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Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Independent Bohemia + +Author: Vladimir Nosek + +Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9650] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 13, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDEPENDENT BOHEMIA *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Kline and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class=Section1> + +<p class=MsoNormal><img width=585 height=863 +src="webimages/image001.gif" alt="Professor Thomas G. Masaryk"> </p> + +<p class=MsoNormal> [Illustration: +Professor Thomas G. Masaryk]</p> + +<p class=Chapter>INDEPENDENT BOHEMIA</p> + +<p class=Section>AN ACCOUNT OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAK STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY</p> + +<p class=Section>By VLADIMIR NOSEK</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Secretary to the Czecho-Slovak Legation in LONDON</p> + +<p class=Section>1918</p> + +<p class=Chapter>PREFACE</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In the following pages I have attempted to outline the story +of our movement for independence. The manuscript of this book was completed +over four months ago. Since then many important changes have occurred in the +international situation. Chapters in which we dealt with the then still +existing Dual Monarchy must of course be read in the past tense, since Austria +exists no more. And again, many things which we anticipated and hoped for in +the future have already become accomplished facts. However, I trust that the +story itself has not only lost none of its value thereby, but has acquired an +additional interest from a historical point of view. Our aim of national +independence, only quite recently declared by our adversaries to be "an +empty dream of moonstruck idealists," has become to-day not only a practical +proposition, but an accomplished fact. We have our own army, which is by no +means the smallest Allied army, and we also have our own Provisional Government +in Paris, recognised not only by the Allies and by all Czecho-Slovaks abroad, +but even by Czech leaders in Bohemia, with whom we have since the beginning of +the war worked in complete harmony and understanding. The organisation of our +independent State is rapidly proceeding. Austria-Hungary, exhausted +economically and bankrupt politically, has fallen to pieces by the free-will of +her own subject peoples, who, in anticipation of their early victory, broke +their fetters and openly renounced their allegiance to the hated Habsburg and +Hohenzollern rule, even before Austria had actually surrendered to the Allies.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Events have moved rapidly in Austria, especially since the +momentous British declaration of August 9, 1918, recognising the +Czecho-Slovaks--those resident in the Allied countries as much as those in +Bohemia--as an Allied nation, and the Czecho-Slovak National Council--in Paris +as well as in Prague--as the Provisional Government of Bohemia. British +statesmen already then foresaw the coming collapse of Austria and acted +accordingly. It is also no more a secret to-day that because of the +promulgation of the British and United States declarations our Council was able +to conclude special conventions with all the Allied Governments during +September last, whereby all the powers exercised by a real government have been +granted to it.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In the meantime Germany had been losing more and more +control over her allies, being herself hard pressed on the Western front, and +the consequence of this was a growing boldness on the part of the Austrian +Slavs. On October 2 deputy Staněk declared in the name of the whole Czech +deputation that the National Council in Paris were their true spokesmen and +representatives with whom Austria would have to negotiate. Soon afterwards the +Austrian Poles went to Warsaw, where they formed a new all-Polish Government, +and the Southern Slavs entrusted the government of their territorities to their +National Council in Zagreb. Similar councils were formed also by the Ruthenes +and Rumanians. On October 14 the Czecho-Slovak National Council in Paris +constituted itself as a Government of which the Council in Prague acts as an +integral part. The latter took over the reins of government in Bohemia a +fortnight later. On October 19 the Czecho-Slovak Council issued a Declaration +of Independence which we publish in the Appendix, and from which it will be +seen that Bohemia will be progressive and democratic both in her domestic and +foreign policy. A glorious future is no doubt awaiting her. She will be specially +able to render an immense service to the League of Nations as a bulwark of +peace and conciliation among the various peoples of Central Europe.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The break-up of Austria will, of course, affect enormously +the constitution of the future Europe, and in our last chapter we have tried to +give an outline of these impending changes of conditions and international relations. +The break-up of Austria was bound to come sooner or later, whether some +misinformed critics or prejudiced pro-Austrian politicians liked it or not. We +ourselves were always convinced, and we declared openly, that Austria could not +survive this war, because she was at war with the majority of her own subjects, +who wished for nothing more than for her destruction. Unfortunately the fact +that the sympathies of the thirty million of Austrian Slavs and Latins were on +the side of the Entente, constituting such an incontestable moral asset for the +Allies as it does, has not always been fully appreciated by Allied public +opinion. We ourselves, however, never doubted for a moment that the Allied +cause would ultimately triumph and that we would achieve our independence, +because we knew that in struggling for this aim we were only carrying out the +unanimous will of our whole nation. Without waiting for any pledges, without +regard as to which side would be victorious, our nation has from the beginning +staked its all on the Allied victory and has contributed with all its powers to +hasten it. Despite all adverse circumstances, our people, at first completely +at the mercy of their enemies, ruthlessly persecuted and tortured by them, +nevertheless remained firm and resolute. Their attitude was most outspoken and +courageous at all times, and they have also rendered the Allies active +assistance, which is being duly appreciated by them. It is chiefly due to the +efforts of the subject peoples themselves, of whom the Czechs have certainly +been the most outspoken, that the collapse of Austria has occurred, which +finally sealed the fate of Kaiserism and of the Pan-German plans of +Mitteleuropa.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>To-day our hopes for a better future are at last being +fulfilled as a result of the Allies' complete victory, assuring the creation of +a new and just international order. Our much-afflicted yet undaunted people +already consider themselves as independent. The Peace Conference, at which the +Czecho-Slovak Government will be represented, will only confirm the existence +of an independent Czecho-Slovak State.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In conclusion, we should like to express our deep gratitude +to all our English friends for their valuable assistance in our struggle for +the realisation of our ideals. We especially wish to thank once more the +British Government for the generous step taken by them in recognising us as an +Allied and belligerent nation. It was chiefly because of this recognition and +of the gallant deeds of our army that we achieved all our subsequent diplomatic +and political successes. We may assure Great Britain that the Czecho-Slovaks +will never forget what they owe to her, and that they will endeavour to do +their best to merit the trust so generously placed in them.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>VLADIMIR NOSEK.</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText style='margin-top:12.0pt'>9, GROSVENOR PLACE, LONDON,</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText><i>November</i>, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal> </p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><img width=640 height=793 +src="webimages/image002.gif" +alt="The International Position Of The Czecho Slovak Republic In Future Europe"> </p> + +<p class=MsoNormal> [Illustration: The International Position Of The Czecho Slovak +Republic In Future Europe]</p> + +<p class=Chapter>CONTENTS</p> + +<p class=MsoList>I. <a href="#WhatIs">WHAT is AUSTRIA-HUNGARY?</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList>II. <a href="#PresentWar">AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE PRESENT WAR</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList>III. <a href="#PoliticalParties">CZECH POLITICAL PARTIES +BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList>IV. <a href="#Terrorism">TERRORISM IN BOHEMIA DURING THE WAR</a><a +name="_Hlt53332808"></a></p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(a)</i> <a href="#LeadersImprisoned">Czech Deputies and +Leaders imprisoned and sentenced to Death;</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(b)</i> <a href="#MonsterTrials">Monster Trials, Arbitrary +Executions, Internment of Civilians, etc.;</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(c)</i> <a href="#PressPersecution">Persecution of the +Press;</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(d)</i> <a href="#Interpellations">Reichsrat +Interpellations</a>.</p> + +<p class=MsoList>V. <a href="#AssistedAllies">HOW THE CZECHO SLOVAKS AT HOME +ASSISTED THE ALLIES</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList>VI. <a href="#ActionsAbroad">THE MILITARY AND POLITICAL ACTION +OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS ABROAD</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList>VII. <a href="#SpeakAtHome">THE CZECHS AT HOME BEGIN TO SPEAK</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(a)</i> <a href="#MayDeclaration">Czech Declaration of May +30, 1917</a>;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(b)</i> <a href="#ReichsratSpeeches">Courageous Speeches +delivered by Czech Deputies in the Reichsrat</a>;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(c)</i> <a href="#AfterAmnesty">After the Amnesty</a>;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(d)</i> <a href="#PeaceWithRussia">During Peace +Negotiations with Russia</a>;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(e)</i> <a href="#ConstituentAssembly">The Constituent +Assembly of Prague on January 6, 1918</a>;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(f)</i> <a href="#OathoftheNation">The Oath of the Czecho +Slovak Nation</a>;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(g)</i> <a href="#SlovakAttitude">The Slovaks' Attitude</a>;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(h)</i> <a href="#NationalCouncil">The Czecho-Slovak +National Council in Prague</a>.</p> + +<p class=MsoList>VIII. <a href="#Cooperation">CZECHO-SLOVAK CO-OPERATION WITH +OTHER NON-GERMAN NATIONS OF CENTRAL EUROPE</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(a)</i> <a href="#CongressOfRome">The Congress of Rome</a>;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(b)</i> <a href="#MayManifestations">The May +Manifestations in Prague</a>.</p> + +<p class=MsoList>IX. <a href="#Bulwark">BOHEMIA AS A BULWARK AGAINST +PAN-GERMANISM</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList><a href="#Appendix">APPENDIX OF SOME RECENT DOCUMENTS</a></p> + +<p class=MsoList><a href="#Bibliography">BIBLIOGRAPHY</a></p> + +<p class=Chapter><a name=WhatIs>I</a></p> + +<p class=ChapterDescription>WHAT IS AUSTRIA-HUNGARY?</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>1. The Habsburg Empire is built upon centuries-old +traditions of reaction and violence. Its present power is chiefly based on the +alliance which Bohemia and Hungary concluded with Austria against the Turkish +peril in 1526. The Czechs freely elected the Habsburgs to the throne of Bohemia +which remained a fully independent state, its alliance with Austria and Hungary +being purely dynastic. But soon the Habsburgs began to violate the liberties of + Bohemia which they were bound by oath to observe, and this led finally to the +fateful Czech revolution of 1618. At the battle of the White Mountain in 1620 +the Czechs suffered a defeat and were cruelly punished for their rebellion. All +their nobility were either executed or sent into exile, and their property +confiscated. The country was devastated by the imperial hordes, and its +population was reduced from 3,000,000 to 800,000 during the Thirty Years' War.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In 1627 Ferdinand II. greatly curtailed the administrative +rights of Bohemia, yet he did not dare to deprive her entirely of her +independence. In his "Renewed Ordinance of the Land" Ferdinand +declared the Bohemian crown to be hereditary in the House of Habsburg, and +reserved legislative power to the sovereign. But otherwise the historical +rights of Bohemia remained valid, notwithstanding all subsequent arbitrary +centralising measures taken by the Habsburgs. Bohemia's rights were repeatedly +recognised by each succeeding Habsburg. Legally Bohemia is an independent state +to-day.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The heavy persecutions inflicted upon Bohemia had a +disastrous effect upon her intellectual life and national development which +were completely paralysed until the end of the eighteenth century, when owing to +the humanitarian ideals of those times, and as a reaction against the +Germanising centralistic efforts of Joseph II., the Czechs again began to +recover their national consciousness. This revival marked the beginning of the +Czecho-Slovak struggle for the re-establishment of their independence. The +movement was at first literary, and only in the forties became political. It +was a continuous struggle against reaction and absolutism, and if the Czecho-Slovaks +to-day can boast of an advanced civilisation, it is only owing to their +perseverance and hard endeavours, and not because of any good-will on the part +of the Austrian Government which put every possible obstacle in their way.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>2. <i>The present </i><i>Austria-Hungary</i> is primarily a +dynastic estate, for the crown was always its supreme political driving force, +although at present the Habsburgs are mere slaves of their masters, the +Hohenzollerns. It is this characteristic which justifies us in concluding that Austria +is an autocratic state <i>par excellence</i>. If there were no other reason, +this should be sufficient to make every true democrat an enemy of Austria. +Furthermore, it is this characteristic which makes us comprehend why the +Habsburg monarchy is fighting side by side with German autocracy and +imperialism against the allied democracies of the world.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Notwithstanding the so-called constitution which is a mere +cloak for absolutism, the monarch in Austria is emperor by "Divine +Right" alone, and is the absolute master of his subject peoples in virtue +of his privileged position which confers on him an inexhaustible amount of +power and influence. The internal as well as the foreign policy of the monarchy +is directed in the real or supposed interests of the dynasty. The principle <i>divide +et impera</i> is its leading idea in internal politics, and the increase of +dynastic power in foreign policy. The question of war and peace is decided by +the emperor, to whom it also appertains to order matters concerning the +management, leadership and organisation of the whole army. And though in Hungary +the power of the monarch largely depends on the Budapest Parliament, yet even +here the constitutional power of the dynasty is enormous, the King of Hungary +being a governing and legislative factor by no means inferior to that of the +parliament.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Even when attempts were made at enfranchising the masses (as +in 1896 and finally in 1905), the motive again was purely dynastic. Such +constitutional measures as were taken, only strengthened racial dissensions and +were equally insincere and inefficient. The present constitution of 1867, as +well as the previous constitutions of 1849, 1860 and 1861, was granted by the +crown, to whom it was reserved to reverse or modify the same. The parliament is +absolutely powerless in Austria. It is a mere cloak for absolutism, since the +famous Paragraph 14 provides for absolutist government by means of imperial +decrees without parliament in case of emergency. The dynasty took ample +advantage of this clause during the first three years of this war when +absolutism and terrorism reigned supreme in the Dual Monarchy. While since 1861 +up to the beginning of the war 156 imperial decrees had been issued, fully 161 +have been passed during the first three years of the present war.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The arbitrary power of the dynasty is based: upon the organisation +of the army, the leadership of which is entrusted to the Germans; upon the +feudal aristocracy who are the only real Austrians, since they have no +nationality, though they invariably side with the dominant Germans and Magyars; +upon the power of the police who form the chief instrument of the autocratic +government and who spy upon and terrorise the population; upon the German +bureaucrats who do not consider themselves the servants of the public, but look +upon the public as their servant, and whose spirit of meanness and corruption +is so characteristic of the Austrian body politic; finally, the dynasty relies +upon the Catholic hierarchy who hold vast landed property in Austria and regard +it as the bulwark of Catholicism, and who through Clericalism strive for +political power rather than for the religious welfare of their denomination. In +alliance with them are the powerful Jewish financiers who also control the +press in Vienna and Budapest. Clearly Austria is the very negation of +democracy. It stands for reaction, autocracy, falsehood and hypocrisy, and it +is therefore no exaggeration to say that nobody professing democratic views can +reasonably plead for the preservation of this system of political violence.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>When we remember the enormous power of the dynasty and the +political system which supports it, we understand why in the past Austria has +always played the part of the most reactionary, autocratic and tyrannic state +in Europe. Hopes have indeed been expressed by some Austrophils in the +good-will of the new Austrian Emperor on account of his amiable character. The +Slavs have ample reason to distrust the Habsburgs who have proved to be +treacherous autocrats in the past, and whose records show them as an incapable +and degenerate family. As a political power Kaiser Karl is the same menace to +his subject Slavs as his predecessors. Above all, however, he is of necessity a +blind tool in the hands of Germany, and he cannot possibly extricate himself +from her firm grip. The Habsburgs have had their chance, but they missed it. By +systematic and continuous misgovernment they created a gulf between the Slavs +and themselves which nothing on earth can remove. Every Habsburg believes he +has a "mission" to fulfil. The only mission left for Kaiser Karl is to +abdicate and dissolve his empire into its component parts. There is no reason +whatever why Austria should be saved for the sake of the degenerate and +autocratic Habsburg dynasty.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>3. Let us now examine the much misunderstood racial problems +of the Dual Monarchy. There is no Austrian nation, since there is no Austrian +language. Austria is a mere geographical expression. In fact the Slavs, +constituting the majority of Austrian subjects, would think it an insult to be +called Austrians. During the war they have been treated as subjects of an enemy +state, and to-day they have no part or lot with Austria. The Czech statesman +Rieger once declared that when the Slavs no longer desired the existence of Austria, +no one would be able to save her. And indeed, the claims raised by the majority +of Austria's population to-day mean the death warrant of the Dual Monarchy.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>To get a clear idea of the racial issue, we will quote the +official Austrian statistics, which tell us that in Austria-Hungary there are:</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText style='margin-top:12.0pt'> AUSTRIA. HUNGARY. + BOSNIA. TOTAL.</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> </p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>SLAVS: Million. Million. Million. Million. +Million.</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>Czecho-Slovaks 6.4 2 -- 8.4</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>Yugoslavs 2 3 1.8 6.8</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>Poles 5 -- -- 5</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>Ruthenes 3.5 0.5 -- 4</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> +-- 24.2</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>LATINS:</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>Italians 0.8 -- -- 0.8</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>Rumanians 0.3 2.9 -- 3.2</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> -- +4</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>GERMANS 10 2 +-- 12</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>MAGYARS -- 10 +-- 10</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>OTHERS 0.6 0.4 +-- 1</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> 28.6 20.8 +1.8 51.2</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Thus it appears that the Slavs alone (without Italians and +Rumanians) form about 48 per cent. of the total population. The Germans form +only 24 per cent. of the population of Austria-Hungary, while in Hungary proper +the dominant Magyars do not form quite 50 per cent. of the population. The +predominance of the German and Magyar minorities is apparent not only from the +fact that they hold the reins of government, but also from their unfair +proportional representation in both parliaments. Thus instead of 310 seats out +of 516 in the Reichsrat the Slavs hold only 259, while the Germans hold 232 +instead of 160. By gaining 83 Polish votes in return for temporary concessions, +the Germans have thus always been in the majority in the Reichsrat in the past. +In Hungary the proportion is still more unjust. The Magyars hold 405 seats +instead of 210 in the parliament of Budapest out of the total number of 413, +while the non-Magyars, entitled according to their numbers to 203 seats, have +in reality only five representatives in the "democratic" parliament +of Budapest.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>All the above calculations are based upon official +statistics which are grossly exaggerated in favour of the Germans and Magyars. +The picture would be still more appalling if we took into consideration the +actual number of the Slavs. The Austrian census is not based upon the +declaration of nationality or of the native language, but upon the statement of +the "language of communication" ("Umgangsprache"). In mixed +districts economic pressure is brought against the Slavs, who are often workmen +dependent upon German masters and bound to declare their nationality as German +for fear they should lose their employment. From private statistics it has been +found that the percentage of Germans in Bohemia can hardly exceed 20 per cent, +as against 37 per cent, given by the official census. Still greater pressure is +brought to bear against the Slavs by the Magyars in Hungary, who are famous for +the brutal methods in which they indulge for the purpose of shameless +falsification of their official statistics. Thus the actual strength of the +rival races of Austria-Hungary may with every justification be estimated as +follows:</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText style='margin-top:12.0pt'>SLAVS:</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> Czecho-Slovaks 10 million \</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> Yugoslavs 7-1/2 +" |</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> +> 27 million</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> Poles 5 +" |</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> Ruthenes 4-1/2 +" /</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>LATINS:</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> Italians 1 million \</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> > +5 "</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> Rumanians 4 +" /</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>GERMANS 10 +" \</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> > +18 "</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>MAGYARS 8 +" /</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>OTHERS +1 "</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> +__________________________</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> 51 +million</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>4. The rule of the German-Magyar minority over the Slav and +Latin majority, finally established by the introduction of dualism in 1867, was +made possible only by the demoralising system of violence described above. One +race was pitted against the other in Austria and this enabled the Germans to +rule them better, while the Magyars in Hungary, by keeping their subject races +in the darkness of ignorance and by using the most abominable methods of +violence, succeeded in securing for themselves the entire monopoly of +government. The Magyars, who are a race of Asiatic origin, are truly the +faithful descendants of the ancient Huns, and true allies of the Huns of +to-day.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>When Kossuth came to England in 1848, he was hailed as the +champion of freedom and liberty, and entranced his audiences in London and +other English cities by his remarkable oratory. As a matter of fact Kossuth, +though called "the father of the Magyars," was himself a +denationalised Slovak; instead of a "champion of liberty," he might +with much greater justification have been called the champion of the greatest +racial tyranny in Europe. For even then, while fighting for their own liberty +and for the independence of Hungary, the Magyars denied the most elementary +political and national rights to the other peoples living in Hungary.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In 1910 there were 2,202,165 Slovaks in Hungary according to +the official census. These two million Slovaks had only two deputies (Dr. Blaho +and Juriga), while the 8,651,520 Magyars had 405 seats, so that every Slovak +deputy represented one million electors, every Magyar deputy, however, 21,000. +As regards administration, all civil service officials in Hungary have to be of +Magyar nationality. The cases of persecution for political offences are innumerable: +Slovak candidates were prevented from being elected by being imprisoned. +Corruption and violence are the two main characteristics of all elections in +"democratic" Hungary. Even to-day when some Radicals in Budapest talk +of electoral reform, they want suffrage to be extended to Magyar electors only, +and also stipulate that the candidates shall be of Magyar nationality. No +Magyar politicians will ever abandon the programme of the territorial integrity +of Hungary, their aims being expressed in the words of Koloman Tisza: "For +the sake of the future of the Magyar State it is necessary for Hungary to +become a state where only Magyar is spoken. To gain the Slovaks or to come to a +compromise with them is out of the question. There is only one means which is +effective--Extirpation!" And this aim the Magyars have faithfully kept +before them for at least the last hundred years.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In the same way also the economic development of the +non-Magyar nationalities has been systematically hampered, because the Magyars +know that economic dependence means also political subservience. The Slovaks +and Rumanians are not allowed to found co-operative societies or banks on the +ground that such institutions "are opposed to the interests of the +elements which hold the Magyar State together."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>But it is not only the non-Magyars who suffer. The Magyar +working classes and the majority of the Magyar country people themselves are +deprived of political rights, for Hungary is ruled by an oligarchy and scarcely +5 per cent. of the population has the suffrage right.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>We may say, therefore, without exaggeration that to-day Hungary +is the most reactionary country of Europe. Nowhere else (not even in Prussia) +have the people so little power as in Hungary, where the Socialists have not a +single seat in parliament. The "politics" in Hungary are the +privilege of a few aristocrats. Hungary is a typical oligarchic and theocratic +state.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>When the Magyars plead to-day for "peace without +annexations" and for the integrity of Hungary, they want to be allowed to +continue to oppress and systematically magyarise the Slavs and Rumanians of +Hungary. The triumphant allied democracies will not, however, stoop before +autocratic Hungary. The dismemberment of Hungary, according to the principle of +nationality, is a <i>sine qua non</i> of a permanent and just peace in Europe.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>5. The four strongest races in Austria-Hungary, then, are +the Germans, Magyars, Czecho-Slovaks and Yugoslavs, numbering from eight to ten +million each. The Austrian Germans and the Magyars occupy the centre, while the +Czecho-Slovaks inhabit the north (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia), and +the Yugoslavs ten provinces in the southern part of the monarchy. In order to +facilitate German penetration and domination and to destroy the last remnants +of Bohemia's autonomous constitution, the Austrian Government attempted, by the +imperial decree of May 19, 1918, to dismember Bohemia into twelve +administrative districts with German officials at the head, who were to possess +the same power to rule their respective districts as had hitherto appertained +only to the Governor (Statthalter) of Bohemia, legally responsible to the +Bohemian Diet.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>But not only are the Czecho-Slovaks and Yugoslavs divided +between both halves of the monarchy and among numerous administrative districts +which facilitate German penetration. Dissensions were fomented among the +different parties of these two nations and religious differences exploited. The +Yugoslavs, for instance, consist of three peoples: the Serbs and Croats, who +speak the same language and differ only in religion and orthography, the former +being Orthodox and the latter Catholic; and the Slovenes, who speak a dialect +of Serbo-Croatian and form the most western outpost of the Yugoslav (or +Southern Slav) compact territory. It was the object of the Austrian Government +to exploit these petty differences among Yugoslavs so as to prevent them from +realising that they form one and the same nation entitled to independence. At +the same time Austria has done all in her power to create misunderstandings +between the Slavs and Italians, just as she tried to create dissensions between +Poles and Ruthenes in Galicia, and between Poles and Czechs in Silesia, well +knowing that the dominant races, the Germans and Magyars, would profit thereby. +Fortunately the war has opened the eyes of the subject peoples, and, as we +shall show later on, to-day they all go hand in hand together against their +common enemies in Berlin, Vienna and Budapest.</p> + +<p class=Chapter><a name=PresentWar>II</a></p> + +<p class=ChapterDescription>AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE PRESENT WAR</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In order to understand fully what is at stake in this war +and why the Slavs are so bitterly opposed to the further existence of Austria-Hungary, +it is necessary to study the foreign policy of the Central Powers during the +past century. The "deepened alliance" concluded between Germany and Austria-Hungary +in May, 1918, resulting in the complete surrender of Austria's independence, is +in fact the natural outcome of a long development and the realisation of the +hopes of Mitteleuropa cherished by the Germans for years past. The scares about +the dangers of "Pan-slavism" were spread by the Germans only in order +to conceal the real danger of Pan-Germanism.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>1. The original theory of Pan-Germanism was the +consolidation and unity of the whole German nation corresponding to the +movement of the Italians for national unity. In fact it was a German, Herder, +who first proclaimed the principle of nationality and declared the nation to be +the natural organ of humanity, as opposed to the idea of the state as an +artificial organisation: "Nothing seems to be so opposed to the purpose of +government as an unnatural extension of territory of a state and a wild +confusion of holding different races and nations under the sway of a single +sceptre." It was this humanitarian philosophy recognising the natural rights +of all nations, great or small, to freedom which inspired the first Czech +regenerators such as Dobrovský, Jungman and Kollár.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The legitimate claims of the Germans to national unity +became unjust and dangerous for Europe when the Germans began to think of +subduing the whole of Central Europe to their hegemony, which meant the +subjugation of some 100 million Slavs and Latins. At first it was Austria +which, as the head of the former Holy Roman Empire, and the traditional bulwark +of Germany in the east (Osterreich--an eastern march), aspired to be the head +of the Pan-German Empire. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Austrian +Emperor became the head of the German Confederation. Prussia at that time +entirely gave way and left the leadership to Metternich's system of absolutism.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>By and by, it became obvious that Austria was, on account of +her non-German population, internally weak, condemned to constant employment of +violence and reaction, and therefore unfit to stand at the head of a strong +modern Pan-Germany. Prussia therefore, as the greatest of the homogeneous +German states, became Austria's rival and was accepted by the Frankfurt +Assembly as the leader of the Confederation. The rivalry between Austria and Prussia +ended in 1866, when after Austria's defeat the clever diplomacy of Bismarck +turned the rivalry between Austria and Prussia into friendship. Since the +Germans in Austria began to feel their impotence in the face of the growing +Slav power, a year later the centralising efforts of the Habsburgs were finally +embodied in the system of dualism which gave over the Slavs and Italians in Austria +to German hegemony and the Slavs and Rumanians in Hungary to Magyar tyranny. +For the support of this hegemony the Austrian Germans and Magyars, whose +ambitions are identical with those of Germany, were entirely dependent on Berlin. +Thus Austria-Hungary became inevitably Germany's partner and vanguard in the +south-east. Finally, the present war was started by the Germans and Magyars +with the object of achieving the ambitious plans preached and expounded by +Pan-German writers for years past. The Germans wanted at all costs to become +the masters of Central Europe, to build an empire from Berlin to Bagdad, and +finally to strike for world domination.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>2. In this turn of events Magyar influence played a greater +part than might be thought. Already in 1848 Kossuth defined the Hungarian +foreign policy as follows:--</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Magyar nation is bound to maintain the most +cordial relations with the free German nation and help it in safeguarding +Western civilisation."