crowns stamp calls for “International Solidarity of Students”.
How the Communists did the everyday work
for reaching the goals, you can see in the history of Czechoslovak
College in Great Britain ! I am sure, no
other words are needed to finish the article , I would
only like to express my thanks to the Ministry of Foreign Affaires of the Czech Republic
for providing me with copies of the diplomatic documents I am mentioning in the article .
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