BENES EDVARD: (1884-1948) Czech statesman who served as President of Czechoslovakia 1935-38, 1945-48 and also led the Czechoslovak government-in-exile from 1939-45 during World War II. T.L.S., Dr E Benes, one page, 4to, London, 21st September 1943, to the representatives of the Czechoslovak community in Paris, in Czech. Benes thanks his correspondents for their invitation to a memorial gathering in honour of the late Gustav Winter, and continues to remark ´I would like to take this opportunity to say that with the passing of Gustav Winter, you, the Parisian colony of which he was a distinguished member, and all Czechoslovaks in general have lost a man of high intellectual values, pure character, and great work ethic. I always regarded him as an excellent colleague, whose broad outlook, knowledge, and quick pen could be relied upon in all circumstances´. Some very light, extremely minor age wear, VG

Gustav Winter (1889-1943) Czech journalist, writer, and translator, the brother of politician Lev Winter. Gustav Winter was best known as the Paris correspondent of Právo lidu (The People’s Right), the organ of the Czech Social Democratic party. He contributed to this newspaper from 1920, became a permanent correspondent in 1926, and stayed in Paris until 1938, when he moved to Great Britain. Active in the Czechoslovak resistance movement in France and Britain, he died in the latter country in 1943.