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>And while the Hungarian Slavs were prohibited from attending +the Pan-Slav Congress held in Prague in 1848, the Magyars sent two delegates to + Frankfurt in order to give practical expression to the above Magyar policy.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The value of Hungary for the Pan-German plans has been +expressed by Friedrich List who, in 1862, dreamt of "a powerful oriental +German-Magyar Empire," and declared:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The way towards the realisation of this plan runs +through Hungary, and while without Hungary we can do nothing, with her aid we +can do everything. Hungary is for Germany the clue to Turkey and the Near East, +and at the same time a bulwark against a superior power from the north."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Magyars realised from the beginning the importance of an +understanding between themselves and Prussia, and they directed their foreign +policy accordingly. The setting up of dualism in 1867, which finally +established the German-Magyar hegemony in Austria-Hungary in the interests of Prussia, +was the work of two Magyars--Julius Andrassy and Francis Deak, who took +advantage of Austria's defeat at Sadova to further their interests. In 1870, +when Vienna contemplated revenge against Prussia, the Magyars again intervened +in favour of Prussia. When questioned as to Hungary's attitude, Andrassy, then +Premier, declared in the Hungarian Parliament that under no circumstances would +he allow any action against Prussia, and exerted all his influence in Vienna to +that effect. It was also due mainly to Magyar influence that all attempts of +the Czechs to weaken German influence in Austria were frustrated. Francis +Joseph always promised to be crowned King of Bohemia when he wished to placate +the Czechs in times of stress for Austria: in 1861, 1865, 1870 and 1871. But he +never carried out his promises. In this he was guided not only by +considerations of dynastic interest, but also by the advice of the Magyars.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>But the most decisive and fateful exercise of Magyar +influence upon Austria's foreign policy occurred in 1879, when the +Austro-German Alliance was finally concluded. This was equally the work of +Bismarck, who spared the defeated Austria in order to make an ally of her, and +of a Magyar--Count Andrassy--who from 1871 to 1879 was the Austro-Hungarian +Foreign Minister. It was this Magyar help which made Bismarck utter words of +gratitude and declare in 1883:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Our political judgment leads us to the conviction +that German and Magyar interests are inseparable."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>It is true that there always was a Magyar opposition against + Austria (though never against Prussia). But this opposition was used as a +weapon to extort concessions from Austria. At the bottom of their hearts, +however, the Austrian Germans were always at one with the Magyars in their +common desire to oppress the Slavs. And the responsibility of Count Tisza for +the present world catastrophe is just as great as that of the Kaiser himself.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>3. The Czechs saw clearly the progress of events. Bismarck +was well aware of the importance of Bohemia, for he declared that the master of + Bohemia would become the master of Europe. He did not desire to annex any +Austrian territory, since he knew that sooner or later Germany would swallow +the whole of Austria, as she has done in this war. Indeed, at the Congress of +Berlin in 1878, Bismarck did not conceal his intention of using Austria-Hungary +in Germany's interests. At the bottom of his heart he was at one with the +radical Pan-German writers, like Lagarde, Treitschke, Mommsen, Naumann and +others, who openly declared that the Slavs should be subjugated and the Czechs, +as the most courageous and therefore the most dangerous of them, crushed.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Slavs always bitterly opposed the encroachments of +Germanism, and saw in it their chief enemy. The Czech leader Palacký rejected +the invitation to Frankfurt in 1848 and summoned a Slav Congress to Prague. It +is true that Palacký at that time dreamt of an Austria just to all her nations. +He advocated a strong Austria as a federation of nations to counterbalance +Pan-Germanism. Yet at the same time Palacký has proved through his history and +work that Bohemia has full right to independence. He was well aware that a +federalistic and just Austria would have to grant independence to the Czecho-Slovaks. +But later on he gave up his illusions about the possibility of a just Austria, +when he saw that she abandoned the Slavs entirely to German-Magyar hegemony, +and declared that Bohemia existed before Austria and would also exist after +her. In 1866 he wrote:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"I myself now give up all hope of a long preservation +of the Austrian Empire; not because it is not desirable or has no mission to +fulfil, but because it allowed the Germans and Magyars to grasp the reins of +government and to found in it their racial tyranny."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Exasperated by the pact of dualism which the Czechs never +recognised, Palacký went to Moscow and on his return declared:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"I have already said that I do not cherish any hopes +of the preservation of Austria, especially since the Germans and Magyars made +it the home of their racial despotism; the question therefore as to what will +happen to the Slavs hitherto living in Austria is not without significance. +Without attempting to prophesy future events which for a mortal man it is +difficult to foreshadow, I may say from my inner conviction that the Czechs as +a nation, if they fell under the subjection of either Russia or Prussia, would +never rest contented. It would never fade from their memory that according to +right or justice they should be ruled by themselves, that is by their own +government and by their own sovereign. They would regard the Prussians as their +deadly enemies on account of their germanising rage. But as to the Russians, +the Czechs would regard them as their racial brothers and friends; they would +not become their faithful subjects, but their true allies and, if need be, vanguards +in Europe."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Moreover, modern Czech politicians always clearly saw what +the Germans were aiming at. Dr. Kramář, for instance, foresaw the present +situation with remarkable perspicacity. In the <i>Revue de Paris</i> for +February, 1899, he wrote on "The Future of Austria," declaring that +her subject nationalities should be on guard lest she should become a vassal of + Germany and a bridge for German expansion into Asia:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Austrian Germans wish to see Austria subordinated +to German policy, and with the help of a subordinated Austria, the sphere of +German political and economic activity would extend from Hamburg to Asia Minor."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Similarly also he warned Great Britain in the <i>National +Review</i> for October, 1902, that if Pan-German plans were realised,</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Austria would become an appanage of Germany as +regards international relations, and the policy of Europe would be obliged to +reckon, not with a free and independent Austria, but, owing to Austria's +unconditional self-surrender, with a mighty, almost invincible Germany.... The +Pan-Germans are right, the Czechs are an arrow in the side of Germany, and such +they wish to and must and will remain. Their firm and unchangeable hope is that +they will succeed in making of themselves an impenetrable breakwater. They hope +for no foreign help; they neither wish for it nor ask for it. They have only +one desire, namely, that non-German Europe may also at last show that it +understands the meaning of the Bohemian question."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In 1906 Dr. Kramář wrote again in detail on the plans +of German domination in Central Europe, in the Adriatic and in the Near East. +In a book on Czech policy he declared that to prevent the realisation of these +plans was the vital interest of the Czech nation: "A far-seeing Austrian +policy should see in the Czech nation the safeguard of the independence of the +State." And then followed the famous passage which formed part of the +"evidence" quoted against him during his trial for high treason:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"If Austria-Hungary continues her internal policy by +centralising in order to be better able to germanise and preserve the German +character of the State, if she does not resist all efforts for the creation of +a customs and economic union with Germany, the Pan-German movement will prove +fatal for her. To preserve and maintain a state the sole ambition of which was +to be a second German State after Germany, would be superfluous not only for +the European Powers, but also for the non-German nations of Europe. <i>And if, +therefore, a conflict should break out between the German and the non-German +world and the definite fate of Austria should be at stake, the conflict would +surely not end with the preservation of Austria</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>And on November 10, 1911, he admitted that his former hopes +for the destruction of the Austro-German Alliance and a rapprochement between Austria +and Russia proved to be in vain:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"... <i>I had an aim in life and a leading idea. The +events of the annexation crisis have proved calamitous for the policy which I +followed all my life</i>. I wished to do everything which lay within the +compass of my small powers, to render my own nation happy and great in a free, +powerful and generally respected Austria ... <i>I have always resented the fact +that when they talked about Austria people really meant only the Germans and +Magyars, as if the great majority of Slavs upon whom rest the biggest burdens +did not exist</i>. But now--and no beautiful words can make me change my +opinion on that point--an entirely independent policy has become unthinkable, +because the only path which remains open to Vienna leads by way of Berlin. Berlin +will henceforward direct our policy."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>4. To offer any proofs that the present war was deliberately +planned and provoked by the Governments of Berlin, Vienna and Budapest seems to +me superfluous. Who can to-day have any doubt that Austria wilfully provoked +the war in a mad desire to crush Serbia? Who can doubt that Austria for a long +time entertained imperialist ambitions with respect to the Balkans which were +supported by Berlin which wished to use Austria as a "bridge to the +East"?</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>No more damning document for Austria can be imagined than +Prince Lichnowsky's Memorandum. He denounces Austria's hypocritical support of +the independence of Albania. In this respect he holds similar views to those +expressed in the Austrian delegations of 1913 by Professor Masaryk, who rightly +denounced the Austrian plan of setting up an independent Albania on the plea of +"the right of nationalities" which Austria denied her own Slavs. +Professor Masaryk rightly pointed out at that time that an outlet to the sea is +a vital necessity for Serbia, that the Albanians were divided into so many +racial, linguistic and religious groups and so uncivilised that they could not +form an independent nation, and that the whole project was part and parcel of +Austria's anti-Serbian policy and her plans for the conquest of the Balkans. +Prince Lichnowsky admits that an independent Albania "had no prospect of +surviving," and that it was merely an Austrian plan for preventing Serbia +from obtaining an access to the sea.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>He apparently disagrees with the idea of "the power of +a Ruling House, the dynastic idea," but stands up for "a National State, +the democratic idea." That in itself seems to indicate that he is in +favour of the destruction of Austria and its substitution by new states, built +according to the principle of nationality. He admittedly disagrees with the +views of Vienna and Budapest, and criticises Germany's alliance with Austria, +probably knowing, as a far-sighted and well-informed politician, that Austria-Hungary +cannot possibly survive this war.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Prince Lichnowsky frankly admits that the murder of the +Archduke Francis Ferdinand was a mere pretext for Vienna, which in fact had +resolved on an expedition against Serbia soon after the second Balkan war by +which she felt herself humiliated. In scathing terms he denounces the Triple +Alliance policy and thinks it a great mistake that Germany allied herself with +the "Turkish and Magyar oppressors." And though he says that it was Germany +which "persisted that Serbia must be massacred," he makes it quite +clear that it was Vienna that led the conspiracy against Europe, since on all +questions Germany "took up the position prescribed to her by Vienna." +The policy of espousing Austria's quarrels, the development of the +Austro-German Alliance into a pooling of interests in all spheres, was +"the best way of producing war." The Balkan policy of conquest and +strangulation "was not the German policy, but that of the Austrian +Imperial House." What better testimony is required to prove that Austria +was not the blind tool, but the willing and wilful accomplice of Germany?</p> + +<p class=Chapter><a name=PoliticalParties>III</a></p> + +<p class=ChapterDescription>CZECH POLITICAL PARTIES BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czech policy during the past seventy years has always +had but one ultimate aim in view: the re-establishment of the ancient kingdom + of Bohemia and the full independence of the Czecho-Slovak nation. From the +very beginning of their political activity Czech politicians resisted the +Pan-German scheme of Central Europe. They preached the necessity of the +realisation of liberty and equality for all nations, and of a federation of the +non-Germans of Central Europe as a barrier against German expansion.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The chief reason for the failure of their efforts was the +fact that they sometimes had illusions that the Habsburgs might favour the plan +of such an anti-German federation, although the Habsburgs always mainly relied +on the Germans and Magyars and could not and would not satisfy the Czech +aspirations. The Czechs were greatly handicapped in their political struggle, +because they had only just begun to live as a nation and had to face the +powerful German-Magyar predominance, with the dynasty and the whole state +machinery behind them. Moreover, the Czechs had no national aristocracy like +the Poles or Magyars, and their leaders lacked all political experience and all +sense of reality in politics which was so marked in a state built on deceit and +hypocrisy. They continually defended themselves with declarations about the +justice of their claims, satisfied themselves with empty promises which Austria +has never kept, and cherished vain illusions of obtaining justice in Austria, +while Austria was <i>via facti</i> steadily depriving them of all their rights. +On the other hand, it should be remembered that they were faced with a +government that had the whole powerful German Empire behind it, and that they +had to struggle for freedom in a state where genuine constitutional government +and democracy were unknown. The Czech efforts to obtain some measure of freedom +by struggling for democratic reforms were consistently opposed by the dominant +Germans. To-day, of course, the situation has greatly improved as compared with +the situation seventy years ago. The Czecho-Slovak nation, through its own work +and energy, is a highly advanced and economically self-supporting and rich nation, +and in its struggle for a just resettlement of Central Europe it has the +support not only of all the other non-German nations of Central Europe, but +also of the Entente on whose victory it has staked its all. The Czecho-Slovaks +are resolved not to let themselves be fooled by Austria any longer and claim +full independence from Berlin, Vienna and Budapest, which alone will safeguard +them against the possibility of being again exploited militarily, economically +and politically against their own interests for a cause which they detest.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>1. Although as early as 1812 the Bohemian Diet (then a close +aristocratic body) demanded the restitution of the rights of the kingdom of +Bohemia, the political activity of the Czechs did not really begin until 1848 +when, on April 8, the emperor issued the famous Bohemian Charter recognising +the rights of Bohemia to independence. It was that year which marked the end of +Metternich's absolutism and in which revolution broke out in Western and Central + Europe, including Hungary and Bohemia. Already at that time the Czechs counted +on the break-up of Austria. Havlíček, who in 1846 began to publish the +first national Czech newspaper, wrote on May 7, 1848, when inviting the Poles +to attend the Pan-Slav Congress in Prague:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"An understanding between us--the Czecho-Slovaks and +the Poles--would be to the mutual advantage of both nations, especially under +the present circumstances when everything, even the break-up of Austria, may be +anticipated. I am sure that if the government continues to pursue its present +policy, Austria will fall to pieces before next winter and the Czechs are not +going to save her. The Czecho-Slovaks, Poles and Yugoslavs, united politically +and supporting each other, will surely sooner or later attain their object, which +is to obtain full independence, national unity and political liberty."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>It is characteristic of Austria that during the present war +she has prohibited the circulation of this article written seventy years ago.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Similarly, also, Palacký in his letter to Frankfurt, +explaining why the Czechs would not attend the Pan-German Parliament, made it +clear that he had no illusions about the good-will of Austria to adopt a just +policy towards her nationalities:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In critical times we always saw this state, destined +to be the bulwark against Asiatic invasions, helpless and hesitating. In an +unfortunate blindness this state has never understood its true interests, +always suppressing its moral duty to accord to all races justice and equality +of rights."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>At the Pan-Slav Congress presided over by Palacký, Bakunin, +the Russian revolutionary, openly advocated the dismemberment of Austria in the +interests of justice and democracy, and proposed a free Slav federation in Central + Europe.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Pan-Slav Congress, in which also the Poles and Yugoslavs +participated, issued a manifesto to Europe on June 12, 1848, proclaiming the "liberty, equality and fraternity of nations." It ended prematurely by +the outbreak of an abortive revolt in Prague, provoked by the military, which +resulted in bloodshed and in the re-establishment of reaction and absolutism.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>2. In the first Austrian Parliament of 1848, eighty-eight +Czech deputies formed a united <i>Nationalist Party</i> (later on called the <i>Old +Czech Party</i>), led by Palacký, Rieger and Brauner. They formed the Right +wing which stood for democratic and federalist ideals. The Left was formed by +the Germans who stood for centralism and a close union with Germany. Only an +insignificant number of Germans formed the Centre which stood for the +preservation of Austria.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In October, 1848, fresh troubles broke out in Vienna, partly +directed against the presence of the Czechs. On November 15, the parliament was +summoned to Kremsier, in which the Czechs, Ruthenes, Yugoslavs and some Poles +formed a Slav <i>bloc</i> of 120 members. On December 2, Francis Joseph +ascended the throne, and a constitution was proposed by a parliamentary +committee of which Rieger was a member. The proposal was opposed by the +government, because it defined "the people's sovereignty as the foundation +of the power of the State," and not the dynasty. On March 6, 1849, the parliament was dissolved and a constitution imposed by an imperial decree.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The <i>Czech Radical Democrats</i>, led by Frič, Sabina +and Sladkovský, who already in 1848 stood for a more radical policy than that +of the Liberal Nationalists led by Palacký, now again thought of organising an +armed revolt against Austria. But the leaders of the conspiracy were arrested +and sentenced to many years' imprisonment. After the Austrian victories in Italy +and the collapse of the Hungarian revolution, absolutism again reigned supreme.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>During the ten years that followed, Bach tried, relying upon +the army and the hierarchy, to centralise and germanise the empire. In January, +1850, Havlíček's <i>Národní Noviny</i> was suppressed and later, also, +three of the other remaining Czech journals. Palacký openly declared that he +abandoned political activity and Rieger went abroad. Havlíček continued to +work for the national cause under great difficulties, until he was arrested in +December, 1851, and interned without a trial in Tyrol where he contracted an +incurable illness to which he succumbed in 1856. Even as late as 1859 the +Czechs were not allowed to publish a political newspaper.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>3. After the defeats at Magenta and Solferino in 1859, Austria +began to see the impossibility of a continued rule of terrorism and absolutism. +Bach was obliged to resign, and on March 5, 1860, a state council was summoned +to Vienna. Bohemia was represented only by the nobility who had no sympathy +with the Czech national cause, and on September 24 the Rumanian delegate, +Mosconyi, openly deplored the fact that "the brotherly Czech nation was +not represented."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The era of absolutism was theoretically ended by the +so-called "October Diploma" of 1860, conferring on Austria a +constitution which in many respects granted self-government to Hungary, but +ignored Bohemia, although formally admitting her historical rights. This +"lasting and irrevocable Constitution of the Empire" was revoked on February 26, 1861, when Schmerling succeeded Goluchowski, and the so-called "February +Constitution" was introduced by an arbitrary decree which in essence was +still more dualistic than the October Diploma and gave undue representation to +the nobility. The Czechs strongly opposed it and sent a delegation on April 14 +to the emperor, who assured them on his royal honour of his desire to be +crowned King of Bohemia.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In the meantime Dr. Gregr founded the <i>Národní Listy</i> +in Prague in November, 1860, to support the policy of Rieger, and in January, +1861, the latter, with the knowledge of Palacký, concluded an agreement with +Clam-Martinic on behalf of the Bohemian nobility, by which the latter, +recognising the rights of the Bohemian State to independence, undertook to +support the Czech policy directed against the centralism of Vienna. The +Bohemian nobility, who were always indifferent in national matters and who had +strong conservative and clerical leanings, concluded this pact with the Czech +democrats purely for their own class interests This unnatural alliance had a +demoralising influence on the Old Czech Party and finally brought about its +downfall.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czechs elected two delegates to the parliament summoned +for April 29, 1861, while Hungary and Dalmatia sent none, so that the +parliament had 203 instead of 343 deputies. In the Upper House the Czechs were +represented by Palacký. In the Lower House the Slavs, forming a united body, +again found themselves in a hopeless minority which was absolutely powerless +against the government. In June, 1863, the Czechs decided not to attend the +chamber again, seeing that all hopes of a modification of the constitution in +the sense of the October Diploma were in vain. The government replied by +depriving them of their mandates and by suspending the constitution in 1865. A +period of "Sistierung," that is of veiled absolutism, then set in.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>4. In the meantime, a new political group came to the front +in Bohemia, called the Young Czechs. The party was led by Sladkovský, and had +more democratic leanings than the Old Czechs. In the diet, however, the Czechs +remained united in a single body. The Young Czechs opposed the policy of +passive resistance which the Old Czechs pursued for fully sixteen years, that +is up to 1879. The Young Czechs clearly saw that it enabled Vienna to rule +without the Czechs and against them. The Czechs, of course, still reckoned upon +the break-up of Austria, although, as we shall see later on, they failed entirely +to profit from Austria's difficulties in that period. In 1865 Rieger openly +warned Austria:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Those who direct the destinies of Austria should +remember that institutions based on injustice and violence have no duration. If +you desire to save Austria, the whole of Austria, you must make justice the +basis of your policy towards the Slavs. Do not then say that we did not warn +you. <i>Discite justitiam moniti</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In the same sense also Palacký warned the government against +dualism, pointing out that if it were introduced it would inevitably lead to +the break-up of Austria. Seeing that Austria did not listen to his warning, he +later on declared that he no longer believed in the future of Austria, and +added: "We existed before Austria, we shall also exist after her."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The greatest mistake the Czechs made was when in 1866, after +the battle of Sadova, they thought that Austria would cease to be the bulwark +of Pan-Germanism and would do justice to her subject Slavs, and thus become a +protection against Germany. It is true that Austria did cease to be the head of +the Pan-German Confederation, but instead of becoming a bulwark against Prussia, +she became her faithful ally and obedient tool. The Czechs, who feared lest +they should be annexed by Prussia, failed to grasp the subtle plans of Bismarck +who in a short time succeeded in converting Austria into Germany's bridge to +the East.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>When the victorious Prussians entered Prague in 1866, they +issued a proclamation to the Czechs recognising their right to independence. +This proclamation was probably drafted by the Czech exile J.V. Frič, an +ardent democrat who fled abroad after the abortive revolution of 1848. +Frič, who was a man of keen sense for political reality and a great friend +of the Poles, exerted all his influence with the Czech leaders to proclaim Bohemia +independent, without an armed revolt, simply by means of a plebiscite, as he +was aware that the masses were always thoroughly anti-Austrian and desired +nothing more than independence. He proposed to his fellow-countrymen to +establish a monarchy, with some other dynasty than the Habsburgs on the throne, +preferably the youngest son of the Italian king, Victor Emmanuel. Even while +peace negotiations between Prussia and Austria were going on, he conducted an +active propaganda and distributed a proclamation all over Bohemia in which he +declared himself as "the deadly enemy of the Habsburg dynasty and of +Austrian militarism and bureaucracy":</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Hungarians are preparing, the Yugoslavs are +ready. Let us come to a common agreement with them and we shall succeed. And +when all the Austrian nations have been freed they may form a great federation +on the basis of international law which will be an example to Europe. <i>A +federation without the freedom and independence of the nations who form part of +it is an empty dream. Let him who desires a federation work for the +independence of his nation first</i>. It is not a question of a revolution, it +is a question of a public proclamation of the Czech nation so that Europe may +realise that we live and what we want. Europe will surely lend us a helping +hand, but she expects us to ask for it. Let us therefore, my brother Czecho-Slovaks, +proclaim aloud, so that the whole world may hear us: '<i>We do not want </i><i>Austria</i><i> +because we realise that she not only does no good to us, but directly threatens +our very existence. We are able to and want to maintain an independent state +existence without Austria</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Unfortunately, however, the Czech leaders at that time did +not follow Frič's advice and, as we have already pointed out, they fell +into Bismarck's trap.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In November, 1866, the Bohemian Diet uttered a warning +against the danger of dualism, pointing out that Bohemia had the same right to +independence as Hungary. Relying upon the support of the other Slav races of Austria, +the Czechs declared they would never enter the Reichsrat.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In February, 1867, Beust concluded an agreement with Hungary, +and on December 21 the "December Constitution" was introduced. Thus <i>dualism</i> +became a <i>fait accompli</i>.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>5. Exasperated by this step, the Czech leaders visited Moscow +in the same year and fraternised with the Russians, thus showing their +hostility to Austria. In 1868 they published an eloquent declaration, written +by Rieger, declaring that they would never recognise dualism and emphasising Bohemia's +right to independence. When Francis Joseph visited Prague in the same year, +people left the city in crowds, anti-Austrian demonstrations were held +throughout the country, and flowers were laid on the spot where prominent +members of the Bohemian nobility had been executed by the Austrians in 1621.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Vienna answered by fierce reprisals. Baron Koller was sent +to Prague where a state of siege was proclaimed. Czech papers were suppressed, +and their editors imprisoned. This only strengthened Czech opposition. The +passive policy of the Old Czechs gained popularity and the Czechs did not even +attend the Bohemian Diet. Finally, when the Franco-Prussian War was imminent, +the dynasty was forced to yield, and Potocki began to negotiate with the +Czechs.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Meanwhile the Czechs again entered the Bohemian Diet on the +day of the battle of Sedan, August 30, 1870, and issued a declaration of rights +with which also the Bohemian nobility for the first time publicly identified themselves. +On December 8, 1870, the Czechs (without the nobility) presented the Imperial +Chancellor, Beust, with a memorandum on Austrian foreign policy, declaring +their sympathy with France and Russia and protesting against the annexation of +Alsace-Lorraine and against an alliance of Austria with Germany.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In February, 1871, Hohenwart was appointed Minister +President with the object of conciliating the Czechs, and Francis Joseph +addressed to them an imperial proclamation, called the "September +Rescript," in which he declared:--</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Remembering the constitutional ('Staatsrechtliche') +position of the Crown of Bohemia and the glory and power which the same has +lent to Us and Our ancestors, remembering further the unswerving loyalty with +which the population of Bohemia at all times supported Our throne, We gladly +recognise the rights of this Kingdom and We are ready to acknowledge this +recognition by Our solemn Royal Oath."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>It is well known, of course, that Francis Joseph did not +keep his word and was never crowned King of Bohemia.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>6. In answer to the rescript, the Czechs formulated their +demands in the so-called "fundamental articles," the main point of +which was that the Bohemian Diet should directly elect deputies to the +delegations. The <i>Národní Listy</i> declared that the "fundamental +articles" meant minimum demands, and that the Czechs would in any case work +"for the attainment of an independent Czecho-Slovak state, as desired by +the whole nation."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>At this stage Berlin and Budapest intervened. The emperor +yielded to the advice of William I. and Andrassy, and signed an unfavourable +reply to the Czech address on October 30, 1871. Czech opposition was now openly +directed against the dynasty. Hohenwart resigned on October 27. In November, +Baron Koller was again appointed Governor of Bohemia and repressive methods of +administration were once more introduced.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In 1873 elections were held, marked by violence and +corruption. Notwithstanding the passive resistance of Czech deputies, the +parliament continued to meet in Vienna. In 1878 Austria occupied Bosnia and +thus inaugurated the conquest of the Balkans for Germany. In 1879 Count Taaffe +at last induced the Czechs to abandon their policy of "passive +resistance" and to enter the parliament in return for some administrative +and other concessions, including a Czech university. On September 9, the +Czechs, united in a party of fifty-two members, entered the Reichsrat to +maintain their protest against the dual system.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>7. In parliament it became clear that the Old Czech Party, +now led by Rieger, was inclined to be too conservative and too opportunist. In +1887 the Young Czechs left the national party and entered into opposition. +Their party grew steadily, and during the elections in 1889 gained a decided +victory in the country districts. The Old Czechs finally sealed their fate +when, in 1890, they concluded an unfavourable agreement with the Germans, +called the <i>punctations</i>, to the detriment of Czech interests and of the +integrity of Bohemia. This roused popular indignation throughout Bohemia and +brought about the complete collapse of the Old Czech Party.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>At the same time the so-called <i>"Realist" +movement</i> originated in Bohemia, led by Professor Masaryk, Professor Kaizl +and Dr. Kramář. It was not a separate party movement, but a philosophic +effort for a regenerated democratic national policy. The Realists demanded a +practical, forward movement, such as would at last secure independence for the +Czechs. In 1890 the Realists published their programme and joined the Young +Czechs. This meant the end of the political career of Rieger and the Old +Czechs.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>8. In parliament the Young Czechs inaugurated a radical +anti-German policy. In 1891 they openly attacked the Triple Alliance, and in +1892 Dr. Menger called Masaryk a traitor for his outspoken defence of the right +of Bohemia to independence.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>A <i>Radical movement</i> was also started at this time in Bohemia, +mainly by students and advanced workers of the Young Czech Party, which called +itself "Omladina" (Czech word for "youth"). Its object was +to rouse the young generation against Austria. In 1893 anti-dynastic +demonstrations were organised by the "Omladina." A state of siege was +proclaimed in Prague and seventy-seven members of this "secret +society" were arrested; sixty-eight of them, including Dr. Rašín, +were condemned for high treason, and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In 1893 Professor Masaryk, realising the futility of his +efforts against the encroachments of Germanism, resigned his mandate and +devoted his energies to scientific and philosophical work. In 1900, however, he +founded a party of his own, with a progressive democratic programme.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In the elections to the Bohemian Diet in 1895, the Young +Czechs gained eighty-nine seats out of ninety-five; in the Moravian Diet +seventeen seats were held by the <i>People's Party</i>, corresponding to the +Young Czech Party in Bohemia, thirteen by the Old Czechs and five by the Clericals. +In 1896 Badeni made an attempt at enfranchising the masses; seventy-two +additional deputies were to be elected by universal suffrage. In these +elections the Young Czechs again won in Bohemia. In Moravia the People's Party +concluded a compromise with the Old Czechs and gained fifteen seats, the +Socialists gained three seats and the Clericals one. On entering the parliament +the Czechs again made a declaration of state right. In 1897 Badeni, a Pole, +issued his famous Language Ordinances, asserting the equality of the Czech and +German languages in Bohemia and Moravia. The Germans raised a fierce +opposition, supported by the Socialists, and the Reichsrat became the scene of +violent attempts on the part of the Germans to obstruct sittings by throwing +inkstands at the leader of the House and using whistles and bugles to make all +proceedings impossible. Badeni lost his head and resigned, and his decrees were +rescinded. The dynasty, afraid of a repetition of German obstruction, gave the +Germans a completely free hand in all matters of government.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>9. Owing to the rapid cultural, economic and industrial +development of Bohemia, the Czech party system began to expand. The <i>Czecho-Slav +Social Democratic Party</i>, founded in 1878, began to acquire increasing +influence. At first it was based on purely international socialism, and in 1897 +it even opposed the national Czech demands. Later, seeing the duplicity of +their German comrades who recognised the state right of Finland and Hungary, +but not that of Bohemia, and who openly preached the necessity of assimilating +the Slavs, the Czech Socialists began to identify themselves more and more with +the national struggle for independence. They organised their own trade unions, +which brought them into open conflict with the Austrian Socialists. This +question was discussed at the Socialist International Conference at Copenhagen +in 1910. It is, moreover, on account of these differences on nationality +questions that the various Socialist parties of Austria have not met since +1905.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In April, 1898, the <i>Czech National Social Party</i>, led +by Klofáč, was formed in opposition to the Socialists. It was radically +nationalist, and consisted mainly of workmen, as it was evolved from the +workers' organisation in the Young Czech Party.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On January 6, 1899, the <i>Agrarian Party</i> was formed. It +was chiefly composed of farmers and peasants. It defended the interests of +their class and acquired considerable influence among them. In national matters +it subscribed to the programme of Bohemian independence, and its organs have +during the present war adopted a courageous anti-Austrian attitude.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In 1900 the so-called <i>State Right Party</i> was founded +by some of the members of the former "Omladina." It had a radical +programme and stood uncompromisingly against Austria, demanding independence +for Bohemia chiefly on the ground of her historic rights.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In the elections of 1901 the United Czech Club gained +fifty-three seats, the National Socialists four and the Agrarians five. But the +real influence of the various new parties began to appear only in 1907, after +the introduction of the universal suffrage which deprived the Young Czechs of +their predominance. The Reichsrat elected in 1907 consisted of 257 non-Slav and +259 Slav members, of whom 108 were Czechs. The result of the election in Bohemia, + Moravia and Austrian Silesia was as follows:--</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText style='margin-top:12.0pt'>28 Agrarians</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>24 Social Democrats</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>23 Young Czechs</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>17 National Catholics</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>9 Radicals</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>4 Moravian People's Party</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>2 Realists</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>1 Independent Candidate.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>This result showed that the Young Czechs, owing to their +deficient organisation, had lost ground, especially among the country +population, which formed the bulk of the nation. Among the workers Socialist +doctrines were spreading with remarkable rapidity.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The parliamentary activity of the Czechs soon revealed to +them how vain were their hopes that a new era of democracy was dawning in Austria. +They soon found out that in Austria parliamentary institutions were a mere +cloak for absolutism and that all their efforts were doomed to failure.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czechs were strongly opposed to the annexation of Bosnia. +In 1909 Professor Masaryk gained a world reputation by his courageous defence +of the Yugoslav leaders, who were accused of high treason at Zagreb (Agram). +During the Friedjung trial it was again chiefly due to Professor Masaryk's +efforts that forgeries of the Vienna Foreign Office, intended to discredit the +Yugoslav movement, were exposed and the responsibility for them fixed on Count +Forgach, the Austro-Hungarian minister in Belgrade. Professor Masaryk clearly +saw that Austria aimed at the conquest of the Balkans and intended at all costs +to crush Serbia.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>10. In 1911 new elections to the Reichsrat took place with +the following result for the Czechs:--</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText style='margin-top:12.0pt'>40 Agrarians</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>25 Social Democrats</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>14 Young Czechs</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>13 National Socialists</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>7 Radicals</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>7 Clericals</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>1 Old Czech</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>1 Socialist (Centralist).</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Radicals (four Moravian People's Party, two State Right +Party, one Realist) formed a party of independent deputies with Professor +Masaryk at their head. They demanded full independence for Bohemia, some of +them laying greater stress on her historical rights, some on the natural right +of Czecho-Slovaks to liberty.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The whole group of Czech deputies stood in opposition +against Vienna with the exception of Kramář, who tried to imitate the +Polish positivist policy in the hope of obtaining concessions in return. But, +as we have already shown in a previous chapter, Dr. Kramář abandoned this +policy even before the war, when he saw how completely Austria was tied to Germany. +The bulk of the Czech people were, of course, always solidly anti-Austrian. +During the Balkan War the Czechs openly showed their sympathies with their +brother Slavs who were struggling for liberty.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The <i>Clerical Party</i> had comparatively little influence +and prestige. All their deputies (seven) were elected in country districts of Moravia, +where civilisation is comparatively less developed than in Bohemia. In Bohemia +and in the more developed districts of Moravia, people resist the efforts of +the clergy to mix religion with politics. The three million Slovaks in Hungary, +who speak a dialect of Czech and who form with the Czechs a single +Czecho-Slovak nation, had only two deputies (Dr. Blaho and Father Juriga), and +were without any influence in the Budapest Parliament.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>11. Although many Czech politicians foresaw that Austria's +anti-Serbian policy in the Balkans and her increasing dependence on Germany +must lead to war, yet on the whole the Czechs were not prepared for this +contingency. The Reichsrat was closed when war broke out, and the Diet of +Bohemia had been replaced by an Imperial Commission in 1913. War was declared +by Austria against the will of the Slavs, and yet they did not dare to protest, +as an organised revolution was impossible in view of the presence of German +troops and of the perfect police spy system in Austria. Two German divisions +would have been sufficient to suppress the best organised revolutionary +movement in Bohemia.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The immediate effect of the declaration of war was the unity +of the whole Czech nation. One of the leaders, Professor Masaryk, escaped +abroad, and is at the head of the Czecho-Slovak Government, recognised by the +Allies as the trustee and representative of the Czecho-Slovak nation.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Political activity was of course out of the question until +the Reichsrat reopened on May 30, 1917. Before that date there was an absolute +reign of terror in Bohemia. Some of the leading Czech newspapers were suspended +soon after the outbreak of the war. The few Slovak papers published in Hungary +were suppressed at the same time.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Those newspapers which survived were subject to strict +censorship and were compelled to publish leading articles written by government +officials and supplied to them by the police. Dr. Kramář, one of the most +prominent Czech leaders, his colleague Dr. Rašín, and five National +Socialist deputies were thrown into prison, and some of them even sentenced to +death.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The effect of these persecutions was that all the +Czecho-Slovaks became unanimous in their desire to obtain full independence of Austria-Hungary. +Old party differences were forgotten and some of the Czech deputies who had +formerly been opportunist in tendency, such as Dr. Kramář and the Agrarian +ex-minister Prášek, now at last became convinced that all hopes of an +anti-German Austria were futile, that Austria was doomed, as she was a blind +tool in the hands of Germany, and that the only way to prevent the ten million +Czecho-Slovaks from being again exploited in the interests of German +imperialism was to secure their complete independence. On entering the +Reichsrat on May 30, 1917, all the Czech deputies, united in a single +"Bohemian Union," made a unanimous declaration that it was their aim +to work for the union of all Czechs and Slovaks in an independent, democratic +state. To-day Dr. Kramář is in complete agreement with the Radicals who +formerly were his most bitter opponents. In fact four Czech nationalist parties +(the Young Czech, Realist, State Right and Moravian People's Parties) united in +February, 1918, as a single body under the name of "The Czech State-Right +Democracy." The president of its executive is the former Young Czech +leader Dr. Kramář, who was sentenced to death in 1916, but released in +July, 1917. The executive committee of the new party included all the leaders +of the four former parties, namely, Dr. Stránský, Dr. Herben, M. Dyk, Professor +Drtina, and others.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In their proclamation published in the <i>Národní Listy</i> +of February 10, 1918, the executive declared that:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The chief aim of the new party will be to engage in a +common national effort for the creation of an independent Bohemian State, the +fundamental territory of which will be composed of the historical and +indivisible crown-lands of Bohemia and of Slovakia. The Bohemian State will be +a democratic state. All its power will come from the people. And as it will +come from the Czech people, it will be just towards all nationalities, towards +all citizens and classes."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In a speech to the Young Czech Party before its dissolution, +Dr. Kramář openly declared that "at the moment of the outbreak of the +war it became quite clear that, despite all tactics of opportunism, our party +remained true to the programme of Czech independence. It became at once evident +to all of us that <i>the chapter of our former policy was forever closed for us</i>. +We felt with our whole soul that the Czech nation would not go through the +sufferings of the world war only to renew the pre-war tactics of a slow +progress towards that position to which we have full historical rights as well +as the natural rights of a living and strong nation...." And again, in an +article in the <i>Národní Listy</i> of December 25, 1917, Kramář wrote +under the heading "By Order of the Nation":</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We have sought with utmost sacrifice to find a +compromise between our just claims and the international situation which was +unfavourable to us. The war has completely changed all our policy, removing the +possibility of a compromise to which we might have been disposed, and we cannot +once more roll up our flag now so proudly unfurled, and put it aside for the +next occasion."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>As we shall show also later on, there is not the least doubt +that the necessity for the independence of Bohemia was proclaimed not by a few +extremists, but by all the Czech parties with the approval of the entire +nation.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>When Kramář in 1917 again took over the leadership of +the Young Czech Party, which led to the amalgamation of four nationalist +parties, a change took place also in the leadership of the Czech Social +Democratic Party which hitherto was in the hands of a few demagogues and +defeatists, such as Šmeral, who dominated the majority of the members. The +return of the Socialist Party to its revolutionary traditions and its entire +approval of the Bohemian state right and the national policy of Czecho-Slovak +independence means a complete and absolute consolidation of the whole Czech +nation.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>As the Social Democrats became quite loyal to the Czech +cause, the National Socialist Party lost its <i>raison d'être</i>. Owing to the +great sufferings of the working class during the war, it became imbued with +Socialist ideas.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On April 1, 1918, the Czech National Socialist Party held +its eighth annual conference in Prague, at which it adopted a resolution +endorsing international Socialism and changing its name to "The Czech +Socialist Party." The conference was attended also by two representatives +of the Czecho-Slav Social Democratic Party, J. Stivin and deputy Němec. +The National Socialist leader, deputy Klofáč, welcomed the representatives +of the Social Democrats "whom we have for years past been struggling +against, but with whom the trials of this war have united us." He declared +that his party accepted the Socialist programme and would join the new +Socialist International. On September 6, 1918, the executive committees of the +two parties elected a joint council. Its object is to work for the +consolidation of the Czech working classes and for the formation of a united +Czech Labour Party, composed of Social Democrats as well as of the former +National Socialists. A similar process of consolidation is taking place also +among the other parties, so that soon there will probably be only three Czech +parties, on the basis of class difference, viz. Socialists, Agrarians and +Democratic Nationalists (<i>bourgeoisie</i>), all of whom will stand behind the +programme of full Czecho-Slovak independence.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The most significant demonstration of the Czech national +sentiment took place at Prague on January 6, 1918, at a meeting of all the +Czech deputies of the Reichsrat and of the diets of Bohemia, Moravia and +Austrian Silesia, with which we deal in another chapter, and at which a +resolution was unanimously carried demanding full independence and +representation at the peace conference.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Finally, on July 13, 1918, a National Council or Committee +was formed in Prague on which all the parties are represented and which may +rightly be described as part of the Provisional Government of Bohemia.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The whole Czech nation to-day is unanimously awaiting the +victory of the Entente, from which it expects its long-cherished independence. +The Czecho-Slovaks are only waiting for a favorable opportunity to strike the +death-blow at the Dual Monarchy.</p> + +<p class=Chapter><a name=Terrorism>IV</a></p> + +<p class=ChapterDescription>TERRORISM IN BOHEMIA DURING THE WAR</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Austria-Hungary declared war not only on her enemies outside +her frontiers, but also on her internal enemies, on her own Slav and Latin +subjects. From the very first day of war terrorism reigned supreme in Bohemia, +where the Austrian Government behaved as in an enemy country. Three political +parties (the National Socialist, Radical and Realist Parties) were dissolved +and their organs suppressed. Fully three-quarters of all Czech journals and all +Slovak journals were suspended. Political leaders were arrested, imprisoned, +and some of them even sentenced to death. Many leaders have been imprisoned as +hostages in case an insurrection should break out. Over 20,000 Czech civilians +have been interned merely for being "politically suspect," and about +5000 were hanged in an arbitrary way by military tribunals, since juries had +been abolished by an imperial decree. Other Slav districts were no better off: +the Polish Socialist deputy Daszynski stated in the Reichsrat that 30,000 +persons were hanged in Galicia alone, and another deputy stated that the number +of Slavs (Austrian subjects) who were executed by Austria exceeded 80,000. +Czech troops were marched to the trains watched by German soldiers like +prisoners of war. Thousands of them were massacred at the front. The property +of those who surrendered was confiscated, while the families of those Czech +leaders who escaped abroad were brutally persecuted. It is impossible for us to +give a detailed description of all the persecutions committed by Austria on the +Czecho-Slovaks, but the following is a brief summary of them:--</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=LeadersImprisoned><i>(a) Czech Deputies and Leaders +imprisoned and sentenced to Death</i></a></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The most important perhaps was <i>the case of Dr. +Kramář,</i> one of the most moderate of the Czech leaders. Dr. Kramář +was arrested on May 21, 1915, on a charge of high treason as the leader of the +Young Czechs; together with him were also arrested his colleague, deputy Dr. +Rašín, Mr. Červinka, an editor of the <i>Národní Listy</i>, and +Zamazal, an accountant. On June 3, 1916, all four of them were sentenced to +death, although no substantial proofs were produced against them. Subsequently, +however, the sentence was commuted to long terms of imprisonment, but after the +general amnesty of July, 1917, they were released. Among the reasons for which +they were imprisoned and sentenced to death were the following, as given in the +official announcement, published in the Austrian press on January 4, 1917:</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Kramář before the war was "the leader of +Pan-Slav propaganda and of the Russophil movement in Bohemia." He was also +alleged to have kept up a connection with the pro-Ally propaganda conducted by +the Czecho-Slovaks and their friends abroad during the war, and the Czech +military action against Austria on the side of the Entente. Dr. Kramář was +further blamed for the "treasonable" behaviour of Czech regiments who +voluntarily surrendered to Russia and Serbia, and for the anti-German +sentiments cherished by the Czecho-Slovaks for centuries past. Obviously in +striking Dr. Kramář Austria meant to strike at the Czech nation. The +"proofs" for the high treasonable activity of Dr. Kramář before +and during the war were the following:[1]</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>(1) Dr. Kramář was (before the war) in communication +with Brancianov, Bobrinski, Denis, Masaryk, Pavlů and others, who now +preach the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>(2) In his articles in the <i>Národní Listy</i>, published +during the war, Dr. Kramář advocated the liberation of small nations as +proclaimed by the Entente. His organ, "the <i>Národní Listy</i>, laid +special stress on news favourable to our enemies and on the state of disruption +of Austria, and indirectly invited Czechs to passive resistance."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>(3) A copy of <i>La Nation Tchèque</i> was found in Dr. +Kramář's pocket at the time of his arrest.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>(4) Dr. Kramář had a conversation with the Italian +consul in April, 1915, which is "an important cause of suspicion."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>(5) In a letter to the Governor of Bohemia, Prince Thun, Dr. +Kramář admitted that, always faithful to his political principles, he +refrained from everything that might appear as approval of the war.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>This was the evidence brought up against Kramář, on the +ground of which he was to be hanged. These are the "proofs" of his +responsibility for the distribution of treasonable Russian proclamations in Bohemia, +repeated manifestations of sympathy with the enemy, and the refusal of Czech +deputies to take part in any declarations or manifestations of loyalty.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Equally characteristic is also <i>the case of the National +Socialist leader, deputy Klofáč</i>, who was arrested in September, 1914. +Owing to lack of proofs the trial was repeatedly postponed, while Klofáč +was left in prison. A formal charge was brought against him only when the +Reichsrat was about to open in May, 1917, so as to prevent him from attending +the meeting. Nevertheless he was released after the amnesty of July, 1917. +Writing in the <i>Národní Politika</i> about his experience in prison, deputy +Klofáč says:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Many educated and aged political prisoners were not +allowed out to walk in the yard for five months or more, which is contrary to +all regulations. They were also not allowed to read books given to them by the +judge, and they had to do the lowest work. One student who refused to wash the +floor was beaten and confined to a dark cell. No wonder that many committed +suicide. Dr. Vrbenský could tell how he used to get excited by the cry of the +ill-treated prisoners. Even his nerves could not stand it. It is quite comprehensible, +therefore, that Dr. Scheiner (the president of the 'Sokol' Union) in such an +atmosphere was physically and mentally broken down in two months. Dr. +Kramář and Dr. Rašín also had an opportunity of feeling the brutality +of Polatchek and Teszinski. In the winter we suffered from frosts, for there +was no heating. Some of my friends had frozen hands. We resisted the cold by +drilling according to the Müller system. This kept us fit and saved us from +going to the prison doctor, Dr. A. Prinz, who was a Magyar and formerly a +doctor in Karlsbad. If a prisoner went to this 'gentleman,' he did not ask +after his illness, but after his nationality, and for the reason of his remand +imprisonment. On hearing that a prisoner was Czech and on remand for Par. 58<i>c</i> +(high treason), he only hissed: 'You do not want any medicine. It would be +wasted, for in any case you will be hanged.'"</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Besides Klofáč, the following four National Socialist +deputies were also imprisoned: Choc, Buřival, Vojna and Netolický. The +accused were condemned on July 30, 1916, for "failing to denounce +Professor Masaryk's revolutionary propaganda."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>Professor Masaryk</i>, who escaped abroad in 1915, was +sentenced to death in Austria in December, 1916. Unable to reach him, the +Austrian Government revenged themselves on his daughter, Dr. Alice Masaryk, +whom they imprisoned. Only after an energetic press campaign abroad was she +released. A similar fate also met the wife of another Czech leader, Dr. +Beneš, who escaped abroad in the autumn of 1915 and became secretary +general of the Czecho-Slovak National Council.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>Dr. Scheiner</i>, president of the "Sokol" +Gymnastic Association, was imprisoned, but was again released owing to lack of +proofs. A similar fate also met the Czech Social Democratic leader <i>Dr. +Soukup</i>, who was for some time kept in prison.</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=MonsterTrials><i>(b) Monster Trials, Arbitrary +Executions, Internment of Civilians, etc</i>.</a></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>A notorious reason for imprisonment, and even execution, was +the possession of the so-called Russian Manifesto dropped by Russian +aeroplanes, being a proclamation of the Tsar to the people of Bohemia promising +them the restoration of their independence. Mr. Matějovský, of the Prague +City Council, and fifteen municipal clerks were sentenced to many years' +imprisonment for this offence in February, 1915. In May, 1915, six persons, +among them two girls, were condemned to death in Kyjov, Moravia, for the same +offence. On the same charge also sixty-nine other persons from Moravia were +brought to Vienna and fifteen of them sentenced to death. One of the Czech +girls who were executed for this offence was a Miss Kotíková, aged twenty-one, +who, according to the <i>Arbeiter Zeitung</i> of September 8, 1917, refused to say from whom she had received the manifesto, and through her heroic attitude +saved the lives of others.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Without a fair trial and without evidence, the editor of the +National Socialist organ <i>Pokrok</i> in Prostějov, Mr. Joseph Kotek, was +sentenced to death on Christmas Eve of 1914. The sentence was passed at noon, +confirmed at half-past four and carried out at half-past six. As no one could +be found to act as hangman, Kotek was shot. The reason given for the verdict +was that the accused editor of the <i>Pokrok</i>, which was suppressed as being +dangerous to the State, delivered a speech at a meeting of a co-operative +society in which he said that all Czechs were unanimous that they knew that +Austria was losing the war and that they prayed to God that her downfall might +be soon. He was further alleged to have said that it was doubtful how Europe +would be divided after the war, but that in any case the Czecho-Slovak +countries would be made independent as a wedge between Germany and Austria, and +that if Germany won the Czechs would be germanised, like the Poles in Germany. +The accused admitted that he did speak about the reorganisation of Europe, but +not in the words used by the prosecution. But, as the <i>Arbeiter Zeitung</i> +said, even if he did say what the prosecution alleged, as a civilian he should +never have been sentenced to death by a military tribunal. According to Czech +papers, Kotek was buried among ordinary criminals outside the cemetery. The +grave of the innocent martyr was not even marked with his name, and his wife +was not allowed to visit it, because the military authorities forbade the +sexton of the church to allow any one to see the graves of those executed for +high treason.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>Dr. Preiss</i>, the manager of the Czech bank, +Živnostenská Banka, which has its branches in Galicia, Rumania, Serbia and +elsewhere, and four of his colleagues were imprisoned, because the Czechs would +not subscribe to Austrian war loans and Dr. Preiss had done nothing to induce +them to do so.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>As regards the horrors of the internment camps, in which +over 20,000 innocent Czechs, men, women and children, were confined, we will +only quote the revelations of the Czech National Socialist deputy +Stříbrný, who declared in the Reichsrat on June 14, 1917:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"This war was begun by the Austrian Government without +the consent of the Austrian Parliament, against the will of the Czech people.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In Bohemia, the most brutal cruelties have been +perpetrated by the Austrian authorities against the Czech population. An +anonymous denunciation suffices to bring about the arrest and imprisonment of +any Czech man, woman or child. Thousands of Czech citizens have simply been +seized and placed in internment camps on the ground that their political opinions +are dangerous to the existence of Austria.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Such prisoners were led away from their homes +handcuffed and in chains. They included women, girls and old grey-haired men. +They were conveyed from their homes to internment camps in filthy cattle trucks +and were cruelly ill-treated with a strange persistence. On one occasion +forty-three Czechs, who were being conveyed to a camp of internment, were +killed on the way by a detachment of Honveds (Hungarian militia) which was +escorting them to their place of imprisonment.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The conditions under which the Czechs were interned +at the Talerhof Camp, near Graz, were absolutely outrageous. They were beaten +and tortured on their way there. Immediately after their arrival many were tied +to stakes and kept thus day and night in absolutely indescribable sanitary +conditions. Many were done to death by their guards. When the thermometer +showed 20 degrees of frost, old men, women and girls were left to sleep in the +open air, and mortality increased amongst them to a frightful extent. Two +thousand unhappy victims of Austria's brutal tyranny lie buried in the cemetery +attached to the Talerhof Camp of internment. Of these, 1200 died of +epidemics."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Other information concerning the same camp of Talerhof fully +corroborates this statement. In a letter to his friends, a Czech interned at +Talerhof wrote as follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Many of my friends died from bayonet wounds; out of +12,000 at least, 2000 have so perished. The majority of us did not know why we +were interned. Many were hanged without a trial on mere denunciation. Human +life had no value for them. The soldiers had orders to strike us with bayonets +for the slightest movement....</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We were covered with insects. One day an order was +given that everybody should undress to be rubbed with paraffin. Some ladies who +objected were undressed by force before our eyes, since men and women slept +together, and the soldiers rubbed them with paraffin.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"A Ruthene who protested against the ill-treatment of +women, who were forced to do the lowest work, was bayonetted. He was lying for +five days between two barracks more dead than alive. His face and body were all +green and covered with lice and his hands were bound. Then the Austrian +officers and soldiers ill-treated him till he died."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In consequence of the general political amnesty, over +100,000 political prisoners in Austria were released. Thousands of them emerged +from prison or internment camps reduced to mere skeletons by the systematic +lack of food.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>According to reports published in the Austrian press, one of +the Ukrainian prisoners, named Karpinka, was left in solitary confinement +without any fire in winter, so that his feet were frost-bitten and had to be +amputated.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>A Czech named Jarý, who was condemned to twelve years' hard +labour, came out with consumption contracted through the rigour of his +imprisonment. Many others were reduced to such weakness through starvation that +they had to be carried out of the prison.</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=PressPersecution>(c) <i>Persecution of the Press</i></a></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Among the Czech journals suppressed in Bohemia at the +beginning of the war, the following deserve to be especially mentioned:</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>České Slovo</i>, organ of the National Socialist +Party; the editors have been imprisoned. <i>Čas</i> ("Times"), +organ of Professor Masaryk (Realist Party); the editors Dušek and Hájek +were imprisoned. <i>Samostatnost</i>, organ of the State Right (Radical) Party; +the editors were imprisoned or sent to the front.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The <i>Národní Listy</i> (Kramář's organ) was twice +suspended, and in May, 1918, suppressed altogether because it "fostered +sympathies for the Entente."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The <i>Lidové Noviny</i>, organ of Dr. Stránský (Moravian +People's Party), was also several times suspended during the war.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>All Socialist journals were suppressed except <i>Právo Lidu</i> +and <i>Rovnost</i>.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>According to the <i>Wiener Zeitung</i>, seventy-eight Czech +journals were suspended during the months of April, May and June, 1916, alone. +All Slovak newspapers were also suppressed.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>As regards censorship, we need only mention that even +speeches delivered in the Austrian Parliament were censored in the press. The +sense of the speeches delivered by Allied statesmen was invariably distorted +and declarations in favour of Czecho-Slovak independence were suppressed. +Foreign newspapers were not allowed to be quoted; and the journals were forced +to publish unsigned articles supplied to them by the police....</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Union of Czech Journalists declared on April 25, 1917</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We protest against the practice prevailing in Prague +as against means quite contradictory to the moral principles of modern +journalism, as in Prague the newspapers are forced to publish articles supplied +by the Official Press Bureau, as though written by the editor, without being +allowed to mark them as inspired. Thus the journals are not in reality edited +by the editors themselves, but by the Press institution of the state."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The same union again protested on November 16, 1917</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"After the victorious Russian Revolution which brought +about also the opening of the Reichsrat, the fetters binding the Czech press +were a little relaxed, but only for a short time, and to-day we see the same +conditions prevailing in which we lived for the first three years of war. Every +free reflection in the Czech journals is confiscated. They are even prohibited +to publish articles which appeared in the German and Austrian press. +Furthermore, they are again compelled to publish articles written by officials +without marking them as such. They cannot even inform their readers correctly +about parliamentary debates, <i>as speeches and interpellations delivered in +parliament are suppressed</i>. We ask the Union of Czech Deputies to protest +again against this violation of parliamentary immunity, and to obtain a +guarantee that in future the Czech papers will not be compelled to print +articles not written by the editorial staff and that the Czech press shall +enjoy at least the same freedom as the press in Berlin, Vienna and Budapest."</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=Interpellations><i>(d) Reichsrat Interpellations</i></a></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>To complete the picture of Austrian terrorism, we will quote +some of the interpellations addressed to the Austrian Government by Czech +deputies in the summer of 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czech deputies<i> Prokeš, Jaroš and Charvát</i> +(Socialists) have demanded an explanation from the Minister for Home Defence +respecting 300 Czech teachers from Moravia who were interned in 1915, being +suspected of disloyalty, although there was no charge made against them either +by the civil or by the military authorities. They were first interned in Lower + Austria and then in Hungary, and had to do the hardest work. Though the +educational authorities reclaimed them they were not set free even to attend to +the burials of their relatives. The only exception made was when one teacher +was allowed to be married in Vienna, and even then he was followed by the guard +with fixed bayonets. In Hungary the conditions were still worse, and many of +these teachers died and many of them are still in hospitals.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>A long interpellation was addressed to the government by the +Czech deputies<i> Biňovec, Filipinský and Stejskal</i> (Socialists) +regarding the outrageous and inhuman treatment of the Czech political +prisoners. They mentioned a vast number of appalling instances of deliberate +torturing and starving of the prisoners. All rights of the prisoners were +suspended and they depended entirely on the will of the commander: many of +these political prisoners were imprisoned together with ordinary murderers; +they were not allowed to read books or to write letters; their families were +not permitted to visit them or even to send them provisions from home, so they +starved in prison. Such cruel treatment did not affect only political prisoners +but even people on remand, and it was nothing extraordinary for them to be +imprisoned for years on remand only. The deputies asked whether the authorities +wanted these prisoners to die from starvation.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The most interesting document is the interpellation of +deputies <i>Staněk, Tobolka and Co</i>. on the persecutions against the +Czech nation during the war. The interpellation has been published as a book of +200 pages which has been prohibited by Austria to be sent abroad, but a copy of +which we have nevertheless been able to secure. The following are short +extracts from the volume:</p> + +<p class=ChapterDescription>The Behaviour of the Austrian Government towards +the Czech Nation during the War</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal> </p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"YOUR EXCELLENCY,--At a time when it proved impossible +to continue to rule in an absolute way in this empire and when after more than +three years the Reichsrat is sitting again, we address to you the following +interpellation in order to call your attention to the persecutions which during +the past three years have been perpetrated on our nation, and to demand +emphatically that these persecutions shall be discontinued. They were not done +unintentionally or accidentally, but, as will be shown from the following +survey, this violence was committed deliberately and systematically by the +Austrian Government on our nation, which took the abominable view that the +present war is the most suitable period for realising the plans and aims of +German centralism in the Habsburg Monarchy by curing the Czechs forever of all +hallucinations about equality among nations, and about the glorious past of +Bohemia and her relationship with other Slav nations. A general attack was made +upon the Czech nation during the critical situation created by the war: our +participation in civil service was curtailed, German was made the official +language of the state, the press was muzzled, schools persecuted, the Sokol +idea declared to be high treason, men distinguished for service in the state +arrested, imprisoned, persecuted and sentenced to death, everything reminding +the population of the famous past of Bohemia removed, the ancient Czech +aspirations for political independence or even aims for a mere reorganisation +of the Habsburg Monarchy on a federal basis were not allowed and were +suppressed, even the name of the ancient kingdom of Bohemia, which was the +foundation stone to the Habsburg Monarchy in 1526, was to disappear for ever.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The persecutions against our nation were very cruel +indeed.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In the first place, <i>Dr. Kramář</i> was +attacked as the veritable leader of the Czech nation. In return for his +valuable services for this state and for his nation, in return for his +endeavours to educate the Czech nation towards realism in politics, he was +recompensed by being arrested, imprisoned and sentenced to death, although a +member of the delegations and therefore enjoying immunity. He was not brought +up before the ordinary tribunal, but before a judge who was absolutely ignorant +of Czech or foreign politics, so that his condemnation might be assured.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The same fate also met his political friends, deputy +Dr. Rašín and the editor of <i>Národní Listy</i>, V. Červinka.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Incredible proceedings were taken against the deputy +Klofáč. Although being a member of the delegations and therefore enjoying +immunity, he was arrested on September 7, 1914, and has been imprisoned ever +since. A charge was hurriedly prepared against him on May 24, 1917, that is when the Reichsrat was to be opened. Both Dr. Kramář and Klofáč were +prosecuted by the Vienna court-martial under the direction of Colonel Gliwitzki +and Dr. Preminger in such a way that no ordinary judge would dare to act.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The way in which the military tribunals treated the +ordinary uneducated people is apparent from the following examples:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The tailor Šmejkal in Vienna was sentenced to +six months' hard labour for saying, 'The government does not want to give us +Czech schools in Vienna.'</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"For saying, 'I do not know whether the Emperor +Francis Joseph was ever crowned King of Bohemia or not,' a boy gardener named +Tesař was sentenced to six months' hard labour, which sentence was altered +to sixteen months by the High Court of Justice (the poor boy died in prison).</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The shoemaker's assistant Hamouz, of Vienna, +sixty-seven years of age, ill and mentally stunted, served in his youth with +the 28th Regiment. He defended this regiment, therefore, by saying, 'It is a +good regiment.' He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Private Čepera from Moravia was sentenced to +three years' hard labour for saying, 'The German Kaiser is responsible for the +war.'</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"For saying that 'those of the 28th Regiment are our +"boys,"' gunner Purs, of Benatky, was sentenced to four years' +imprisonment. He was sent in chains to the military prison in Möllersdorf.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The wilfulness of military tribunals, culminating in +many cases in apparent hatred against everything that is Czech, is shown by the +following, out of many examples:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The editor of <i>České Slovo</i>, E. +Špatny, of Prague, was arrested on September 26, 1914, and interned in Prague, +without being told the reason. In March, 1915, he was transferred to the +internment camp at Göllersdorf, in Lower Austria. The Czechs interned there +arranged on July 5 a Hus anniversary at which the editor E. Špatny and Dr. +Vrbenský spoke about the life and importance of Hus. Being accused by a certain +fellow-prisoner, Davidovský, that they had been speaking against the Germans +and that 'the speakers expected deliverance by a certain state but were +disappointed,' they were transferred to the military prison in Vienna, and +charged with high treason according to Par. 58<i>c</i>. The latter was +discharged for want of proofs, but the editor Špatny was sentenced to +fourteen years' hard labour.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Sarajevo prisoners were not allowed to be visited +by their relatives in contravention of the orders of the official statutes D 6. +Out of five of those prisoners, three have already died, the fourth is dying, +and the last one, a student Cubulič, was allowed a visit after two years +when it became certain that the Reichsrat would meet.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The extent to which starvation and inhuman treatment +is raging in the state prisons is best shown by the conditions prevailing in +the prison of Möllersdorf. In the years 1915-16, 61 prisoners died there out of +350 to 450 prisoners on the roll. Between January 1, 1917, and May, 1917, 101 prisoners were doomed to death. The majority belong to the sixth category +of prisoners. The thieves, criminals and impostors, if they had served +previously in the army, enjoy special treatment in Möllersdorf prison. They +wear civilian clothes, and are treated with consideration and well fed. On the +other hand, political prisoners, especially those classed as second category, +are dying from ill-treatment and insufficient nourishment. The judge, auditor +A. König, famous for his arbitrary verdicts against the Czech people, was a +solicitor's clerk in civil life, and now recommends to his wealthy defendants +his Vienna lawyer friends as splendid specialists and advocates in political +matters. Thus, for instance, he forced Dr. Glaser upon Mr. Kotik as the +counsel. Kotik was sentenced to death by König, and Glaser sent him a bill for +10,000 kronen (£400) for the 'successful defence.'</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>The Persecutions of the Sokols</i></p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Terrible persecutions were inflicted on the Sokol +Gymnastic Association during the war. The sphere of the Sokols' activity does +not touch political affairs at all, being reserved to gymnastics and spiritual +education. Their activity was public, open to official inquiries and +supervision. But this did not save them from persecutions. The first +persecution was already committed in 1914 in Moravia, when some branches of the +Sokol Association were dissolved for various reasons. Numerous societies were +afterwards dissolved throughout Bohemia and Moravia.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>On </i><i>November</i> 23, 1915, <i>the Central +Czech Sokol Association (Česká Obec Sokolska) was dissolved</i> as the +centre of the Czech Sokol movement, which before the war kept up lively +relations with foreign countries and manifested brotherly feelings of sympathy +towards Serbia and Russia. It was alleged that the Central Sokol Association +had had relations with the American Sokol branches during the war through its +president, Dr. J. Scheiner, and conducted an active propaganda against Austria. +The alleged relations were founded on a communication of the American branches +to the president, Dr. Scheiner, asking him whether he would be willing to +distribute money collected in America to people in Bohemia afflicted by the +war. Dr. Scheiner was arrested and kept in prison for two months.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Very characteristic was the way in which the military +authorities treated the members of Sokol societies. In many cases soldiers, +especially recruits, were questioned whether they belonged to the Sokol +Association. The authorities searched for Sokol badges or membership cards, and +those who were found to have these in their possession were severely punished. +The members of the Sokol societies as long as they were in the army were +invariably subjected to ill-treatment and persecution. They were transferred to +do heavy work, and not recommended for promotion, and in every way treated more +brutally than other soldiers. In the case of both civil and military trials, +one of the most important questions asked, was whether the accused belonged to +any Sokol society, and if the accused did belong to a society this always went +against him.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>Bohemian History</i></p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Every possible means was employed to wipe out the +memory of important events in Bohemian history. Not only were historical books +(like Lützow's <i>Bohemia</i> and others) confiscated, but even scientific +lectures on John Hus and the Hussite movement were prohibited. The metal +memorial plate with the names of Bohemian lords executed in 1621 inscribed upon +it was removed from the Town Hall, and that part of the square which showed the +spot on which they were executed was ordered to be repaved.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In order to destroy the idea that the Czechs are of +Slav origin, any use of red, blue and white colours was prohibited. Varnishes +in these colours were not allowed to be used. The street plates of pre-war +times had to be repainted in black and yellow. Newspaper posters, match-boxes +and other articles were not allowed to be sold or exhibited, if they were painted +in the Slav tricolours.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>The Suppression of Czech Literature</i></p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"More than two hundred books published before the war +were confiscated. The tendency of this action was clear. The government wanted +to destroy the memory of the glorious past of Bohemia, of John Hus and the +Hussite movement, of the suffering of the Czech nation after the defeat of the +White Mountain, to restrict all progressive and liberal movements and to kill +the 'Sokol' idea, and further to destroy the consciousness that Czechs and Slovaks +are the same nation and belong to the great Slav family. The apostles of this +idea were proclaimed traitors, especially Dr. Kramář, J.S. Machar and +others. These persecutions cover a great period before the war, and the +following is a list of the books suppressed (follows a list comprising eleven +foolscap columns). The government treated the Czech nation with special +brutality. The persecutions in Bohemia were opposed not only to the liberal +ideas of Czechs, but especially to their national feelings. The anxiety of the +censor for the safety of the monarchy often bordered on absurdity. The word +'shocking' was deleted from a play, for instance, because it was English. <i>Henry +IV</i>. was not allowed to be played 'until we reach a settlement with England,' +and it was only when it was reported by the Vienna and Berlin papers that the +prohibition was withdrawn.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>Persecution of the Czech Press</i></p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Czech press was persecuted in a peculiar manner. +Its editors were not allowed to receive papers from neutral countries and to +express their own opinions as regards the propaganda of the Czechs abroad. +Under threats of suppression of the journals and imprisonment of the editors, +the journals were obliged to print and publish articles supplied to them by the +police, without mentioning the source from whence they came. The articles had +to be put in in such a way that they appeared as if they were the editors' +views. The articles betrayed the low intellectual level of the authors who +lacked any knowledge of Czech affairs. Such articles which the Czech journals +were compelled to publish were, for instance: 'In Foreign Pay,' published March 25, 1916; 'The Czechs in America against Masaryk's Agents,' published in all Czech +papers on April 8, 1916; on January 16, 1917, the article 'Our Answer to the +Quadruple Entente.'</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Police Directorate ordered first that such +articles should appear on the same day in all papers and in the same wording, +but recognising the stupidity of such an action, they compelled only one +journal to publish them and the others had to 'quote' from them.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Preventive censorship was established and a number of +articles were passed by the censor for publication in Czech papers only when +proofs were supplied that the articles had already appeared in some other +journal in Austria. <i>Independent articles or reports were not allowed to be +published</i>. The <i>Národní Listy</i> was treated with special spite by the +censorship.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>Almost ninety important journals were suppressed +by the government</i>, the majority of them without any apparent reason or +justification.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>The Suppression of </i><i>Czech</i><i> </i><i>School</i><i> +and National Literature</i></p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Words, sentences or whole paragraphs in school books +were found objectionable, since they were alleged to propagate Pan-Slavism and +to encourage in the pupils hostile feelings against Austria's allies. According +to the official ideas about Austrian patriotism, purely educational paragraphs +were considered as wanting in patriotic feeling; not only literary but also +historical paragraphs were 'corrected,' and official advice was issued as to +how to write handbooks on patriotic lines on special subjects, as for instance +on natural history, physics, geometry, etc. The foundations of all knowledge to +be supplied to the pupils in the public schools had to reflect the spirit of +the world war.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Numerous folk-songs with absolutely no political +tendency in them were confiscated, merely because they expressed the Czech +national spirit. All songs were suppressed which mentioned the word Slav--'The +Slav Linden Tree'--the army or the Allies. Even if the publishers offered to +publish new editions without the objectionable songs they were not allowed to +do so, and were asked to put in more 'loyal songs' and to replace melancholy +songs with cheerful ones.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In every secondary school a zealous library revision +was started and many books were removed, so that these libraries lost all their +value for the students. The Czech youth must not know the principal works +either of their own or foreign literature. Certain libraries had to be deprived +of some hundreds of books. All this happened at a time when the discussions +here and abroad were taking place about the importance of raising the standard +of knowledge of the educated classes.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The opening of Czech minority schools has been +postponed since the beginning of 1914. Consequently the Czech School Society +must keep them up and pay the expenses in connection with them, amounting to a +loss of more than two million kronen up till now. On the other hand, many +German schools have been established in Bohemia.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The steps which are being taken against Czech schools +in Lower Austria, especially in Vienna, are not only contrary to the standing +laws but also to the decisions of the ministry concerned.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We conclude by asking:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Are the above facts of systematic persecution of the +Czech nation during the war known to your Excellency?</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Is your Excellency prepared to investigate them +thoroughly?</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Is your Excellency prepared to stop the persecution +of the Czech nation and the wrongs suffered by us through these proceedings?</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>In </i><i>Vienna</i><i>, </i><i>June</i> 6, 1917."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>[Footnote 1: For the full text of this document see Dr. +Beneš' <i>Bohemia's Case for Independence</i>.]</p> + +<p class=Chapter><a name=AssistedAllies>V</a></p> + +<p class=ChapterDescription>HOW THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS AT HOME ASSISTED THE ALLIES</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>From the foregoing chapters it is clear that by continuous +misrule and by the attempt to reduce the Czecho-Slovak nation to impotence +through terrorism and extermination during this war, the Habsburgs have created +a gulf between themselves and their Czecho-Slovak subjects which can never +again be bridged over. Realising this, and seeing that since Austria has +voluntarily sold herself to Berlin their only hope for a better future lies in +the destruction of the political system called Austria-Hungary, the +Czecho-Slovaks have from the beginning staked their all on the victory of the +Entente, towards which they have contributed with all possible means at their +disposal.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>1. Since they could not think of revolting, the +Czecho-Slovaks at home tried to paralyse the power of Austria in every way. Not +only individuals but also Czech banks and other institutions refused to +subscribe to the war loans. Their newspapers published official reports with +reluctance, and between the lines laid stress on news unfavourable to Austria +so as to keep up the spirit of the people. Czech peasants refused to give up +provisions, and thus the Czechs, who already before the war boycotted German +goods, accelerated the present economic and financial ruin of Austria.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>2. Politically, too, they contributed to the internal +confusion of the Dual Monarchy, and to-day their opposition forms a real menace +to the existence of Austria. Czech political leaders unanimously refused to +sign any declaration of loyalty to Austria, and they never issued a single +protest against Professor Masaryk and his political and military action abroad. +On several occasions they even publicly expressed their sympathies and approval +of this action. For nearly three years they prevented the opening of the +Austrian Parliament which would have been to their prejudice. Only after the +Russian Revolution, when Austria began to totter and her rulers were +apprehensive lest events in Russia should have a repercussion in the Dual +Monarchy, did the Czechs decide to speak out and exerted pressure to bring +about the opening of the Reichsrat, where they boldly declared their programme, +revealed Austria's rule of terror during the first three years of war, and by +their firm opposition, which they by and by induced the Poles and Yugoslavs to +imitate, they brought about a permanent political deadlock, menacing Austria's +very existence internally and weakening her resistance externally.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>3. But the most important assistance the Czechs rendered to +the Allies was their refusal to fight for Austria.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Out of 70,000 prisoners taken by Serbia during the first +months of the war, 35,000 were Czechs. Of these, 24,000 perished during the +Serbian retreat, and 8000 died of typhoid fever and cholera at Asinara. The +remaining 3000 were transferred to France and voluntarily joined the +Czecho-Slovak army.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Over 300,000 Czecho-Slovaks surrendered voluntarily to Russia +whom they regarded as their liberator. Unfortunately the old régime in Russia +did not always show much understanding of their aspirations. They were +scattered over Siberia, cut off from the outer world, and often abandoned to +the ill-treatment of German and Magyar officers. It is estimated that over +thirty thousand of them perished from starvation. It was only after great +efforts, after the Russian Revolution, and especially when Professor Masaryk +himself went to Russia, that the Czecho-Slovak National Council succeeded in +organising a great part of them into an army. Finally, when Austria desired to +strike a death-blow at Italy in 1918, and began again to employ Slav troops, +she failed again, and this failure was once more to a large extent caused by +the disaffection of her Slav troops, as is proved by the Austrian official +statements. Indeed, whenever Austria relied solely on her own troops she was +always beaten, even by the "contemptible" Serbians. The Czechs and +other Slavs have greatly contributed to these defeats by their passive +resistance. It was only the intervention of German troops which saved Austria +from an utter collapse in 1915, and which prevented the Czechs from completing +their aim of entirely disorganising the military power of Austria. Slav +regiments have since then been intermixed with German and Magyar troops. The +Slavs receive their ammunition only at the front, where they are placed in the +foremost ranks with Germans or Magyars behind them, so that they are exposed to +a double fire if they attempt to surrender. Nevertheless, up to 1916 some +350,000 Czechs out of a total of 600,000 in the Austrian army surrendered to +the Allies.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>4. From the very beginning of the war Czech soldiers showed +their real feelings. They were driven to fight against the Russians and Serbs +who were their brothers by race and their sincere and devoted friends. They +were driven to fight for that hated Austria which had trampled their liberties +underfoot for centuries past, and for a cause which they detested from the +bottom of their hearts. They were driven to fight in the interests of their +German and Magyar enemies against their Slav brothers and friends under +terrible circumstances.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In September, 1914, the 8th Czech Regiment refused to go to +the front until threatened by the German troops. The 11th Czech Regiment of +Pisek refused to march against Serbia and was decimated. The 36th Regiment +revolted in the barracks and was massacred by German troops. The 88th Regiment, +which made an unsuccessful attempt to surrender to Russia, was shot down by the +Magyar Honveds. A similar fate befell the 13th and 72nd Slovak Regiments.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On the other hand, many Czech troops succeeded in +surrendering. The 35th Regiment of Pilsen went over to the Russians in a body +half-an-hour after arriving at the front. Soon after, the 28th Regiment of +Prague surrendered <i>en masse</i>, having been "fetched" by the +Czechs fighting on the Russian side. Immediately afterwards the Austrian +commander-in-chief issued an order of the day in which he declared.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"On April 3, 1915, almost the whole of the 28th +Regiment surrendered without fighting to a single enemy battalion.... This +disgraceful act not only destroys the reputation of this regiment, but +necessitates its name being struck off the list of our army corps, until new +deeds of heroism retrieve its character. His Apostolic Majesty has accordingly +ordered the dissolution of this regiment, and the deposition of its banners in +the army museum."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>And indeed "new deeds of heroism" did follow. A +fresh battalion was founded composed of Czech youths who were sent to the +Isonzo front and exposed in a dangerous position to deadly artillery fire. +Almost the whole battalion was thus unscrupulously wiped out. Only eighteen of +them survived. This was followed by a new imperial order saying that the +disgrace of the 28th Regiment was "atoned for" by the +"sacrifice" of this regiment on the Isonzo.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>As regards Italy, over 20,000 Czechs surrendered voluntarily +on the Italian front up to 1917, and 7000 during the last offensive on the +Piave in June, 1918. Of recent cases we need mention only the "treachery +of Carzano," where, on September 18, 1917, some Czech officers went over +to the Italians, communicated to them the Austrian plans of campaign and led +them against the Austrians whose front was thus successfully broken through. +This incident was not the only one of its kind. It has been repeated several +times by Czech officers whenever they found an opportunity of going over to the +Italians. During the offensive of June, 1918, the Austrian press openly +attributed the Austrian failure to "Czech treachery," asserting that +the plan of the offensive was communicated to the Italian headquarters staff by +Czecho-Slovak officers. This the Austrian military authorities themselves +admitted later, when they published the following official statement, which +appeared in the German press on July 28:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"On the morning of June 15, we started a vigorous +offensive on the whole front between the Tyrolese mountains and the Adriatic, +with a power that can be attained only by complete co-operation of all the +units and with an accurate execution and a common and uniform action. But, just +at the beginning of the attack, it became apparent that the enemy were making a +counter-attack according to a well-defined plan, as in the case of a projected +vigorous offensive. It was also found out that the enemy was perfectly aware of +the extent, the day and the hour of our attack. The intended surprise, so +important for the success of an offensive, has thus failed. In due course Italy +also obtained, from documents which some deserters handed to the Italian high +command, information which gave her a sufficiently precise idea of our +dispositions. English, French and Italian officers and men captured by us +declare unanimously that their regiments were advised on the evening of June 14 +that the Austrian offensive would start at two o'clock on the following +morning.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The exact time of the beginning of our offensive must +have been betrayed by <i>Yugoslav and Czech deserters</i>. The enemy took steps +against the bombardment by means of gas, which was expected. These steps later +proved insufficient. As an example we may mention only the following facts: The +battalion of bersaglieri received, at 3.20 on June 14, a quantity of ammunition +at 72 to 240 cartridges per man. The Pinerolo Brigade took up fighting position +at 2 o'clock at night. An order, captured late on July 14, said: 'According to +reports received, the enemy will commence early on June 15 their bombardment +preparations for attack. At midnight hot coffee and meat conserves will be +distributed. The troops will remain awake, armed and prepared to use their +gas-masks.'</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"For some time now the Italian command have tried to +disorganise our troops by high treasonable propaganda. In the Italian +prisoners-of-war camps the Slavs are persuaded by promises and corruption to +enlist in the Czecho-Slovak army. This is done in a way prohibited by law. +Their ignorance of the international situation and their lack of news from +home, partly caused by Italian censorship, are exploited by means of propaganda +without scruples. An order of the 5th Italian Army Corps (1658 Prot. R. J.) of May 14, 1918, refers to active propaganda by Czecho-Slovak volunteers with the object of +disorganising the Austro-Hungarian army. The Italian military authorities on +their part deceive the Czecho-Slovaks by telling them of the continuous +disorders and insurrections in Bohemia. In the above-mentioned order it is +asserted that in the corps to which it is addressed, as well as in other corps, +some attempts of the Czecho-Slovak elements have been successful in causing +confusion among enemy ranks. <i>Some of our Czecho-Slovak soldiers deserted and +went over to the Italians</i>. Others remained in touch with them and declared themselves +ready to stay in our positions as a source of ferment for future insurrections. +Although the high treason miscarried owing to the heroic resistance which our +troops, without distinction of nationality, offered to the enemy, it is +nevertheless true that some elements succumbed to the treacherous enemy +propaganda.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The gunner Rudolf Paprikar, of the machine gun +section, according to reports of the 8th Army Corps jumped off the river bank +into the Piave below Villa Jacur and swam across under danger of being drowned. +He betrayed the position, strength and composition of his sector, and through +observation and spying, he acquired some valuable information by which our +projected attack against Montello was disclosed. Further, he revealed to the +enemy some very secret preparations for the crossing of the river Piave, and +also supplied him with plans of the organisation of troops, battery positions, +etc.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The principal part in the treachery is attributed by +the Italian high command, not without reason, to Lieutenant Karel Stiny of an +infantry regiment, who deserted near Narenta. It appears from the detailed +Italian official report in which his statements are embodied, that he betrayed +all our preparations on the Piave and provided the enemy with a great deal of +most important information. Let us mention further that Stiny in his mendacious +statements to the Italian command about the Austro-Hungarian situation at the +front and in the interior, followed the line of all traitors in order to appear +in a favourable light. It is characteristic that in his declaration about our +offensive he said that many Austro-Hungarian troops would have surrendered if +it had not been for the German and Bulgarian bayonets behind their backs.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>It is proved by various documents to what extent +the Czechs have forgotten their honour and duty</i>. By breaking their oath to Austria +and her emperor and king, they have also forgotten all those who were with them +at the front, and they are responsible for the blood of our patriots and the +sufferings of our prisoners in Italy. The false glory which is attributed to +them by the Italian command, who have lost all sense of the immorality of these +proceedings, cannot efface the eternal crime which history always attaches to +the names of traitors."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>5. We could give many proofs of the great service the +Czecho-Slovaks rendered the Allies by their surrenders. But for our purpose it +will be sufficient to quote only some more admissions of the Germans and +Magyars themselves.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Count Tisza admitted that Czech troops could not be relied +upon, and Count Windischgrätz stated that the chief of staff dare not use them +except when mixed with Magyars and Germans.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Deputy Urmanczy declared in the Budapest Parliament on September 5, 1916, that during the first encounters with Rumania, a Czech regiment retired +without the slightest resistance, provided themselves with provisions, entered +a train and disappeared. The men went over to Rumania. He blamed the Czechs for +the Austrian reverse in Transylvania.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On June 22, 1917, when the case of deputy Klofáč was +discussed by the Immunity Committee of the Reichsrat, General von Georgi, +Austrian Minister for Home Defence, according to the Czech organ <i>Pozor</i> +of June 24, described</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"... the conditions prevailing in the army, especially +the behaviour of certain Czech regiments, and brought forward all the material +which had been collected against the Czechs since the outbreak of the war, and +which had been used against them. He referred to the 28th and 36th Regiments as +well as to eight other Czech regiments which had voluntarily surrendered to the +Russians. He mentioned also that Czech officers, not only those in reserve but +also those on active service, including some of the highest ranks of the staff, +surrendered to the enemy; in one instance fourteen officers with a staff +officer thus surrendered. Czech soldiers in the Russian and French armies, as +well as in other enemy armies, are fighting for the Entente and constitute +legions and battalions of their own. The total number of Czechs in the enemy +armies exceeds 60,000. In the prisoners' camps in the enemy countries, +non-German prisoners were invited to join the enemy's ranks. Czech legions and +battalions are composed almost entirely of former prisoners of war. The minister +further went on to describe the propaganda of the Czechs abroad, the activity +of Czech committees in enemy and neutral countries, especially in Russia and Switzerland. +He also mentioned the case of Pavlu, a Czech soldier, who in a Russian +newspaper described how he penetrated the Austrian trenches in the uniform of +an Austrian officer, annihilated the occupants and after a successful scouting +reconnaissance returned to the Russian ranks. The minister described the +attitude of the 'Sokols' and the Czech teachers. The tenor of his speech was +that Klofáč is responsible for the anti-Austrian feeling of the Czech +nation and that therefore he should not be released."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>When the Russian offensive of July, 1917, started, Herr +Hummer, member of the Austrian Reichsrat, addressed the following +interpellation to the Austrian Minister for Home Defence:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Is the Austrian Minister for Home Defence aware that +in one of the early engagements of the new Russian offensive, the 19th Austrian +Infantry Division, which consists almost entirely of Czecho-Slovaks and other +Slavs, openly sided with the enemies of Austria by refusing to fight against +the Russians and by surrendering as soon as an opportunity offered +itself?"</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The most interesting document in regard to the attitude of Czecho-Slovaks +during the war is the interpellation of ninety German Nationalist deputies +(Schurf, Langenhahn, Wedra, Richter, Kittinger and others), of which we possess +a copy. It contains 420 large-size printed pages, and it is therefore +impossible for us to give a detailed account of it. The chapters of this +interpellation have the following headings:</p> + +<p class=MsoList>1. The dangers of Pan-Slavistic propaganda.</p> + +<p class=MsoList>2. The situation at the outbreak of the war.</p> + +<p class=MsoList>3. Motives for the arrest of Kramář.</p> + +<p class=MsoList>4. The behaviour of Czechs in Austria:</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(a)</i> Demonstrations of Czech national spirit in Prague;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(b)</i> Czech school-books;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(c)</i> Czech officials;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(d)</i> The activities of the "Sokols";</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(e)</i> What happened at Litomeřice and elsewhere;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(f)</i> The Czech attitude towards war loans;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(g)</i> The Živnostenská Banka and the war loans;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(h)</i> The financial policy of the Živnostenská Banka;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(i)</i> The Czechs and war emergency affairs;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(k)</i> The Czechs and the question of food supplies.</p> + +<p class=MsoList>5. The anti-Austrian attitude of Czechs abroad:</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(a)</i> In France;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(b)</i> In England;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(c)</i> In Russia;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(d)</i> In America;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(e)</i> In Switzerland;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(f)</i> The campaign of Professor Masaryk;</p> + +<p class=MsoList2><i>(g)</i> The Czech secret intelligence service.</p> + +<p class=MsoList>6. The conduct of Czech soldiers on the battlefield.</p> + +<p class=MsoList>7. Military consequences.</p> + +<p class=MsoList>8. Some recent documents.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>According to the <i>Neue Freie Presse</i> of June 6, 1918, the Austrian Minister for Home Defence made the following important +admissions in reply to the part of this interpellation concerning the Czech +contribution to the defeats of Austria:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The 36th Regiment, according to unanimous reports of +the high command, failed to do its duty in May, 1915, on the Russian front, and +thereby caused a heavy defeat of other detachments. This regiment was dissolved +by the imperial decree of July 16, 1915.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The unsuccessful fighting and heavy losses of the +19th Division in the battle north of Tarnopol between September 9 and 11, 1915, +were caused by the weak resistance of the 35th Regiment.... During the battles +of June 29 to July 2, 1917, near Zloczow the resistance offered by this +regiment was weak.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"As regards Regiment No. 28 of Prague, according to +the statement of regimental commanders, it appears that the whole detachment, +without firing a single shot, was taken prisoner by a single enemy battalion, +or rather was brought by that battalion from its position."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>And in this policy Czech soldiers continue by surrendering +voluntarily to the Entente troops whenever they have the opportunity.</p> + +<p class=Chapter><a name=ActionsAbroad>VI</a></p> + +<p class=ChapterDescription>THE MILITARY AND POLITICAL ACTION OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS +ABROAD</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>When war broke out, the Czecho-Slovaks all over the world +felt it their duty to prove by deeds that their place was on the side of the +Entente. The Czecho-Slovaks in Great Britain, France and Russia volunteered to +fight for the Allies, while in the United States of America, where there are +some one and a half million Czecho-Slovaks, they have counteracted German +propaganda and revealed German plots intended to weaken the American assistance +to the Allies.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>1. In France 471 Czechs, <i>i.e.</i> over 60 per cent., +entered the Foreign Legion and greatly distinguished themselves by their +bravery. The majority of them have been mentioned in dispatches and received +the Military Cross. They have also won five crosses and twenty medals of the +Russian Order of St. George. Their losses amount to more than 70 per cent.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Further, many Czechs living in Great Britain at the outbreak +of the war joined the French Foreign Legion in France, and after His Majesty's +Government allowed Czechs to volunteer for service in the British army in the +autumn of 1916, practically all Czechs of military age resident in Great +Britain enrolled so far as they were not engaged on munitions. In Canada, too, +the Czechs joined the army in order to fight for the British Empire.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The most important part was taken, however, by the +Czecho-Slovak colonies in Russia and America. In Russia, where there are large +Czecho-Slovak settlements, numbering several thousand, a Czecho-Slovak legion +was formed at the outbreak of the war which has rendered valuable services, +especially in scouting and reconnoitring. This legion grew gradually larger, +especially when Czech prisoners began to be allowed to join it, and finally, +under the direction of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, it was formed into a +regular army. In September, 1917, it had already two divisions, and in 1918 +fresh prisoners joined it, so that it counted some 100,000.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In order to be able fully to appreciate this achievement, we +must remember that this was an army of volunteers, organised by the Czecho-Slovak +Council without the powers of a real government. At the beginning of the war +the Czecho-Slovaks not only had no government of their own, but not even any +united organisation. And if we realise that to-day, after three and a half +years of strenuous effort, the National Council are recognised by the Allies as +the Provisional Government of Bohemia with the right of exercising all powers +appertaining to a real government, including the control of an army as large as +Great Britain had at the outbreak of the war, it must be admitted that the +action of the Czecho-Slovaks abroad was crowned with wonderful success.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In Russia the difficulties with which the National Council +had to cope were especially grave, and mainly for two reasons. In the first +place, the Czecho-Slovak prisoners who voluntarily surrendered were scattered +all over Russia. It was extremely difficult even to get into touch with them. +In addition there was a lack of good-will on the part of the old Russian +Government. Thus very often these prisoners, who regarded Russia as Bohemia's +elder brother and liberator, were sadly disillusioned when they were left under +the supervision of some German officers, and thousands of them died from +starvation. Nevertheless they never despaired. Eager to fight for the Allies, +many of them entered the Yugoslav Division which fought so gallantly in the +Dobrudja. Nearly all the Czech officers in this division were decorated with +the highest Russian, Serbian and Rumanian orders. Half of them committed +suicide, however, during the retreat rather than fall into the hands of the +enemy.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>It was not until after the Russian Revolution, and +especially after the arrival of Professor Masaryk in Russia in May, 1917, that +the Czecho-Slovak army in Russia became a reality.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czecho-Slovaks have been mentioned in Russian official <i>communiqués</i> +of February 2, 1916, and March 29, 1917. The most glorious part was taken by +the Czecho-Slovak Brigade during the last Russian offensive in July, 1917, in +which the Czechs showed manifestly the indomitable spirit that animates them. +Since every Czech fighting on the side of the Entente is shot, if he is +captured by the Austrians, the Czechs everywhere fight to the bitter end, and +rather commit suicide than be captured by their enemies. For this reason they +are justly feared by the Germans. As in the Hussite wars, the sight of their +caps and the sound of their songs struck terror in the hearts of the Germans +and Magyars. At the battle of Zborov on July 2, 1917, the Czechs gave the whole +world proof of their bravery. Determined to win or fall, they launched an +attack almost without ammunition, with bayonets and hand-grenades--and they +gained a victory over an enemy vastly superior in numbers.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>According to the official Russian <i>communiqué</i>:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"On July 2, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, +after a severe and stubborn battle, the gallant troops of the Czecho-Slovak +Brigade occupied the strongly fortified enemy position on the heights to the +west and south-west of the village of Zborov and the fortified village of Koroszylow. +Three lines of enemy trenches were penetrated. The enemy has retired across the +Little Strypa. The Czecho-Slovak Brigade captured sixty-two officers and 3150 +soldiers, fifteen guns and many machine guns. Many of the captured guns were +turned against the enemy."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Finally, however, when the Russians refused to fight, the +Czechs had to retire as well. General Brussiloff declared:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Czecho-Slovaks, perfidiously abandoned at +Tarnopol by our infantry, fought in such a way that the world ought to fall on +its knees before them."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>2. The spontaneous and unanimous political action of the +Czecho-Slovaks abroad became co-ordinated when Professor Masaryk escaped from Austria +and placed himself at the head of the movement.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>Professor Masaryk</i>, the distinguished Czech leader and +scholar, whose name we have already mentioned in the preceding chapters, went +to Italy in December, 1914, and although he desired once more to return to Austria +before leaving finally for France, he found it too dangerous, as the reign of +terror had already been established in Bohemia. He accordingly went to Switzerland +and afterwards on to France and England. In October, 1915, he was appointed +lecturer at the newly founded School of Slavonic Studies at King's College, University + of London. Mr. Asquith, then Prime Minister, who was prevented through +indisposition from presiding at Professor Masaryk's inaugural lecture on October 19, 1915, sent the following message to the meeting:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"I congratulate King's College on Professor Masaryk's +appointment, and I can assure him that we welcome his advent to London both as +a teacher--the influence of whose power and learning is felt throughout the +Slav world--and as a man to whose personal qualities of candour, courage and +strength we are all glad to pay a tribute. We believe that his presence here +will be a link to strengthen the sympathy which unites the people of Russia and + Great Britain."</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"First and foremost the Allies are fighting for the +liberties of small nations, to the end that they may be left in future free +from the tyranny of their more powerful neighbours to develop their own +national life and institutions. Above all, to-day our thoughts and our +sympathies are moved towards Serbia, whose undaunted courage wins day by day our +unbounded sympathy and admiration."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>During the lecture on the Problem of Small Nations in the +European Crisis, Professor Masaryk outlined his political programme which he +has ever since insisted the Allies should adopt, to destroy the German plans of +Mitteleuropa. He declared:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Great Britain came into this war to protect little Belgium, +and now with her Allies she is faced by the task of protecting Serbia. This +evolution of the war is almost logical, for Germany's aim is and was Berlin--Bagdad, +the employment of the nations of Austria-Hungary as helpless instruments, and +the subjection of the smaller nations which form that peculiar zone between the +west and east of Europe. <i>Poland, Bohemia, Serbo-Croatia (the South Slavs) +are the natural adversaries of Germany</i>, of her <i>Drang nach Osten</i>; to +liberate and strengthen these smaller nations is the only real check upon +Prussia. Free Poland, Bohemia and Serbo-Croatia would be so-called buffer states, +their organisation would facilitate and promote the formation of a Magyar +state, of Greater Rumania, of Bulgaria, Greece and the rest of the smaller +nations. If this horrible war, with its countless victims, has any meaning, it +can only be found in the liberation of the small nations who are menaced by Germany's +eagerness for conquest and her thirst for the dominion of Asia. The Oriental +question is to be solved on the Rhine, Moldau and Vistula, not only on the Danube, + Vardar and Maritza."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Soon afterwards Professor Masaryk issued a proclamation +signed by representatives of all Czecho-Slovaks abroad, the full text of which +reads as follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We come before the political public at a moment when +the retreat of the victorious Russian army is exploited against Russia and her +Allies. We take the side of the struggling Slav nations and their Allies +without regard to which party will be victorious, simply because the Allies' +cause is just. The decision as to which party in this fatal struggle is +defending the right, is a question of principle and political morality which +to-day cannot be evaded by any honest and clear-thinking politician nor by any +self-conscious nation. But we are prompted to step forward also by our vivid +sense of Slav solidarity: we express our ardent sympathies to our brother Serbs +and Russians, as well as to our brother Poles, so heavily struck by the war. We +believe in the ultimate victory of the Slavs and their Allies, and we are +convinced that this victory will contribute towards the welfare of the whole of + Europe and humanity. The spiteful anti-Slav attitude of Ferdinand the Koburg +and his government cannot retard the victory of a just cause.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Czech nation made an alliance with Hungary and +the Austrian Germans by a free election of a Habsburg to the throne of the kingdom + of Bohemia in 1526; but the dynasty created through a systematic +centralisation and germanisation a unitary absolutist state, thus violating +their treaty guaranteeing the independence of the Bohemian State within and +without. The Czech nation, exhausted by the European and Habsburg anti-reformation, +has only since the Czech regeneration at the end of the eighteenth century been +able to resist this violence. It was especially the revolution of 1848 which +challenged it.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The revolution was crushed, and the secured rights of +nations, especially of the Czechs, were again sacrificed to absolutism which, +however, was shattered by the war of 1859, and replaced by an incomplete +constitutionalism. Then Vienna gave way to the Magyars. But the Czechs had to +content themselves with solemn promises that were never kept. The Czech nation +started a struggle of passive opposition. Later on it also took an active part +in the new parliament, but whether in parliament or in the diets, it always +claimed its historic right of independence and struggled against the +German-Magyar dualism. The attempts made to come to an understanding were +frustrated by the obstinate spirit of domination of the Germans and Magyars.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The present war has only accentuated the +Czecho-Slovak opposition to Austria-Hungary. War was declared without the +parliament being consulted: all other states presented the declaration of war +to their parliaments for ratification, only the Viennese Government was afraid +to consult its peoples, because the majority of them would have declared +against the war. The representatives of the Czech nation would have certainly +protested with the greatest emphasis. That is why the government did not +consult a single Czech deputy or politician with regard to taking so momentous +a step.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Czech nation has always in modern times defended +a thoroughly Slav programme. Also during this war, which has found our nation +unprepared like all other peaceful nations, the Czechs have since the very +beginning expressed their sympathies for Russia, Serbia and their Allies, notwithstanding +the unprecedented Austrian terrorism, suppressing every manifestation of the +real feelings of the people. The pro-Austrian declarations are enforced by the +government. To-day the leading Czech politicians are in prison, the gallows +have become the favourite support of the incapable administration, and Czech +regiments have been decimated for acting spontaneously up to our national Czech +programme. The rights of the Czech language have been ruthlessly violated +during the war, and the absolutist military rule has reigned throughout Bohemia +and other non-German and non-Magyar parts of the monarchy as in enemy +countries. Every declaration in the Czech journals is suppressed, while our +national adversaries are not only allowed to make propaganda against the Czech +nation, but even the pan-German orgies in the spirit of Lagarde, von Hartmann, +Mommsen, and Treitschke are supported by Vienna and Budapest.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Under these circumstances the Czech nation cannot +continue to keep silence. That is why the Czech and Slovak emigrants abroad +deem it their duty to inform foreign opinion about the true situation of Bohemia, +to interpret the aspirations of the Czecho-Slovak nation to the Allied +statesmen, politicians and journalists, and to defend the Czecho-Slovak +programme.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Czech parties have hitherto striven for the +independence of their nation inside Austria-Hungary. <i>The course which this +fratricidal war has taken and the ruthless violence of </i><i>Vienna</i><i> +make it necessary for all of us to strive for independence without regard to </i><i>Austria-Hungary</i><i>. +We are struggling for an absolutely independent Czecho-Slovak State</i>.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Czech nation has come to the conclusion that it +must take its destiny into its own hands. Austria was defeated not only by Russia, +but also by the small and despised Serbia, and became a dependency of Germany. +To-day it has recovered a little under the direction of Berlin, but that +desperate strain of forces does not deceive us: it is only a proof of the +abdication of Austria-Hungary. We have lost all confidence in the vitality of Austria-Hungary, +and we no more recognise its right to existence. Through its incapability and +dependence it has proved to the whole world that the assumption of the +necessity of Austria has passed, and has through this war been proved to be +wrong. Those who have defended the possibility and necessity of +Austria-Hungary--and at one time it was Palacký himself--demanded a +confederated state of equal nations and lands. But the dualist Austria-Hungary +became the oppressor of non-German and non-Magyar nationalities. It is the +obstacle to peace in Europe and it has degenerated into a mere tool for Germany's +expansion to the East, without a positive mission of its own, unable to create +a state organisation of equal nations, free and progressive in civilisation. +The dynasty, living in its absolutist traditions, maintains itself a phantom of +its former world empire, assisted in government by its undemocratic partners, +the barren aristocracy, the anti-national bureaucracy, and the anti-national +military staff.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"To-day there is no doubt that Austria-Hungary wrongly +used the assassination at Sarajevo as a pretext against Serbia. Vienna and Budapest +did not hesitate to use forged documents manufactured by their own embassy +against the Yugoslavs, and in this policy of deceit Vienna and Budapest have +persisted during this war. To this deceit they have now added revengeful +spitefulness and cruelty truly barbarian against the non-Germans and +non-Magyars.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Germany shares the guilt with Austria-Hungary; it was +in Germany's power and it was her duty towards civilisation and humanity to +prevent the war and not to take advantage of the imperialist lust of Vienna and + Budapest.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Austria-Hungary and Germany are fighting with their +Turkish and Bulgarian Allies for a cause which is unjust and doomed."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Later on, when <i>Dr. Edward Beneš</i>, lecturer at the +Czech University of Prague and author of several well-known studies in +sociology, also escaped abroad, the Czecho-Slovak National Council was formed, +of which Professor Masaryk became the president, <i>Dr. Štefanik</i>, a +distinguished airman and scientist, Hungarian Slovak by birth, the +vice-president, and Dr. E. Beneš the general secretary. A French review +was started in Paris (<i>La Nation Tchèque</i>) in May, 1915, which became the +official organ of the Czecho-Slovak movement. Up to May, 1917, it was published +under the editorship of Professor Denis, and since then its editor has been Dr. +Beneš. A Central Czech organ is also published in Paris called <i>Samostatnost</i> +("Independence"), edited by Dr. Sychrava, an eminent Czech +journalist.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The undisputed authority enjoyed by Professor Masaryk among +all the Czecho-Slovaks is undoubtedly the secret of the great strength and +unity of the movement. It is also the reason for the great diplomatic successes +achieved by the Czechs. The chief lieutenants of Professor Masaryk were Dr. +Beneš, an untiring worker with rare political instinct and perspicacity, +and Dr. Milan Štefanik, who entered the French army as a private at the +beginning of the war, was gradually promoted, and in May, 1918, rose to the +rank of brigadier-general. He rendered valuable service to France as an +astronomist before the war, and as an airman during the war. He has rendered +still greater service to the Czecho-Slovak cause as a diplomat. These three +men, unanimously recognised by the two million Czecho-Slovaks in the Allied +countries as their leaders, were finally, in the summer of 1918, recognised +also by the Allies as the <i>de facto</i> provisional government of the Czecho-Slovak + State, with all rights and powers of a real government. The central seat of +the Czecho-Slovak Government is in Paris, and official Czecho-Slovak +representatives and legations are in all the Allied capitals.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>3. The first political success of the National Council was +the Allies' Note to President Wilson of January 10, 1917. The Czechs are +especially grateful to France for this first recognition of their claims.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In this Note, in which the Allies for the first time stated +publicly and explicitly their war aims, the Allies declared that these include:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The reorganisation of Europe guaranteed by a stable +settlement, based upon the principle of nationality, upon the right which all +peoples, whether small or great, have to the enjoyment of full security and +free economic development, and also upon territorial agreements and +international arrangements so framed as to guarantee land and sea frontiers +against unjust attacks; the restitution of provinces or territories formerly +torn from the Allies by force or contrary to the wishes of their inhabitants; <i>the +liberation of Italians, Slavs, Rumanians and Czecho-Slovaks from foreign +domination</i>; the liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous +tyranny of the Turks, and the expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman Empire, +which has proved itself so radically alien to Western civilisation."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The greatest success of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, +however, has been the formal recognition by France of the formation of an +autonomous Czecho-Slovak army in France with the National Council at its head. +By this act France recognised:</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>(1) That the Czecho-Slovaks have a right to form an army of +their own, which right appertains only to a sovereign and independent nation;</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>(2) That the Czecho-Slovaks have a right to fight on the side +of the Entente, and therefore are to be considered as one of the Allies;</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>(3) That the political direction of the army is reserved to +the Czecho-Slovak National Council, which right is usually accorded only to the +government of an independent state.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The full text of this historic document, signed by the +President of the French Republic, M. Poincaré, the French Premier, M. +Clémenceau, and the Foreign Secretary, M. Pichon, and dated December 19, 1917, reads as follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"1. The Czecho-Slovaks organised in an autonomous army +and recognising, from the military point of view, the superior authority of the +French high command, will fight under their own flag against the Central +Powers.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"2. This national army is placed, from the political +point of view, under the direction of the Czecho-Slovak National Council whose +headquarters are in Paris.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"3. The formation of the Czecho-Slovak army as well as +its further work are assured by the French Government.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"4. The Czecho-Slovak army will be subject to the same +dispositions as regards organisation, hierarchy, administration and military +discipline as those in force in the French army.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"5. The Czecho-Slovak army will be recruited from +among:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>(<i>a</i>) Czecho-Slovaks at present serving with the +French army;</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>(<i>b</i>) Czecho-Slovaks from other countries admitted to +be transferred into the Czecho-Slovak army or to contract a voluntary +engagement with this army for the duration of war.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"6. Further ministerial instructions will settle the +application of this decree.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"7. The President of the War Cabinet, the Secretary of +War, and the Foreign Secretary are charged each in his own sphere to bring into +effect the present decree, which will be published in the <i>Bulletin des Lois</i> +and inserted in the <i>Journal Officiel de la République Française</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In a covering letter, dated December 16, 1917, and addressed to M. Poincaré, the French Premier and the Foreign Secretary declared:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"France has always supported by all means in her power +the national aspirations of the Czecho-Slovaks. The number of volunteers of +this nationality who at the outbreak of the war enlisted to fight under the +French flag was considerable; the gaps created in their ranks prove +unquestionably the ardour with which they fought against our enemies.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Certain Allied governments, especially the Russian +Provisional Government, did not hesitate to authorise the formation on our +front of units composed of Czecho-Slovaks who had escaped from the oppression +of their enemy.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"It is only just that this nationality should be given +means of defending, under their own flag and side by side with us, the cause of +right and liberty of peoples, and it will be in accord with French traditions +to assist the organisation of an autonomous Czecho-Slovak army."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Needless to say, the joy over this recognition was very +great in Bohemia, while the German papers were furious. The <i>Neue Freie +Presse</i> of December 28 devoted its leading article to the Czecho-Slovak army +on the Western front, and concluded with the following remarks:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Although the strength of this new army is estimated +at 120,000 men, the Czecho-Slovak army will not have a decisive influence on +the military operations. Nevertheless, it may do us considerable harm in case +we should transfer troops to the Western front. However, the greatest harm is +in the moral effect which this act of wholesale treachery of the Czechs will +have on the military power of the monarchy. In any case the co-operation of the +Czecho-Slovak army on the side of the Entente will only strengthen the Allies' +belief that right is on their side."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Soon afterwards Italy also generously allowed an +expeditionary corps of the Czecho-Slovak army to be formed from the +Czecho-Slovak prisoners of war who surrendered to her. On May 23, 1918, the Czecho-Slovak troops welcomed the Prince of Wales to Rome, and soon afterwards they +distinguished themselves on the Piave and were mentioned in one of General +Diaz's dispatches and also in the official Italian <i>communiqué</i> of September 22, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>From the recognition of the Czecho-Slovak army followed the +full recognition which the National Council obtained from the Allies.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>4. While the general secretariat was actively working for +these concessions in the West, Professor Masaryk, after devoting his attention +to the education of public opinion in Great Britain on the importance of Bohemia, +by means of private memoranda and various articles in the <i>New </i><i>Europe</i><i>, +Weekly Dispatch</i> and elsewhere, decided in May, 1917, to go to Russia.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In Russia, Professor Masaryk succeeded admirably in uniting +and strengthening all Czecho-Slovak forces, and in organising a regular army of +the many thousands of Czecho-Slovak prisoners there. As we have already pointed +out elsewhere, before the Revolution these efforts of the National Council and +the Czech prisoners, who were always eager to fight for the Allies, were +rendered immensely difficult by the obstacles inherent in the geographic +conditions of Russia and by obstacles placed in their way by the old Russian +régime.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Unfortunately now, when the Czecho-Slovaks had at last +succeeded after much work in realising their plans, the Czecho-Slovak army +became powerless owing to the collapse of Russia. Without ammunition, without +support from anywhere, the Czecho-Slovaks thought they could no more render +very effective service to the Allies in the East. They decided, therefore, to +go over to join their compatriots in France.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The position of our army was as follows: After the offensive +of July, 1917, the Czechs retreated to Kieff where they continued to +concentrate fresh forces. At that time they numbered about 60,000, and this +number had gradually increased to 80,000 by the end of 1917. They always +observed strict neutrality in Russia's internal affairs on the advice of their +venerable leader, Professor Masaryk. It was necessary to counsel this neutrality +for the sake of our army itself, since it contained partisans of different +creeds and parties disagreement among whom might have led to its dissolution. +On the whole, the Czecho-Slovaks, who are an advanced nation, fully conscious +of their national aspirations, remained unaffected by the misleading Bolshevist +theories. The Czechs abstained throughout from interfering with Russian +affairs, yet they did not wish to leave Russia as long as there was any chance +for them to assist her. It was not until the shameful peace of Brest-Litovsk in +February, 1918, that Professor Masaryk decided that the Czecho-Slovak army +should leave Russia <i>via</i> Siberia and join the Czecho-Slovak army in France. +The Bolsheviks granted them free passage to Vladivostok.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>This journey of some 5000 miles was not, however, an easy +task for an army to accomplish. The troops had to move in small échelons or +detachments, and concentration at the stations was prohibited. They had to +procure their trains and their provisions, and they had constant trouble with +the Bolsheviks, because in every district there was a practically independent +Soviet Government with whom the Czechs had to negotiate. The first detachments +with the generalissimo of the army, General Diderichs, at the head arrived in Vladivostok +at the end of April, 1918. But the other detachments were constantly held up by +the Bolsheviks and had great trouble in passing through.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>They moved from Kieff <i>via</i> Kursk, Tambov, Penza and +Samara. The two last-named towns lie on the line between Moscow and +Tcheliabinsk at the foot of the Urals, whence a direct line runs across Siberia +to Vladivostok.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>As we have already pointed out, the Bolsheviks agreed in +principle to allow our troops to leave Russia. Their commander-in-chief, +General Muraviev, allowed the Czechs free passage to France on February 16. The +same concession had been granted by the Moscow Soviet. On the whole the Czechs +were on tolerably good terms with the Bolsheviks. Professor Masaryk rejected +every plan directed against the Bolsheviks submitted to him even by such of +their political adversaries as could not justly be called +counter-revolutionaries. The Czecho-Slovak troops went still further; they +actually complied with the request of the Bolsheviks and partially disarmed. +The trouble only began in May, 1918, when the Bolsheviks yielded to German +intrigues and resolved to destroy our army.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Already at the beginning of May the Czechs had begun to feel +embittered against the Bolsheviks, because in defiance of the agreement their +troops were constantly being held up by local Soviets. At Tambov, for instance, +they were held up for a whole month. At Tcheliabinsk the Czechs had a serious +scuffle with Magyar ex-prisoners on May 26, and the Bolsheviks sided entirely +with the Magyars, even arresting some Czecho-Slovak delegates. The Czechs +simply occupied the city, liberated their comrades, and at a congress held by +them at Tcheliabinsk on May 28 it was decided to refuse to surrender any more +arms and ammunition and to continue transports to Vladivostok, if necessary +with arms in their hands. This was a reply to Trotsky's telegram that the +Czecho-Slovaks should be completely disarmed, which the Czecho-Slovaks defied +as they knew that another order had been issued by Trotsky simultaneously, no +doubt on the instigation of Count Mirbach, saying that the Czecho-Slovak troops +must be dissolved at all costs and interned as prisoners of war. The Bolsheviks +now arrested prominent members of the Moscow branch of the Czecho-Slovak +National Council on the ground that they were "anti-revolutionaries." +They alleged also that they had no guarantee that ships would be provided for +the Czechs to be transported to France, and that the Czechs were holding up +food supplies from Siberia. The Bolsheviks deliberately broke their word, and +Trotsky issued an order to "all troops fighting against the +anti-revolutionary Czecho-Slovak brigades" in which he said:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The concentration of our troops is complete. Our army +being aware that the Czecho-Slovaks are direct allies of the anti-revolution +and of the capitalists, fights them well. The Czecho-Slovaks are retreating +along the railway. Obviously they would like to enter into negotiations with +the Soviets. We issued an order that their delegates should be received. We +demand in the first place that they should be disarmed. <i>Those who do not do +so voluntarily will be shot on the spot.</i> Warlike operations on the railway +line hinder food transports. Energetic steps must be taken to do away with this +state of affairs."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czecho-Slovaks were greatly handicapped, since they were +not only almost unarmed, but were also dispersed along the trans-Siberian line +in small detachments which had considerable difficulty in keeping in touch with +each other. Nevertheless the fates were favourable to them. They were +victorious almost everywhere, thanks to their wonderful spirit and discipline.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The first victories gained by the Czecho-Slovaks over the +Bolsheviks were at Penza and Samara. Penza was captured by them after three +days' fighting at the end of May. Later the Czecho-Slovaks also took Sysran on +the Volga, Kazan with its large arsenal, Simbirsk and Yekaterinburg, connecting +Tcheliabinsk with Petrograd, and occupied practically the whole Volga region.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In Siberia they defeated a considerable force of +German-Magyar ex-prisoners in Krasnoyarsk and Omsk and established themselves +firmly in Udinsk. On June 29, 15,000 Czecho-Slovaks under General Diderichs, +after handing an ultimatum to the Bolsheviks at Vladivostok, occupied the city +without much resistance. Only at one spot fighting took place and some 160 +Bolsheviks were killed. The Czecho-Slovaks, assisted by Japanese and Allied +troops, then proceeded to the north and north-west, while the Bolsheviks and +German prisoners retreated to Chabarovsk. In September the Czech and Allied +troops from Vladivostok joined hands with the Czecho-Slovaks from Irkutsk and Western + Siberia, and thus gained control over practically the whole trans-Siberian +railway. By this means they have done great service to the Allies, especially +to Great Britain, by defending the East against the German invaders. +Furthermore, it was the Czecho-Slovaks' bold action which induced Japan and +America at last to intervene in Russia and for the sake of Russia, and it was +their control of the Siberian railway which made such intervention possible. +Let us hope that their action will lead to the regeneration and salvation of +the Russian nation.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The service rendered by Czecho-Slovak troops to the Allied +cause was, of course, justly appreciated by the Allies. Mr. Lloyd George sent +the following telegram to Professor Masaryk on September 9:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"On behalf of the British War Cabinet I send you our +heartiest congratulations on the striking successes won by the Czecho-Slovak +forces against the armies of German and Austrian troops in Siberia. The story +of the adventures and triumphs of this small army is, indeed, one of the +greatest epics of history. It has filled us all with admiration for the +courage, persistence and self-control of your countrymen, and shows what can be +done to triumph over time, distance and lack of material resources by those +holding the spirit of freedom in their hearts. Your nation has rendered +inestimable service to Russia and to the Allies in their struggle to free the +world from despotism. We shall never forget it."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The deeds of our army met with equal admiration and +gratitude also in Bohemia. This is clearly shown by the speech of the Czech +deputy Stříbrný, delivered in the Austrian Reichsrat on July 17, and +entirely suppressed in the Austrian and German press. Despite the vigilance on +the part of the Austrian authorities, however, we have been able to secure the +full text of this remarkable speech which reads as follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"GENTLEMEN,--Let me first of all emphasise that my +speech is not a defence of the Czech nation and of the Czech soldiers. There +are no judges in this parliament competent to judge us.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"You call us traitors. We accept your declaration as +the view of our enemy. Nothing more--nothing less.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"You gentlemen on the German benches, you dared, +however, to touch the honour of our soldiers--you called them cowards. And in +this respect we are not going to keep silent. We shall always protest against +such injustice! We shall never permit these heroes to be abused by being called +'cowards.' If there is a single gentleman among you he ought for a moment to +reflect on the soul of a Czech soldier--a soldier who has been compelled by +force to fight in a war which the German Imperial Chancellor has openly called +'a war of Germans against the Slavs'; a soldier who was compelled under the +threat of immediate execution to take up arms against the interests of the +Slavs, against the interests of his brothers, against the interests of his own +country--Bohemia. Well then, was it cowardice on the part of this soldier when he, +exposed to the fire of Austrian and German guns and machine guns from behind, +went over to the other side? Was he a coward when, while free to remain in his +captivity as a prisoner of war safely waiting until the end of the war, he +volunteered to fight again and was ready to risk his life and health once more? +Is that Czech soldier a coward who went once more into the trenches, although +aware that if he were captured he would not be treated as an ordinary prisoner +of war but as a deserter, and hanged accordingly? Is that man a coward who +sacrifices his family which he has left behind and his soil and property +inherited from his ancestors? Is that man a coward who sacrifices himself, his +father and mother, his wife and children for the sake of his nation and country?</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Is that Czech soldier not a hero who to-day is +voluntarily fighting from the Ural Mountains to Vladivostok, on the Piave and +in France?</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"If there is a single gentleman, a real gentleman +among you, let him stand up and answer these questions.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"And if there is not such a gentleman among you, +remember the words of our bitter enemy the late Minister for Home Defence, +Baron Georgi, who related to this House in a secret sitting all that our +regiments have accomplished. He could not as a soldier suppress a sigh and say, +'We regret all those treacheries of Czech soldiers, still more because from +their deeds committed on the side of our enemy we can realise what a splendid +military material we have lost.' And if this is not sufficient, I will remind +you of the opinion of those who are in your eyes the best judges--the Prussian +officers. In an Austrian officers' canteen where Czech soldiers had been abused +the whole evening by being called cowards, the Prussian officers present were +asked to give their opinion on this point. They answered, 'We shall only be +able to judge as to whether the Czechs are cowards or not when they begin to +fight against us.'</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"You should at least be gentlemanly enough not to +slander your enemies who have proved themselves to be greater heroes than any +other soldiers, because they are voluntary heroes, whereas the others are +heroes under compulsion!</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"This question of cowardice is therefore, I hope, +settled forever.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"And now with regard to the title of 'traitors.' <i>We +are traitors to </i><i>Austria</i><i>--every one of us admits it honestly</i>. +Not one of you, however, has the right to reproach us for this. All of you are +patriots by order, and it cannot be otherwise in a dynastic state like Austria.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"With regard to the patriotism of the Magyars, we have +proofs of this dating from 1866. They have done the same as we are doing +to-day. They surrendered and organised Klapka's legions against Austria. The +fact that they were punished for their treachery by being given their own +independence does not speak against us.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Yes, gentlemen, we are traitors as much as you +Magyars, or as you Germans were, or would be under similar circumstances. And <i>we +want the same as you want</i>, i.e. <i>to be free citizens of our own state</i>. +Our own state--that does not mean to have a few officials or one more +university. To have a state of our own--that means to be able to decide freely +if our soldiers shall go to war again, and if they do, to see that they go only +for the interests of their own nation, and not for the interests of their enemies. +An independent state--that means for us no longer to die by order of +foreigners, and no longer to live under foreign domination.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Let me remind the gentlemen on the German benches of +a lesson in history. Up till 1866 Germany was nominally under the sceptre of +the Habsburg dynasty--a German dynasty, mind you. Prussia and Northern Germany +felt the indignity of the 'foreign' rule of the Habsburgs--and they started the +fratricidal war in 1866 in order to get rid of this rule....</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"It is for you gentlemen on the German benches to +speak! Let him who regrets the blood then spilt stand up and speak. Let him +stand up and condemn Bismarck and William I. who started the war in order to +deliver Germany from the same yoke from which we are trying to free ourselves +to-day. If there is a single man among the Germans who would be prepared to say +that the war against Austria should never have happened, let him stand up. That +war was carried on to free Germany from the incapable rule of Vienna and it had +the same aim in view which you reproach us with to-day and call high treason!</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"You are silent, gentlemen! We are satisfied with your +silence. And now go and continue to stone and abuse us."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>5. In the meantime, Professor Masaryk arrived in the United + States <i>via</i> Japan in May, 1918. He was accorded a splendid reception at + Chicago where some 200,000 Czecho-Slovaks, as well as various Allied +representatives, greeted him. His presence in the United States not only +stimulated recruiting among Czecho-Slovaks there, but had also political +results, especially when the Central Powers launched their peace offensive.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>At the end of May, Mr. Lansing issued the following +statement:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Secretary of State desires to announce that the +proceedings of the Congress of Oppressed Nationalities of Austria-Hungary which +was held in Rome in April have been followed with great interest by the +Government of the United States, and that the nationalist aspirations of the +Czecho-Slovaks and Jugoslavs have the earnest sympathy of this +government."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>This declaration was endorsed by the representatives of Great + Britain, France and Italy at Versailles on June 3, 1918. On June 29, Mr. Lansing completed and explained his statement as follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Since the issuance by this government on May 29 of a +statement regarding the nationalist aspirations for freedom of the +Czecho-Slovaks and Jugoslavs, German and Austrian officials have sought to +misinterpret and distort its manifest interpretation. In order, therefore, that +there may be no misunderstanding concerning the meaning of this statement, the +Secretary of State to-day further announces the position of the United States +Government to be that <i>all branches of the Slav race should be completely +freed from German and Austrian rule</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On the following day, that is on June 30, 1918, President Poincaré presented the Czecho-Slovak army with a flag and delivered an +inspiring speech to them.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On the occasion of the handing of this flag by President +Pioncaré to the Czecho-Slovak army, M. Pichon, the Minister for Foreign +Affairs, on behalf of the government of the French Republic, addressed the +following letter to Dr. Edouard Beneš, the general secretary of the +Czecho-Slovak National Council in Paris:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"At the moment when the 21st Regiment of Chasseurs, +the first unit of the autonomous Czecho-Slovak army in France, after receiving +its flag, is leaving its quarters to take up its position in a sector amongst +its French brothers-in-arms, the Republican Government, in recognition of your +efforts and your attachment to the Allied cause, considers it just and +necessary to proclaim <i>the right of your nation to its independence and to +recognise publicly and officially the National Council as the supreme organ of +its general interests and the first step towards a future Czecho-Slovak +Government</i>.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"During many centuries the Czecho-Slovak nation has +enjoyed the incomparable benefit of independence. It has been deprived of this +independence through the violence of the Habsburgs allied to the German +princes. The historic rights of nations are imperishable. It is for the defence +of these rights that France, attacked, is fighting to-day together with her +Allies. The cause of the Czechs is especially dear to her.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"France will never forget the Prague manifestation of December 8, 1870. Neither will she forget the resistance of its population and the refusal +of Czech soldiers to fight for Austria-Hungary, for which heroism thousands of +these patriots paid with their lives. France has also heard the appeals of the +Czech deputies of January 6, April 13, and May 16, 1918.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Faithful to the principles of respect for +nationalities and the liberation of oppressed nations, <i>the Government of the +Republic considers the claims of the Czecho-Slovak nation as just and well +founded, and will, at the right moment, support with all its solicitude the +realisation of your aspirations to independence within the historic boundaries +of your territories</i> at present suffering under the oppressive yoke of +Austria and Hungary.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"It is very pleasant for me, Monsieur le Secrétaire +Général, to make this declaration. Your sentiments, reflecting those of your +compatriots, are for me the measure of the high degree of the future happiness +of your country.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In the name of the Government of the French Republic +I tender <i>my warmest and most sincere wishes that the Czecho-Slovak State may +speedily become, through the common efforts of all the Allies and in close +union with Poland and the Jugoslav State, an insurmountable barrier to Teutonic +aggression</i> and a factor for peace in a reconstituted Europe in accordance +with the principles of justice and rights of nationalities."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>It is unnecessary to add long comments to this clear and +explicit state paper which forms a veritable pledge on the part of France to +secure Czecho-Slovak independence. It is a recognition of Bohemia's right to +independence and of the National Council as the supreme organ of the +Czecho-Slovak nation abroad. At the same time it is also an acceptance of our +programme of the reorganisation of Central Europe, necessitating the break-up +of Austria, and in this respect it is also a success and a pledge for the Poles +and Yugoslavs.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>6. If France and Italy showed such deep understanding of the +cause of Bohemia's liberty, exhibited in practice by special military +conventions concluded with our National Council, Great Britain may be proud of +no less generosity. Although having no direct interests in seeing Bohemia +independent, Great Britain, true to her traditions as a champion of the +liberties of small nations, did not hesitate to give us a declaration which not +only fully endorses all pledges of France and Italy, but which goes still +further and practically recognises our full national sovereignty.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On August 9, 1918, His Majesty's Government issued the +following declaration:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Since the beginning of the war the Czecho-Slovak +nation has resisted the common enemy by every means in its power. The +Czecho-Slovaks have constituted a considerable army, fighting on three +different battlefields and attempting, in Russia and Siberia, to arrest the +Germanic invasion.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>In consideration of their efforts to achieve +independence, Great Britain regards the Czecho-Slovaks as an Allied nation and +recognises the unity of the three Czecho-Slovak armies as an Allied and +belligerent army waging a regular warfare against Austria-Hungary and Germany</i>.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Great Britain also recognises <i>the right of the +Czecho-Slovak National Council as the supreme organ of the Czecho-Slovak +national interests, and as the present trustee of the future Czecho-Slovak +Government to exercise supreme authority over this Allied and belligerent army</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>It will be readily seen of what a tremendous significance +this declaration is from an international point of view. Apart from the fact +that it recognises our efforts towards independence, the declaration says explicitly +that the Czecho-Slovaks, abroad and at home, are an Allied nation, which +implies that the Allies will treat them henceforward as such, and will allow +their government to establish consular service and to send representatives to +Allied conferences. The sovereignty both of the Czecho-Slovak army and of the +National Council is fully recognised in this declaration which proclaims +"the unity of the three Czecho-Slovak armies (in Russia, France and Italy) +as an <i>Allied and belligerent army</i> waging <i>regular warfare</i> against Austria." +Only a sovereign army is a belligerent army waging regular warfare. Thus the +Czecho-Slovaks, according to international law, are no more rebels but regular +soldiers whom, when captured, Austria has no more the right to execute. Similarly +also the recognition of the National Council as the "trustee" of the +Czecho-Slovak Government is clear and explicit; in fact a "trustee" +is the word applied to a provisional government of a state. As a matter of +fact, the National Council, on the ground of this recognition of full +sovereignty, was constituted as a Provisional Government on October 14, 1918, and has the power to exercise all rights appertaining to a sovereign and +independent government.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Thus implicitly Great Britain considers Czecho-Slovak +independence already a <i>fait accompli</i>. It speaks of and considers a Czecho-Slovak + State no more as a probability, but as a certainty. As with the Czecho-Slovaks +so with Great Britain, Austria exists no more.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The recognition is of additional importance because it comes +from Great Britain who has always been considered a traditional friend of Austria, +and who is known for conservatism in foreign politics. The decision to issue a +declaration of such far-reaching importance was surely arrived at only after +due and careful deliberation. The step which Great Britain has taken thereby +once more proves the deep sense of justice and the far-sightedness of British +statesmen. Needless to say that the Czecho-Slovaks will always remain grateful +to Great Britain for this bold and generous act. Its immediate effect has been +consternation in Vienna and encouragement both to the Czecho-Slovak soldiers +fighting on the side of the Entente and to the Czech leaders courageously +defending Bohemia's rights in Vienna. As deputy Klofáč put it at a meeting +in Laibach on August 15:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Henceforward the Czechs will refuse to hold any +negotiations with Vienna, with whom any compromise is now out of the question. +The Czecho-Slovaks will firmly continue the struggle for complete national +independence, strengthened by the support of other Slavs, and by the knowledge +that the British and other Allied governments had formally acknowledged and +were working for the establishment of an independent Czecho-Slovak State."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>This chapter would not be complete if we did not quote the +subsequent declarations of the United States of America and Japan, practically +endorsing the British declaration.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On September 3, Mr. Lansing issued the following statement:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Czecho-Slovak peoples having taken up arms +against the German and Austro-Hungarian empires, and having placed in the field +organised armies, which are waging war against those empires under officers of +their own nationality and in accordance with the rules and practices of +civilised nations, and Czecho-Slovaks having in the prosecution of their +independence in the present war confided the supreme political authority to the +Czecho-Slovak National Council, the Government of the United States recognises +that a state of belligerency exists between the Czecho-Slovaks thus organised +and the German and Austro-Hungarian empires.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"It also recognises <i>the Czecho-Slovak National +Council as a</i> de facto <i>belligerent government</i>, clothed with proper +authority to direct the military and political affairs of the Czecho-Slovaks.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Government of the United States further declares +that it is prepared to enter formally into relations with the <i>de facto</i> +government thus recognised for the purpose of prosecuting the war against the +common enemy, the empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>A week later the Japanese Government, through the medium of +its ambassador in London, communicated the following declaration to the +Czecho-Slovak National Council:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Japanese Government have noted with deep and +sympathetic interest the just aspirations of the Czecho-Slovak people for a +free and independent national existence. These aspirations have conspicuously +been made manifest in their determined and well-organised efforts to arrest the +progress of the Germanic aggression.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In these circumstances, the Japanese Government are +happy to regard the Czecho-Slovak army as an Allied and belligerent army waging +regular warfare against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and to recognise the +rights of the Czecho-Slovak National Council to exercise the supreme control +over that army. They are further prepared to enter into communication with the +duly authorised representatives of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, whenever +necessary, on all matters of mutual interest to the Japanese and the Czecho-Slovak +forces in Siberia."</p> + +<p class=Chapter><a name=SpeakAtHome>VII</a></p> + +<p class=ChapterDescription>THE CZECHS AT HOME BEGIN TO SPEAK</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The opening of the Reichsrat in May, 1917, was intended to +give Austria the appearance of a "democratic" country in which +diverse nationalities live in peace and happiness. Democratic indeed! A parliament, +subject to censorship, lacking the freedom of speech and all influence on the +government, with 463 members instead of 516, many of whom were still in prison +and in exile! And if there was still any person in the Allied countries having +any doubts concerning the attitude of the Czechs and Yugoslavs, these doubts +were certainly dispelled after the courageous indictment against Austria made +by the Slav deputies, representing practically all the Czech and Yugoslav +political parties. The declaration of the Poles in favour of a united and +independent Poland, the statement of Messrs. Staněk and Korošec in +the name of <i>all</i> Czechs and Yugoslavs in favour of a Czecho-Slovak and +Yugoslav State, the speech of deputy Kalina denying all responsibility of the +Czechs for the war, and expressing Czech sympathies with the Entente Powers, and +the terrible story of persecutions which the Czechs had to suffer from Austria +during the war, told by deputy Stříbrný, formed a veritable "Mene +Tekel," a death sentence pronounced by the Austrian Slavs on their tyrants +in Vienna and Budapest.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The revelation in the Reichsrat of the hopeless state of +decay prevailing in Austria-Hungary was, of course, due to the Russian +Revolution. If it was not for the Russian Revolution, the Austrian Emperor and +Clam-Martinic would perhaps have continued their reign of absolutism by way of +imperial decrees, and they would never have dreamt of convoking the Reichsrat.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>However, the desperate economic and political situation +forced Austria to find some way out of her difficulties, and to plead for peace +as she began to realise that otherwise she was doomed. The change of order and +the situation in Russia and the uncertain attitude of some Allied statesmen +seemed favourable for the Austrian calculations respecting a separate peace. +But Austria could not possibly hope to deceive free Russia or the Allies and +lure them into concluding a premature peace if the reign of terrorism and +absolutism still prevailed in the Dual Monarchy. For this reason Tisza, with +his sinister reputation, was forced to go, and the Reichsrat was convened. Austria +based her plans on the ignorance of some Allied politicians who really believed +in the "new orientation" of the Vienna Government because of the +Bohemian <i>names</i> (not sympathies) of Clam-Martinic and Czernin. In the +same way Austria wanted to make outsiders believe that a change in the name of +the Hungarian Premier meant a change of system, and that the convocation of the +Reichsrat meant a new era of "democracy" in Austria.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Neither of these assumptions was, of course, correct. If the +Magyars talk of introducing universal suffrage, they want to extend it to +Magyar electors, and on one condition only, viz. that all the candidates shall +be of <i>Magyar</i> nationality, or, as the Hungarian Premier, Count Esterhazy, +put it, "democracy in Hungary can only be a Magyar democracy"--that +is, a system utterly at variance with the principles of justice.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>But far from averting the doom of Austria and bringing her +peace and consolation, the opening of the Reichsrat only hastened Austria's +downfall, for it enabled the Austrian Slavs, who now felt that the moment had +come for them to speak, to declare before the whole world their aspirations, +and their determination to destroy the monarchy.</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=MayDeclaration><i>(a) The Czech Declaration of </i></a><i>May</i> 30, 1917</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Before entering the Reichsrat, the Czechs made it clear that +they no longer desired any compromise with Austria. In a manifesto signed by +150 Czech authors and subsequently endorsed by professors, teachers and various +societies and corporations, the Czech deputies were reminded that the fate of +their nation was at stake:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The doors of the Austrian Parliament are opening and +the political representatives of the nations have for the first time the +opportunity of speaking and acting freely. Whatever they may say and decide +will be heard not only at home, but also throughout Europe and overseas.... The +programme of our nation is founded on its history and racial unity, on its +modern political life and rights. The present time emphasises the necessity for +carrying out this programme completely.... To-day you are forced to develop +this programme, to defend it to the last breath before the forum of Europe, and +to demand its realisation without limitations.... Democratic Europe, the Europe +of free and independent nations, is the Europe of the future. The nation asks +you to be equal to this historic occasion, to devote to it all your abilities +and to sacrifice to it all other considerations...."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>And to this appeal of their nation the Czech, deputies did +not turn a deaf ear.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On entering the Reichsrat on May 30, 1917, Mr. Staněk, president of the Union of Czech Deputies, made the following memorable +declaration in the name of all the Czech deputies:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"While taking our stand at this historic moment on the +natural right of peoples to self-determination and free development--a right +which in our case is further strengthened by inalienable historic rights fully +recognised by this state--we shall, at the head of our people, work for <i>the +union of all branches of the Czecho-Slovak nation in a single democratic +Bohemian State</i>, comprising also the Slovak branch of our nation which lives +in the lands adjoining our Bohemian Fatherland."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Both the Yugoslav and the Polish press greeted this +declaration with undisguised joy and sympathy.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The <i>Glos Naroda</i> welcomed the Czech declaration, and +added: "Those who to-day are asking for an independent national existence +do not claim anything but the minimum of their rights. Nothing less could +satisfy them (<i>i.e.</i> the Czechs and Yugo-slavs), seeing that even smaller +and less historic nations claim the same." The <i>Nowa Reforma</i> also +said that the Czechs were quite right to ask for full independence. "They +are entitled to it by their position in which they can lose nothing more than +they have lost already, but gain a great deal. Among the Entente Powers there +is nobody who would have an open or disguised interest in opposing even the +boldest claims of the Czecho-Slovak nation."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The declaration of deputy Staněk was completed by a +statement of deputy Kalina who made it quite clear that the Czechs refuse +responsibility for the war, and that their sympathies are with the Entente. +Kalina, a prominent leader of the State Right Party, said:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"As deputies elected by the Czech nation, <i>we +absolutely reject every responsibility for this war</i>.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"After three years, the government has summoned the <i>Reichsrat, +which the Czechs never recognised</i>, and against which, as well as against +the so-called constitution, they again make a formal protest. The great Russian +Revolution forced the government to a plausible restoration of constitutional +life.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>The Czech nation hails with unbounded joy and +enthusiasm the liberation of Eastern Europe</i>. The main principles of that +memorable Revolution are closely related to our own traditions, <i>i.e.</i> to +the principle of <i>liberty, equality and fraternity of all nations</i>. Bohemia +is a free country. Never in her history did she accept laws from aliens, not +even from her powerful neighbours in Europe. Liberty of individuals, liberty of +nations is again our motto which the nation of Hussites is bringing before the +world. In these historic moments, when from the blood-deluged battlefields a +new Europe is arising, and the idea of the sovereignty of nations and +nationalities is triumphantly marching throughout the Continent, <i>the Czech +nation solemnly declares before the world its firm will for liberty and +independence</i> on the ground of the ancient historic rights of the Bohemian +Crown. In demanding independence, the Czech nation asks, in the sense of the +new democracy, for the extension of the right of self-determination to the +whole Czecho-Slovak nation."</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=ReichsratSpeeches><i>(b) Courageous Speeches delivered +by Czech Deputies in the Reichsrat</i></a></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>During the subsequent session of the Reichsrat, various +Czech deputies, representing all the Czech parties, made declarations, some of +which we will quote in order to show the remarkable unanimity of the Czechs in +their opposition to Austria and in their demand for independence. <i>It was +chiefly this unanimity of all Czech parties and classes in </i><i>Bohemia</i><i> +and the absolute harmony between their action and the Czecho-Slovak action +abroad which formed the real strength of the movement</i>.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>Dr. Stránský</i>, leader of the Moravian People's Party, +delivered a long speech in the Reichsrat on June 12, 1917, from which we quote the following significant passages:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Germans say that germanisation is not carried out +except where it is in the interests of the state. We do not think that the +interests of the state should go first. If the interests of a state are not +identical with the liberties and interests of a nation, then <i>such a state +has for that nation no right to exist</i>.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"If Clam-Martinic thinks that we will enter the +Reichsrat which the Polish deputies would not attend in their present strength, +then he is greatly mistaken. We heartily wish the Poles to achieve their +national independence, but should we be denied an equal right, then it would +mean an end to this Reichsrat. We want to enjoy the same happiness as the rest, +<i>we want to be free from all oppression, from all foreign domination. We want +to decide for ourselves the form of our political existence</i>. We want to +choose our own laws, we want to govern ourselves. <i>We claim the restitution +of our political independence and of the supreme historic right of the Czech +nation in the lands of the Bohemian Crown. The time is ripe also when the +Austrian fortresses of St. Peter and </i><i>St. Paul</i><i> will open, and when +their prisoners will change places with their persecutors. The state and +dynasty have lately taken away the rights and liberties of our nation and +trampled them underfoot</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On June 15, the National Socialist deputy <i>Stříbrný</i>, +openly demanded the creation of a Czecho-Slovak Republic:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The German annexationist plans are doomed. The Czechs +greet with joy the new era of equality and fraternity, an era in which a <i>democratic +republic</i> is considered as the best form of government. The Czechs demand +the creation of a Bohemia in which they will possess their own independent +government. <i>Too long have they been oppressed by </i><i>Austria</i><i>, and +now they are determined to achieve their national liberty</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On June 26, <i>Dr. Soukup</i>, the leader of the Czecho-Slav +Social Democratic Party, made an equally remarkable statement:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"As a Social Democrat I say that we, the Czecho-Slovak +nation, have also a right to a place in the sun, and we want to be seen. Do you +consider that a nation numbering over ten million and boasting of a highly +developed civilisation can continue to breathe under such oppressive +conditions, seeing what an important role is being played by four million +Bulgars, two million Greeks, two million Danes and other small nations? <i>We +welcome the resurrection of the great and united </i><i>Polish</i><i> </i><i>State</i><i>, +we witness the great Yugoslav nation shaping its boundaries along the </i><i>Adriatic</i><i>, +and we also see Ukrainia arising. At such moments we want to live as well, and +we will live</i>!"</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=AfterAmnesty><i>(c) After the Amnesty</i></a></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The political amnesty of July, 1917, intended to appease the +Slavs, had just the opposite effect: it only strengthened the Slav resistance +which acquired fresh strength and impetus by the return of the old leaders.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Kramář was hailed like a sovereign when he entered Prague +again. He now became the recognised leader of the whole nation. The <i>Národní +Listy</i> became the mouthpiece of all the most eminent leaders of the nation +without party distinction. Its issue of October 31, 1917, contained a map of the future independent Czecho-Slovak State and a series of articles. We +will quote only a few passages from an article written by deputy Rašín +which read as follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The war has brought our problem home not only to us +but to the whole world. Nothing could have better expressed our situation than +the propaganda of Mitteleuropa. Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria had to form a +bridge for the imperialistic march of Germany to the Persian Gulf <i>via</i> Constantinople +and Bagdad. The Czechs and Yugoslavs were to be crushed and become the victims +of those plans. This was the ideal that the German nation considered as its war +aim and as a war aim of Austria-Hungary. They could not have obtained a better +reply than was given to them by the Czechs and Yugoslavs in their demand for +their own independent states, which would be able to form a permanent bulwark +against the <i>Drang nach Osten</i> as planned by the Germans and Magyars. Even +if Herr Naumann ceases to promote the idea of Central Europe, in reality <i>a +new programme which would do away with the old evils and assign a new mission +to </i><i>Austria-Hungary</i><i> is inconceivable</i>. All the declarations of +the government are only destined to conceal their real intentions. The +German-Magyar hegemony is as strong as ever, and the Polish question is to be +solved only according to the Pan-German programme. During this war Austria's +real face has been unmasked before the whole world by her persecutions, +arbitrary decrees and the Pan-German propaganda.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Czechs, who in their policy always went hand in +hand with the Yugoslavs, saw all this, and consequently the only thing left for +them to do is to insist on their attitude, constantly to reveal Austria's +insincerity, to reject all pretty phrases without any meaning in them, and all +compromises, which we know would never be kept. <i>We also must reject a +compromise peace which would lead to fresh wars</i>.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>The policy of the Czechs cannot but aim at the +absolute independence of the whole Czecho-Slovak nation</i>, and all our action +at home and abroad must tend towards persuading the world that only thus can a +stable peace in Europe be achieved."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>It was about this time also when Seidler made desperate +attempts to induce the Slav leaders to participate in a special commission for +the revision of the Austrian Constitution. Dr. Stránský, speaking in the name +of the Czechs, openly refused the proposal, declaring that the Czech problem +could not be solved by Austria, but only by the Peace Conference, that is after +the victory of the Entente. A joint committee of representatives of the Young +Czech, National Socialist, Progressive Independence and Moravian Progressive +Parties issued a proclamation protesting against any participation of Czechs in +Austrian politics, and declaring that since the Czech question is an +international one and can therefore be decided only at the Peace Conference, +the duty of the Czech deputies is not to assist in the revision of the Austrian +Constitution, but to insist upon the creation of an "<i>independent +Czecho-Slovak State with all the attributes of sovereignty</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Simultaneously also the Czech Agrarian deputy, <i>Zahradník</i>, +made the following remarkable declaration in the Reichsrat on September 26:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In view of the prevailing policy directed against the +Czech people, can any one wonder that <i>they have lost all confidence in </i><i>Vienna</i> +and that they refuse to let this parliament decide their fate? <i>It is +necessary to secure for all peoples, great or small, the right to decide their +own destinies</i>. This applies also to the ten million Czecho-Slovaks who, +moreover, cannot rightly be considered merely as a 'small' nation: the Czechs, +too, do not desire anything more than peace, but it must not be forgotten <i>that +our men did not shed their blood merely for imperialism or for Pan-Germanism. We +do not want anything but an honourable peace which would bring equality to all +peoples</i>, a peace assuring liberty and equality to all, and not a peace +which would leave our fetters unbroken. We regret that the Pope omitted to +mention the Czechs in his peace offer although he mentioned the Poles. <i>But +we shall obtain our right without alien support. The Czechs will never swerve +from their demand for an independent </i><i>Slovak</i><i> </i><i>State</i><i> +with all the attributes of sovereignty. The Czechs are convinced that the +question of </i><i>Bohemia</i><i> is too great to be solved in </i><i>Vienna</i><i>. +It must be decided at the Peace Conference</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On November 9, deputy Staněk made it clear that the +Czecho-Slovaks expect the resurrection of their independence only from the +break-up of Austria:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We cannot conceive of peace or of the transformation +of Europe except when <i>on the ruins of the Dual Monarchy</i> new national +states shall arise. The German-Magyar misrule must be destroyed."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>And when on November 21 Seidler talked about the peace +conditions of the "enemy," Dr. Stránský interrupted him by +exclaiming, "Our enemies are here, in Vienna and in Budapest!"</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=PeaceWithRussia><i>(d) During Peace Negotiations with </i></a><i>Russia</i></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>When peace negotiations were opened with the Bolsheviks, the +Austro-Hungarian delegations were also summoned, for the first time during the +war, on December 3, 1917. During the speech from the throne the Czechs demonstratively +left the hall. On the same day the Bohemian Union, the Yugoslav Club and the +Ruthenes issued a protest against the government having published a distorted +version of the Russian peace offer. In this protest the Slav deputies asked:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"How can the government answer for having purposely +distorted such a highly important document as the Russian Note of November 28, +and why did the government suppress just the paragraph out of it containing +guarantees for national self-determination?"</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Their declaration naturally exasperated the Germans and the +government. The organ of the Austrian Foreign Office, the <i>Fremdenblatt</i>, +expressed regret that the Slav parties in the Reichsrat "place obstacles +in the way of peace." It also regretted that "some parties in the +Austrian Parliament should take up an attitude incompatible with our state's +self-preservation." On the next day, M. Staněk made a declaration in +the delegations in the name of Czechs and Yugoslavs, saying:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We Czech and Yugoslav delegates declare that it is +our deep conviction as well as the firm will of our respective nations that a +lasting peace is possible only on the ground of the full right of +self-determination. <i>The Imperial Government deliberately and wilfully +distorted the most important part of the Russian peace offer</i>, viz. the +demand for the self-determination of nations. It is still more surprising that +the prime ministers in both halves of the monarchy should try to deceive the +public opinion of the world by a false interpretation of the right of +self-determination. The Austrian Premier, Dr. Seidler, declared that the +Viennese Parliament is a forum through which the nations could obtain +self-determination, while the <i>Hungarian Premier had the impudence to +describe the conditions in </i><i>Hungary</i><i>, which are a mockery of all civilisation, +as the ideal of national liberty.</i> We, therefore, declare in regard to any +peace negotiations: <i>Our national development can only then be secured when +the right of self-determination of all nations shall be fully, clearly and +unreservedly recognised</i> with binding guarantees of its immediate +realisation."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>At the same time the Slavs made a proposal in the +Austro-Hungarian Delegations, insisting that the peace negotiations with Russia +should be conducted by a committee selected from both parliaments on the basis +of nationality, and consisting of twelve Germans, ten Magyars, ten +Czecho-Slovaks, seven Yugoslavs, five Poles, four Ruthenes, three Rumanians and +one Italian.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Finally, on December 5, the Czech Socialist deputy Tusar declared +in the Reichsrat:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We want to be our own masters, and if it is high +treason to ask for liberty and independence, then let us say at once that <i>each +of us is a traitor, but such high treason is an honour, and not a dishonour</i>. +As regards the negotiations with Russia, we declare that <i>Count Czernin does +not represent the nations of </i><i>Austria</i> and has no right to speak in +our name; he is merely the plenipotentiary of the dynasty. <i>The old </i><i>Austria</i><i>, +based on police, bureaucracy, militarism and racial tyranny, cannot survive +this war</i>. We also want peace, but it must be a just peace. The +Czecho-Slovaks will under all circumstances defend their rights."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In conjunction with this declaration we may quote two other +Czech Socialists showing the opinion of the Czechs on the Russian Revolution.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On November 29, deputy Modráček declared in the +Reichsrat:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Revolution of the Bolsheviks is a misfortune for +the Russian Revolution, the Russian Republic and all the oppressed nations of Europe. +<i>So long as the German Social Democracy permits the working masses to be +brought to the battlefield in the interests of Imperialism, the action of the +Bolsheviks is not the work for Socialism but for German Tsarism</i>. I do not +undervalue the significance and the greatness of the Russian Revolution: it is +the German Social Democrats who fail to perform their moral duty in this war +and do not comprehend the Russian Revolution."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Still more outspoken is the declaration of deputy Winter, +who said in the Reichsrat on February 21, 1918:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The workers of the whole world will never forget that +the Russian Revolution was the first social revolution on a large scale. And on +this revolutionary movement Germany has directly and Austria-Hungary indirectly +declared war. <i>Perhaps </i><i>Austria-Hungary</i><i> wants to repay the +Romanoffs in</i> 1918 <i>for the aid which they rendered to the Habsburgs in</i> +1848.... Austria-Hungary once before engaged in the European reaction by +crushing revolution in Italy. She gathered the fruits of this act in 1848, +1859, 1866, and in the present war. Formerly France and Russia participated in +the Holy Alliance, but <i>to-day the Central Powers are the only refuge of +reaction in </i><i>Europe</i>."</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=ConstituentAssembly><i>(e) The Constituent Assembly of +</i></a><i>Prague</i><i> on </i><i>January</i> 6, 1918</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The most important manifestation of Czecho-Slovak national +will took place in Prague on January 6, 1918, when all the Czech deputies +assembled in order to give expression to their deep gratitude for the French +recognition of the constitution of a Czecho-Slovak army on the side of the +Entente. At the same time it was a protest against Austria-Hungary and a demand +for representation at the Peace Conference.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>As to the resolution unanimously adopted by this constituent +assembly, there is no doubt about its meaning: in it the Czecho-Slovaks no more +act with Austria but demand full liberty. This even the Austrian Premier, Dr. +Seidler, had to admit, when he declared in the Reichsrat on January 22:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"This resolution, in which we in vain look for a +distant echo of dynastic or state allegiance, adopts to a certain extent an +international standpoint, and shows that this people is ready, at any rate on +the conclusion of peace, to accept international support with a view to +obtaining the recognition of foreign states. Such a standpoint is calculated to +encourage our enemies and to prolong the war.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The resolution demands the right of +self-determination in order to dissolve the existing unity of the state, and to +assure full independence and sovereignty. <i>The resolution gives the +impression of having been conceived in a sense absolutely hostile to the state</i>, +and must be indignantly rejected by every Austrian and resisted by every +Austrian Government with all the means in its power."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czech declaration of January 6, which is the most +important of all declarations of the Czechs and which has been suppressed in +the Austrian press, reads as follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In the fourth year of this terrible war, which has +already cost the nations numberless sacrifices in blood and treasure, the first +peace efforts have been inaugurated. We Czech deputies recognise the +declarations in the Reichsrat, and deem it our duty emphatically to declare, in +the name of the Czech nation and of its oppressed and forcibly-silenced Slovak +branch of Hungary, our attitude towards the reconstruction of the international +situation.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"When the Czech deputies of our regenerated nation +expressed themselves, during the Franco-Prussian War, on the international +European problems, they solemnly declared in the memorandum of December 8, +1870, that 'only from the recognition of the equality of all nations and from +natural respect of the right of self-determination could come true equality and +fraternity, a general peace and true humanity.'</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We, deputies of the Czech nation, true even to-day to +these principles of our ancestors, have therefore greeted with joy the fact +that all states, based upon democratic principles, whether belligerent or +neutral, now accept with us the right of nations to free self-determination as +a guarantee of a general and lasting peace.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The new Russia also accepted the principle of +self-determination of nations during its attempts for a general settlement and +as a fundamental condition of peace. The nations were freely to determine their +fate and decide whether they want to live in an independent state of their own +or whether they choose to form one state in common with other nations.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"On the other hand, the Austro-Hungarian delegate +declared, in the name of the Quadruple Alliance, that the question of the +self-determination of those nations which have not hitherto enjoyed political +independence should be solved in a constitutional manner within the existing +state. This point of view of the Austro-Hungarian representative is not our +point of view, because we know, from our own numberless bitter experiences, +that it means nothing but the negation of the principle of self-determination. +We indignantly express our regret that our nation was deprived of its political +independence and of the right of self-determination, and that by means of +artificial electoral statutes we were left to the mercy of the German minority +and of the government of the centralised German bureaucracy.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Our brother Slovaks became the victims of Magyar +brutality and of unspeakable violence in a state which, notwithstanding all its +apparent constitutional liberties, remains the darkest corner of Europe, and in +which the non-Magyars who form the majority of the population are ruthlessly +oppressed by the ruling minority, extirpated, and denationalised from +childhood, unrepresented in parliament and the civil service, and deprived of +public schools as well as of all private educational institutions.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The constitution to which the Austro-Hungarian +representative refers, nullified even the right of general suffrage by an +artificial creation of an over-representation of the German minority in the +Reichsrat, and its utter uselessness for the liberty of nations was clearly +demonstrated during the three years of unscrupulous military absolutism during +this war. Every reference to this constitution, therefore, means in reality +only a repudiation of the right of self-determination for the non-German +nations of Austria who are at the mercy of the Germans: and it means an +especially cruel insult and injury to the non-Magyar nations <i>in Hungary, +where the constitution is nothing but a means of shameful domination by the oligarchy +of a few Magyar aristocratic families</i>, as was again proved by the recent +electoral reform proposal.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Our nation longs with all the democracies of the +world for a general and lasting peace. But our nation is fully aware that <i>no +peace can be permanent except a peace which will abolish old injustice</i>, +brutal force and the predominance of arms, as well as the predominance of +states and nations over other nations, which will assure a free development to +all nations, great or small, and which will liberate especially those nations +which are still suffering under foreign domination. That is why it is necessary +that this right of free national development and of self-determination of +nations, great or small, to whatever state they may belong, should become the +foundation of future international rights, a guarantee of peace, and of a +friendly co-operation of nations, as well as a great ideal which will liberate +humanity from the terrible horrors of a world war.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>We deputies of the Czech nation declare that a peace +which would not bring our nation full liberty could not be and would not mean a +peace to us</i>, but would only be the beginning of a new, desperate and +continuous struggle for our political independence, in which our nation would +strain to the utmost its material and moral forces. And in that uncompromising +struggle it would never relax until its aim had been achieved. <i>Our nation +asks for independence</i> on the ground of its historic rights, and is imbued +with the fervent desire to contribute towards the new development of humanity +on the basis of liberty and fraternity in a free competition with other free +nations, which our nation hopes to accomplish in a sovereign, equal, democratic +and socially just state of its own, built upon the equality of all its citizens +within the historic boundaries of the Bohemian lands and of Slovakia, +guaranteeing full and equal national rights to all minorities.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Guided by these principles, we solemnly protest +against the rejection of the right of self-determination at the peace +negotiations, and <i>demand that, in the sense of this right, all nations, +including, therefore, also the Czecho-Slovaks, be guaranteed participation and +full freedom of defending their rights at the Peace Conference</i>."</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=OathoftheNation>(f) <i>The Oath of the Czecho-Slovak +Nation</i></a></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>It will be remembered that Count Czernin delivered a speech +to the Vienna Municipal Council on April 2, 1918, which caused his downfall. In +this pronouncement he also attacked Czech leaders and blamed them for the +failure of his peace efforts. This interesting passage of his speech reads as +follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"What terrible irony it is that, while our brothers +and sons are fighting like lions on the battlefield and millions of men and +women at home are heroically bearing their losses and are sending up urgent prayers +to the Almighty for the speedy termination of the war, certain leaders of the +people and the people's representatives agitate against the German Alliance, +which has so splendidly stood the test, <i>pass resolutions which no longer +have the slightest connection with the state idea, find no word of blame for +the Czech troops which criminally fight against their own country</i> and their +brothers-in-arms, would tear parts out of the Hungarian State, under the +protection of their parliamentary immunity <i>make speeches which cannot be +considered otherwise than as a call to enemy countries to continue the struggle</i> +solely in order to support their own political efforts, and ever anew kindle +the expiring war spirit in London, Rome and Paris. <i>The wretched and +miserable Masaryk is not the only one of his kind. There are also Masaryks +within the borders of the monarchy.</i> I would much rather have spoken on this +sad matter in the delegations, but, as I have already mentioned, the convoking +of the committee has at present proved to be impossible and I cannot +wait."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Thereupon he attempted to absolve the Czech +"people" from the charge of high treason.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czech leaders did not resent his charge that they were +"traitors" like Masaryk. Indeed, the <i>Lidové Noviny</i> openly +declared: "We are proud to be called traitors." But they resented his +subsequent allegation that the Czech people do not stand behind their leaders. +In order to refute this allegation and to assure the Czech soldiers fighting on +the side of the Entente of their solidarity, the Czechs summoned a meeting at Prague +in which some 6000 <i>delegates of all Czech parties and classes took part</i>, +as well as twenty-three delegates of the Yugoslavs. The meeting was most solemn +and impressive. It was a new manifestation by the whole nation of its unanimity +in the struggle for independence. The Czecho-Yugoslav solidarity was again +emphasised. Finally, a solemn oath was unanimously taken by the whole assembly. +The following are some of its passages:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"To the Czecho-Slovak Nation!</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The terrible world war is approaching its +culmination. In awe and sorrow a great number of Czecho-Slovak men and women +are standing here.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Czecho-Slovak blood has been and is still being +shed in torrents.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Unbroken, united in suffering, our nation believed +and believes that the storm of the world war will ultimately result in a better +future and that its humanitarian ideals will be sanctioned by a universal peace +which will forever guard humanity against a repetition of the present +catastrophe.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We never asked for anything but to be able to live a +free life, to govern our own destinies free from foreign domination, and to +erect our own state after the manner of all other civilised nations. That is +our sacred right. It is the national and international right of a nation which +has done great service to civilisation and can proudly range itself among the +most civilised and democratic nations of Europe.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"This is the firm and unanimous will of the nation:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>We have assembled here to-day as the legitimate +representatives of the Czecho-Slovak nation in order to manifest unmistakably +that the whole nation is united as it never was before, and that it stands like +a rock behind the memorable and historic declarations of its deputies</i>.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>So we are standing here, firmly convinced of the +ultimate victory of Justice, of the victory of Right over Might, of Liberty +over Tyranny, of Democracy over Privilege and of Truth over Falsehood and +Deceit</i>.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"At the cross-roads of history, we swear by the +glorious memory of our ancestors, before the eyes of the sorrow-stricken +nation, over the graves of those who have fallen for the cause of liberty, +to-day and for all eternity:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>We will hold on and will never give way!</i></p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>We will be faithful in all our work, struggles and +sufferings, faithful unto death!</i></p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>We will hold on unto victory!</i></p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>We will hold on until our nation obtains +independence</i>.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>Long live the Czecho-Slovak nation!</i></p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Let our nation grow and flourish freely in the great +family of nations, for its own welfare as well as for the welfare of the future +liberated humanity!"</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=SlovakAttitude><i>(g) The Slovaks' Attitude</i></a></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The appalling terrorism prevailing in Hungary made it +impossible for the Slovaks to manifest their feelings as they would have liked +to do. The Slovaks abroad, of course, work hand in hand with the Czechs for +their common cause.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Nevertheless, even in Hungary the Slovaks showed their +unanimity with the Czechs.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>According to the <i>Národní Listy</i> of July 24, 1917, the +Slovak political leaders, especially their two deputies, Father P. Juriga and +Dr. P. Blaho, and the veteran leader of the Slovak National Party, M. Dula, +have been subjected to all sorts of persuasions and threats on the part of the +Magyars who were anxious that the Slovaks should disavow the declaration of the +Bohemian Club in favour of the union of all Czechs and Slovaks in an +independent state. The Slovak leaders, however, refused to become the dupes of +the Magyar Government.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>According to the <i>Národní Listy</i> of May 5, 1918, a great manifestation was arranged by Slovak Socialists in St. Miklos on May +1 in favour of the union of the Hungarian Slovaks with the Czechs of Bohemia, Moravia +and Silesia. Several thousand Slovaks took part in the manifestation despite +the obstacles put in the way by the Magyar gendarmerie and police spies. A +resolution was carried unanimously demanding amongst other things a just and +lasting peace which would prevent the outbreak of fresh conflagrations and +assure liberty to all nations in Europe, and "<i>self-determination for +all nations</i>, including also that branch of the Czecho-Slovak nation which +lives in Hungary." Besides this manifestation, the Slovaks sent +representative delegates to the National Theatre celebrations in Prague, with +which we deal in our next chapter.</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=NationalCouncil><i>(h) The Czecho-Slovak National +Council in </i></a><i>Prague</i></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On July 13, 1918, an important event took place in Prague. +The Czecho-Slovaks established an inter-party council which may well be +described as part of the <i>Provisional Government of Bohemia</i>, whose +programme is identical with that of the Czecho-Slovak Provisional Government in + Paris.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The inaugural meeting of the council in Prague was opened by +the president of the Agrarian Party, Mr. Švehla, who gave a report about +the preparatory work and principles which led to the constitution of the +council. On the proposal of M. Staněk, president of the Union of Czech +Deputies, <i>Dr. Karel Kramář</i>, the leader of the Independent +Democratic Party, was elected president of the council, <i>M. Klofáč</i>, +leader of the National Socialists, and <i>M. Švehla</i> vice-presidents, +and <i>Dr. Soukup</i>, leader of the Socialists, secretary. Dr. Kramář +greeted the assembly in the name of the presidency. Afterwards deputy +Klofáč delivered a speech in the name of the Socialists, and the +vice-president of the Czech Union, supported by deputy Habermann, proposed that +the presidency should itself select members of the council. The proposal was +unanimously accepted. Deputy Staněk greeted the National Council in the +name of the Czech Union as the supreme representative of the whole +Czecho-Slovak nation, of all its classes and parties. Thereupon Dr. Soukup +proposed a resolution which was carried unanimously and the chief passages of +which read as follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"To the Czecho-Slovak Nation!</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"On the decision of all political parties, +representing the united will of our whole nation, the Czecho-Slovak National +Council has been formed to-day. The immense gravity of the present times and +our common concern for the future fate of the Czecho-Slovak nation have united +us in a national organisation.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The ultimate aim of the Czecho-Slovak National +Council in Prague is postulated by the demand of these times: <i>to enlist for +systematic work, to organise and lead the great spiritual, moral and national +resources of the nation</i> to that end which is the most sacred and +inalienable right of every nation and which cannot and will not be denied also +to our nation:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>The right of self-determination in a fully +independent </i><i>Czecho-Slovak</i><i> </i><i>State</i><i> with its own +administration within its own borders and under its own sovereignty</i>.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Czecho-Slovak National Council wish to interpret +this will of the nation and to be the executive organ of all the common +declarations of its delegates which culminated in the solemn oath of April 13, 1918.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Our work will not be easy. We shall have to suffer +much more opposition and <i>we shall have to undergo another great test.</i> +But no obstacles are able to arrest our nation's progress. In full mutual +agreement with our delegates and with the whole cultural and economic Czech +world, the Czecho-Slovak National Council will faithfully fulfil its difficult +and responsible task, so that it may be truly said before the conscience of the +nation that we did everything that was in our human power.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>We know that our whole nation stands behind the +Czecho-Slovak National Council</i> as one united rampart. Full of joy at the +great political act which the constitution of the National Council represents, +and full of confidence in the victory of our common cause, we address to-day to +the whole Czecho-Slovak nation an urgent appeal to support our work with all +its strength, to obey all orders of common discipline and to follow firmly our +common national aim."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>It is significant that the presidency of this council is +composed of four of the most eminent leaders of the four greatest parties in Bohemia: +Dr. Kramář, Klofáč, Švehla and Soukup. All of these have been in +prison during this war, as well as the following members of the council: Dr. +Rašín and Červinka, friends of Kramář; Cyril Dušek, former +editor of Masaryk's organ <i>The Times</i>; Dr. Scheiner, president of the +"Sokol" Gymnastic Association; and Machar, the eminent Czech poet. +Besides these the members of the council include: the Socialist leaders +Bechyně, Habermann, Krejčí, Němec, Stivín, Meissner, Tusar and +Vaněk; the Clerical leaders Hruban, Šrámek and Kordáč; the +author Jirásek; Agrarians Staněk (president of the Czech Union), +Udržal and Zahradník, Dr. Herben, of Professor Masaryk's party, and +others. <i>All Czech parties are represented on the council without exception,</i> +from the Socialists on the extreme Left to the Clericals on the extreme Right.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The council is the supreme organ of the Czecho-Slovak +nation, and represents all its classes and parties. It is a national organ and +its sole aim is to work for the welfare of Bohemia, without any regard to Austria. +It stands above all party politics and is the supreme organ to which all +disputes are referred that may arise affecting Czecho-Slovak national +interests. Its aim is, in the words of its proclamation, "to enlist for +systematic work, to organise and lead the great spiritual, moral and national +resources of the Czecho-Slovak nation." Its ultimate object is to realise +"the right of self-determination in a fully independent Czecho-Slovak State +with its own administration within its own borders and under its own +sovereignty." Its aims are obviously identical with those of the +Czecho-Slovak Government in Paris, who alone, of course, are able to exercise +the executive power as a government, especially to organise armies fighting on +the side of the Entente. On the other hand, the National Council in Prague is +organising the nation for the final blow which the Slavs will, no doubt at an +opportune moment, strike at the Dual Monarchy.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Immediately after this important event most significant +declarations were made by Czech deputies in the Reichsrat of Vienna. The Czech +deputy <i>Tusar</i> declared that "<i>the war must end with the creation +of a </i><i>Czecho-Slovak</i><i> </i><i>State</i>, with the victory of +democratic ideas and with the defeat of militarism and despotism. We will +obtain freedom, cost what it may." Thereupon the Czech deputies sang the +Czech national anthem.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The next day deputy <i>Stříbrný</i> delivered a speech +which we have quoted in a previous chapter.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The most significant speech, however, was that of <i>Dr. +Stránský</i> in the Austrian Reichsrat on July 23, which surpasses any of those +we have quoted hitherto in its frank anti-Austrian spirit and expression:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We want to expose and show up before the whole world +the <i>intolerable state of foreign domination over us</i>. You cannot prevent +us, not only before a helpless curtailed parliament, not only before an +illusory high court, but before the whole world, raising our voice against the +Premier who is a typical representative of that <i>Austria whose mere existence +is a constant and automatic prolongation of the war. One of the obstacles to +peace is the oppression of nationalities in Austria</i> and their domination by +the Germans. <i>In this war the Germans, even if they do not openly admit it, +have come to the conclusion that the German hegemony in </i><i>Central Europe</i><i>, +and especially in </i><i>Austria</i><i>, is standing on its last legs</i>. +Since they see that their predominance can no longer be maintained, they +endeavour to translate all that they have acquired into reality, so as to +secure the spoils for themselves. Thus the Germans conceived the idea of +establishing a province 'Deutschböhmen' which must be prepared by the +establishment of district governments. From this a very interesting conclusion +may be drawn--<i>that the Germans themselves lost faith in the further +existence of </i><i>Austria</i>, otherwise they would not be in a hurry to save +their province Deutschböhmen in the present Austria. Because they rather wish +for no Austria than for an Austria where they would not be able to rule, <i>they +are already counting upon the break-up of </i><i>Austria</i><i>:</i> since the +Germans do not want to accept the solution of a free Danubian confederation of +nations, they prepare already their union with the Hohenzollerns.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"But then we must ask the Germans to take nothing with +them that does not belong to them. It is more than questionable whether +Deutschböhmen really is German.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"There is another reason which speaks against the +creation of a Deutschböhmen. I am convinced that <i>if a plebiscite were +carried out among German people in </i><i>Northern Bohemia</i><i>, they would +declare against separation from </i><i>Bohemia</i>. Why? Because the Germans +are too clever not to know that Bohemia forms not only a historical and +geographical unity, but that this unity has besides a historical basis, also a +practical foundation. The relation between the Czech part of Bohemia and Northern + Bohemia is to a large degree the relation of the consumer and the producer. +Where do you want to export your articles if not to your Czech hinterland? How +could the German manufacturers otherwise exist? When after the war a Czecho-Slovak +State is erected, <i>the Germans of Bohemia will much rather remain in Bohemia +and live on good terms with the Czech peasant than be identified with Germany, +boycotted, opposed and hated by the whole world</i>, especially if we +guarantee, not only by promises, but by deeds and laws, full autonomy to the +German population within the Bohemian State.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"<i>The real question which puzzles us to-day is: How +can </i><i>Austria</i><i> exist at all?</i> That is the question. And I again +repeat solemnly Palacký's word that <i>Austria</i><i> may exist only so long as +her nations wish for it</i>, and that <i>she will cease to exist</i> as soon as +her nations do not want her to exist. The Slav nations of Austria declared +clearly and emphatically their wishes and desires in their proclamations. If +instead of working for the conversion of the ruling factor in favour of these +wishes Dr. Seidler shows us Gessler's hat of Austria with a German head and +backbone, then let him remember that <i>we shall hate this Austria for all +eternity</i> (loud cheers and applause) <i>and we shall fight her, and God +willing, we shall in the end smash her to pieces so completely that nothing +will remain of her</i>."</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote><i>The President:</i> "I cannot admit such an +expression about this state and I call the deputy to order."</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote><i>Dr. Stránský</i>: "Excellency, I really do not +deserve such a rebuke. It would be sad if we could not speak freely and with +proper emphasis against a state form which has been imposed upon us.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Let Dr. Seidler remember that <i>we regard </i><i>Austria</i><i>, +whose integrity according to him must not be questioned, as a centuries-old +crime on the liberties of humanity. Let him remember that it is not only our +political intention, not only our instinct of self-preservation, but our +highest duty and--do not hesitate to say so--our national religion and our greatest +moral mission to damage Austria wherever and whenever possible, and that our +loyalty to our own nation, to our native country, to our history, to our future +and to the Bohemian Crown, prompts us to betray Austria which is backed up by +Germany. We are therefore determined faithfully to betray her whenever and +wherever we can</i>. I tell you further, gentlemen, that this state, this Austria +which Seidler talks about, is not a state at all. <i>It is a hideous, +centuries-old dream, a nightmare, a beast, and nothing else</i>. It is a state +without a name, it is <i>a constitutional monarchy without a crown and without +a constitution</i>. For what kind of a constitution is it if it has not the +necessary confirmation by oath and won the general approval of nations because +it was found to be untenable? <i>It is a state without patriots and without +patriotism</i>, it is a state which arose by the amalgamation of eight +irredents--the German one included--it is a state which had no future and in +which the dynasty ... (suppressed) ... in a word, it is a state which is no +state at all. <i>As a matter of fact, </i><i>Austria</i><i> no longer exists</i>, +it is an absurdity and an impossibility. If I spoke about Czech regiments which +went to embrace their 'enemies,' I must admit that personally I know nothing +about them except what I heard from my German colleagues who persist in making +complaints against us. We believe every word of what they say to be true, but +... (suppressed by censor). Did you ever hear that a husband conscious of his +honour and respectability told the whole world about the infidelity of his wife +who left him because he ill-treated her? No, because the husband knows that it +is his shame and not hers. <i>And if Czecho-Slovak brigades are to-day fighting +against </i><i>Austria-Hungary</i><i> it is only a proof that there is +something very wrong with </i><i>Austria</i><i>, that </i><i>Austria</i><i> is +more rotten than Shakespeare's </i><i>Denmark</i><i>.</i> For what other state +has soldiers who ran over voluntarily to the enemy? You keep on saying that England +has the Irish problem. <i>Did you ever hear of Irish brigades, did you ever +hear that any French legions were fighting for the Central Powers against +France</i>, or Russian legions against Russia when we were at war with Russia? +Indeed, gentlemen, not even Turkey has any legions fighting with the enemy +against her. <i>There must therefore be some deep reason for Czecho-Slovak, +Polish and Yugoslav legions fighting on the side of the Entente</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>We think that any comments on this explicit declaration, in +which a Czech deputy representing his whole nation openly expressed hope for +the dismemberment of Austria and praised the Czecho-Slovak troops fighting for +the Allies, are superfluous.</p> + +<p class=Chapter><a name=Cooperation>VIII</a></p> + +<p class=ChapterDescription>CZECHO-SLOVAK CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER NON-GERMAN +NATIONS OF CENTRAL EUROPE</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czechs have always clearly seen that one of the chief reasons +which enable the German-Magyar minority to rule over the Slav majority is the +lack of co-operation amongst the subject peoples. Already before the war the +Czechs were pioneers of Slav solidarity and reciprocity, wrongly called +Pan-Slavism. Thanks to their geographic position, they have no claims +conflicting with any nations except the Germans and Magyars who are their only +enemies.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In these efforts for promoting Slav solidarity the Czechs +met serious obstacles. In the case of some of their Slav friends it was lack of +internal unity which prevented co-operation. In other cases it was the quarrels +artificially fomented by Austria between her subject nations, notably between +the Poles and Ruthenes and between the Yugoslavs and Italians. Finally, the Poles +lacked a definite international point of view. They were justly sceptical of +Slav solidarity seeing that they were oppressed by a government which claimed +to represent a great Slav nation.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>All these obstacles, however, have one by one disappeared as +the war has gone on. All the subject peoples of Central Europe saw that they +were persecuted and driven to be slaughtered by the same enemies in Berlin, Vienna +and Budapest. The oppressed races found at last that they have common +aspirations and interests, and the collapse of Russia to-day makes even the +Poles realise where their real enemies are. The Polish people may to-day have +only one orientation: against the Central Powers. It is an inspiriting sign +that even some Polish "Realpoliticians" begin to realise that Austria +is doomed and that it is bad politics to count upon Vienna, to say nothing of Berlin.</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=CongressOfRome><i>(a) The Congress of </i></a><i>Rome</i></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In order to give practical expression to the growing sense +of co-operation amongst the oppressed nations of Austria-Hungary, their +representatives assembled in Rome at the beginning of April, 1918. In those +days the great spirit of Mazzini revived again in Rome, and from that moment Italy +definitely became the champion of the movement of the oppressed nations of Austria-Hungary +towards independence.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The congress was attended by numerous Italian senators, +deputies, ministers and other leading men. The Yugoslav Committee was +represented by its president, Dr. Trumbić, the Dalmatian sculptor +Mestrović, the Bosnian deputy Stojanović and others; the +Czecho-Slovak Council by Dr. Beneš and Colonel Štefanik; the Poles by +the Galician deputy Mr. Zamorski, and by Messrs. Seyda, Skirmunt, Loret and +others; the Rumanians by the senators Draghicescu and Minorescu, the deputy +Lupu and the Transylvanians Mandrescu and De Luca. The Serbian Skupština +sent a deputation of twelve deputies and a delegation of officers from the +Yugoslav division at Salonica. Among the foreign visitors invited to the +congress were M. Franklin-Bouillon, President of the Foreign Affairs Committee +of the French Chamber of Deputies, the ex-minister M. Albert Thomas, M. +Fournol, M. Pierre de Quirielle, Mr. H.W. Steed, Mr. Seton-Watson, and Mr. +Nelson Gay.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The congress unanimously adopted the following general +resolutions agreed upon between the various nationalities and the special +Italo-Yugoslav Convention concluded between Messrs. Torre and Trumbić:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The representatives of the nationalities subjected in +whole or in part to the rule of Austria-Hungary--the Italians, Poles, Rumanians, +Czechs and Yugoslavs--join in affirming their principles of common action as +follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"1. Each of these peoples proclaims its right to +constitute its own nationality and state unity or to complete it and to attain +full political and economic independence.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"2. Each of these peoples recognises in the +Austro-Hungarian Monarchy the instrument of German domination and the +fundamental obstacle to the realisation of its aspirations and rights.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"3. The assembly recognises the necessity of a common +struggle against the common oppressors, in order that each of these peoples may +attain complete liberation and national unity within a free state.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The representatives of the Italian people and of the +Yugoslav people in particular agree as follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"1. In the relations between the Italian nation and +the nation of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes--known also under the name of the +Yugoslav nation--the representatives of the two peoples recognise that the +unity and independence of the Yugoslav nation is of vital interest to Italy, +just as the completion of Italian national unity is of vital interest to the +Yugoslav nation, and therefore pledge themselves to employ every effort in +order that at the moment of the peace these decisions <i>(finalita)</i> of the +two nations may be completely attained.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"2. They declare that the liberation of the Adriatic + Sea and its defence against every present and future enemy is of vital +interest to the two peoples.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"3. They pledge themselves also in the interest of +good and sincere relations between the two peoples in the future, to solve +amicably the various territorial controversies on the basis of the principles +of nationality and of the right of peoples to decide their own fate, and in +such a way as not to injure the vital interests of the two nations, as they +shall be defined at the moment of peace.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"4. To such racial groups <i>(nuclei)</i> of one +people as it may be found necessary to include within the frontiers of the +other there shall be recognised and guaranteed the right of preserving their +own language, culture, and moral and economic interests."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Polish delegates laid before the congress a special +memorandum of their own from which we quote the following:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The Polish question admits of no cut-and-dried +solution and of no compromise. Poland will either be saved by the Allies or she +will become dependent upon Germany, whether the latter is associated with Austria +or not; above all, upon all-powerful Prussia.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"There is only one way of avoiding this latter +alternative, and that is by countering the plans of the Central Powers with +regard to Poland by the proclamation of the Polish programme, which is that of +the Allies. This programme is the restitution to Poland of the mouth of the Vistula, +of Dantzig and of the Polish portion of the Baltic coastline. This programme +will prevent Lithuania and the Ukraine from becoming instruments of +Prusso-German oppression and Austrian intrigue. It is only such a Poland as +this which will be able to fulfil its historic mission as a rampart against the +Germans.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Its resistance will be still more effectual when +united with that of an independent Czecho-Slovak State, and of a strong Rumania, +healed of all the wounds inflicted by the war, and if, at the same time, the +Yugoslav peoples achieve their unity and independence. The Poles, in claiming +the Polish districts of Austria, declare themselves categorically for the +complete liberation of Bohemia, which would otherwise be left at the mercy of +the German-Austrians. <i>The independence of neighbouring </i><i>Bohemia</i><i> +is as necessary to an independent </i><i>Poland</i><i> as a great independent </i><i>Poland</i><i> +is necessary to the very existence of </i><i>Bohemia</i><i>.</i> The united +forces of the Polish, Czecho-Slovak and Rumanian nations, forming a great belt +from the Baltic to the Black Sea, will prove a barrier against the German +'Drang nach Osten.' For, since the collapse of Russia, these are the only real +forces upon which the Allies can depend."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On the day following the congress its leaders were +officially received by the Italian Premier, Signer Orlando, who conveyed to them +the warm greetings of the government:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We have seen with keen satisfaction this assembly +here in Rome, where for centuries the representative spirits of all peoples and +races have always found refuge, and where hard facts seem to assume a prophetic +form and ideal meaning.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"These neighbouring nationalities are, in their turn, +subjected to Austria, and it has only been the traditional astuteness of this +state which has unchained the ethnic passions of the oppressed races, inciting +one against the other in order more easily to rule them. Hence, it seems +natural and necessary to follow the opposite policy from that which has so +greatly helped the enemy, <i>and to establish a solidarity sprung from common +suffering</i>. There is no substantial reason for a quarrel, if we sincerely +examine the conditions of mutual existence, remember the mutual sacrifices and +agree in our determination to grant just guarantees to those racial minorities +which necessity may assign to one or the other of the different state groups.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Italy should be able to understand better than any +other country the aspirations of the nationalities, since the history of Italy, +now completed, is simply your history now awaiting completion.... No other +people, before forming itself into a free and independent state, had to undergo +so long an apprenticeship, so methodical an oppression, such varied forms of +violence. Like generous Poland, Italy was shattered, partitioned by strangers, +and treated for centuries as a <i>res nullius. The firm resolve of the Bohemian +people to revive the glorious kingdom which has so valiantly stemmed the onset +of the Germans is the same resolve which moved our ancestors and our fathers to +conspiracy and revolt, that </i><i>Italy</i><i> might become a united state</i>. +The impetuous and vigorous character of the Southern Slavs and the Rumanians of +Transylvania already has led to the making of heroes and martyrs; and here they +are met by the endless stream of our heroes and martyrs; who across time and +space fraternise on the scaffold erected by their common enemy.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"For your nations 'To be or not to be' is the +inexorable choice at this moment. Here cautious subtleties are of no avail, nor +the adroit reservations borrowed from diplomacy, nor discussions more or less +Byzantine, 'while the Turk is at the gates.' The necessities are Faith and +Work; it is thus that nations are formed."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>We have already mentioned that the U.S. Government +identified themselves with the resolutions adopted by the Rome Conference. As +regards Great Britain, Lord Robert Cecil made the following declaration on May 23, 1918:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Above all <i>I welcome especially the recent congress +at </i><i>Rome</i>, which has done so much to strengthen the Alliance of which Italy +is a part. I believe that the congress was valuable for its wisdom and its +moderation. I believe that it was valuable for the spirit of brotherhood which +it displayed. But above all I welcome it because it showed that the Italian +Government, as expressed by the speech of the Italian Prime Minister (Signor +Orlando), recognise to the full that the principles on which the kingdom of +Italy was founded were not only of local application, but extend to +international relations. (Cheers) <i>Italy has shown herself ready to extend to +the Poles, to those gallant Czecho-Slovaks, to the Rumanians, and last, but not +least, to the Yugoslavs, the principles on which her own 'Risorgimento' was +founded</i>, and on which she may still go forward to a greater future than she +has ever seen in the past. (Cheers.) <i>That is a great work, and those who +have borne any part in it may well be proud of their accomplishment</i>.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"People talk sometimes about the dismemberment of Austria. +I have no weakness for Austria; but I venture to think that that is the wrong +point of view. The way to regard this problem is not the dismemberment of Austria, +<i>but the liberation of the population subject to her rule. We are anxious to +see all these peoples in the enjoyment of full liberty and independence; able +by some great federation to hold up in Central Europe the principles upon which +European policy must be founded,</i> unless we are to face disasters too +horrible to contemplate. The old days of arbitrary allotment of this population +or that to this sovereignty or that are gone--and, I trust, gone forever. We +must look for any future settlement, to a settlement not of courts or cabinets, +but of nations and populations. <i>On that alone depends the whole conception +of the </i><i>League of Nations</i><i>,</i> of which we have heard so much; and +unless that can be secured as the foundation for that great idea, I myself despair +of its successful establishment."</p> + +<p class=Section><a name=MayManifestations><i>(b) The May Manifestations in </i></a><i>Prague</i></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>A direct re-percussion of the Rome Conference was the great +meeting which took place in Prague on May 16, on the occasion of the jubilee +celebration of the foundation of the Czech National Theatre.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The manifestations took pre-eminently a political character, +especially as they were attended by numerous distinguished foreign guests. +These included delegates from all parts of the Southern Slav territories, +Poles, Rumanians and Italians. The Russians, although invited, could not take +part, because of the obstacles placed in the way by the Austrian Government. As +regards the Yugoslavs, there were over 100 delegates from the Slovene districts +alone, including Dr. Pogačnik, deputies Ravničar and Rybář, the +Mayor of Lublanja, Dr. Tavčar, President of the Chamber of Commerce, J. +Kněz and others. The Yugoslavs were further represented by Count +Vojnovitch and M. Hribar, by delegates of the Croatian Starčević +Party, the Serbian Dissidents, Dr. Budisavljević, Mr. Val +Pribičević, Dr. Sunarić, Mr. Sola from Bosnia, representatives +of the national, cultural, economic institutions, and representatives of the +city of Zagreb, with the mayor, Dr. Srpulje, at the head.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>There were seventeen Italians with deputies Conci and De +Caspari at the head. The Rumanians from Hungary and Bukovina also arrived. The +Slovaks of Hungary met with the most hearty welcome. They were led by the poet +Hviezdoslav. An inspiring feature was the presence of the Poles, of whom about +sixty took part in the manifestations, the majority of them from Galicia, three +from Silesia and one from Posen.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The delegation from Galicia included prominent +representatives of the Polish Democratic Party, Count Dr. A. Skarbek, deputy +and ex-minister Glombínski and deputy Witoš, the Socialist leader +Moraczewski whose father took part in the Pan-Slav Congress of Prague in 1848, +deputy Tetmajer, representatives of the cities of Lvoff and Cracow and of the +University of Cracow, members of municipal and county councils, journalists, +artists, painters, sculptors, authors and others.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>At a meeting arranged in honour of the Slav guests, Dr. +Kramář declared that "the Czech nation is stronger to-day than ever +before. There is no worse policy than that which gives in before danger. I am +sure that our people will not give way. We have suffered so much that there is +no horror which could divert us from the path we follow. Happily enough, we see +that what we want is also desired by the whole world. We see that we are not +alone. To-day the representatives of other nations, which have suffered in the +same way as ourselves, have come to us. Of course, they did not come to us only +to take part in our festivals, but also to express on the Bohemian soil their +determination that their nations want to live freely. We are united by the same +interests. Our victory is theirs and theirs is ours."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Yugoslav deputy Radič thanked the Czechs, in the +name of the Yugoslavs, for unity and solidarity. The Polish deputy Moraczewski +expressed his thanks not only for the welcome accorded to the Poles in Prague, +but also for the proclamation of the watchword: "For your liberty and +ours!"</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The main celebrations took place in the Bohemian Museum on +May 16. Since the speeches delivered on that occasion were of such significance +and are sure to prove of great international importance in the near future, we +propose to quote at least the chief passages from them.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The first speaker was Dr. Kramář who declared:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"You know that they are in vain trying to crush us. +Every wrong will come back to the authors. That is our firm belief, and +therefore you will find no despondency in Bohemia, but only <i>firm +determination not only to defend to the last the integrity of our kingdom, but +also to accomplish the unity of the whole Czecho-Slovak nation. We firmly +believe in the ultimate victory of the right of nations to liberty and +self-determination.</i> And we therefore welcome you in our beautiful golden +city of Prague, because we know that your presence here to-day is the best +proof that our faith is the faith of all nations who have hitherto been +clamouring in vain for right and justice.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Allow me to make a personal remark. We were far away +from public life, confined in prison, and only very little news reached us. +Various events filled us with anxiety and despondency. Bohemia seemed to be +like a large, silent and dead churchyard. And all of a sudden we heard that +underneath the shroud with which they tried to cover our nation there still was +some life. Czech books were read more than ever, and the life of the national +soul expressed itself in the performances in the National Theatre. When we +heard about the storm of enthusiasm which greeted the prophecy in Smetana's +opera <i>Libusha</i>, we felt suddenly relieved, and we knew that our +sufferings were not in vain.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We placed everything that we want into the prophecy +of Libusha--a new life, free, not constrained by disfavour or misunderstanding. +<i>We do not want to remain within the limits prescribed to us by </i><i>Vienna</i> +(applause), we want to be entire masters of our national life as a whole. We do +not need foreign spirit and foreign advice; our best guide is our past, the +great democratic traditions of our nation. We have enough strength and +perseverance not to be afraid of anything that threatens us, because <i>we want +the full freedom for the whole nation, including the millions of our oppressed +brothers beneath the </i><i>Tatra Mountains</i>. (A stormy applause.)</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"That does not depend on any circumstances outside our +scope; it depends entirely upon ourselves, upon our will. <i>We must show that +we are worthy of liberty and of the great future which we are striving for</i>. +It must not be left to the generosity of individuals to support our peoples who +under oppressive conditions are awakening national consciousness in their +countrymen. <i>We must mobilise our whole nation</i>. All of us will be +required to assist in the great tasks which are awaiting us.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"I think we may confidently look into the future. The +war has united us internally, and it has taught us that all party politics +which for a long time past have poisoned our life, are insignificant in view of +the great issues of our national future which are at stake. We have lived long +enough to see our whole people united in the demand for an independent Czecho-Slovak + State, although the modern times have deepened class differences.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We recollect our past to-day with a firm hope for a +better future. The hearts of all are to-day filled with joyous confidence and +expectation that we shall live to see the day when in our National Theatre we +shall rejoice over the victory of liberty, justice and self-determination of +nations. <i>Our golden Slav </i><i>Prague</i><i> will again become a royal +city, and our Czech nation will again be free, strong and glorious</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>After Dr. Kramář had finished, the aged Czech author +Jirásek described the history of the National Theatre during the past fifty +years, and concluded:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"To-day as fifty years ago our nation is united +without party distinction. <i>We form a single front, and follow a single +policy. We all demand our natural and historic rights, and strengthened by the +co-operation of the Yugoslavs, we firmly believe that as we succeeded in +erecting our National Theatre, so shall we also obtain our rights and be able +to rejoice with a song of a full and free life</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>When the enthusiasm which followed Jirásek's speech +subsided, the great Slovak poet Hviezdoslav "conveyed the greeting from +that branch of the Czecho-Slovak nation which lives in Hungary," and +assured the assembly that after going back he would spread everywhere the news +of the enthusiasm animating the Czechs so as to cheer up his sorely suffering +fellow-countrymen, the Slovaks of Hungary.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Professor Kasprovicz from Lemberg, who followed, declared in +the name of the Poles:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We are united with you not only by blood affinity, +but by our united will, and we can reach the goal only by co-operation and by +joint efforts.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"This co-operation is perplexing to our enemies who, +therefore, do all in their power to disrupt this union. Their endeavours are in +vain. <i>All of us believe that neither the Czech nor the Polish nation will +perish</i>, that even a great war cannot bring about their extirpation; that +besides the war there is something greater than all human efforts, that the day +of justice will also come, and that the <i>Czech and Polish nations not only +must be but already are victorious</i>."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>A tremendous applause ensued, and the people sang +"Jeszcie Polska niezgynela" ("Poland has not perished +yet"). And when the chairman announced that the next speaker was to be the +Italian Irredentist deputy, Signer Conci, another storm of applause and cries +of "Eviva!" burst out. Signor Conci declared:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"I convey to you the expression of the heartiest +greetings from all Italians who are participating in this brilliant +manifestation, and from all those who, like myself, follow with great sympathy +everything that concerns the fate of the noble Czech nation.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"An old verse speaks about 'Socii dolorum' ('Friends +in suffering'), and I must say that this consolation for the different nations +of this state has been amply provided for. <i>But nothing helps the union and +brotherhood better than the common misfortune and common persecutions</i> which +strengthen the character of the nation. In defence against this menace, we and +you have written on our shield: 'Fanger, non flector' ('I can be broken but not +bent').</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"When I saw with what indomitable firmness you +withstood all unjust persecutions, and with what a fervent devotion and +enthusiasm the whole nation supported your best and unjustly persecuted +leaders, I realised that <i>this nation cannot die</i>, and that when the time +comes its just cause will triumph. And I bring you our sincere wish that this +may be as soon as possible. <i>It is a wish from one oppressed nation to +another</i>, from a representative of an afflicted nation which has suffered +and still is suffering intolerable oppression. May the roaring Bohemian lion +soon be able to repose in peace and fully enjoy his own triumph."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Tavčar, representing the Slovenes, declared:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We Yugoslavs are deeply feeling how much the Czech +culture is helping us and how great is its influence upon us. <i>We are the +most faithful allies of our brother Czechs</i>, and at the same time their +assiduous and I dare say very gifted pupils. At a moment when our oppressors +want to build a German bridge over our bodies to the Slav Adriatic, we come to +you as your allies. We shall fall if you fall, but our victory is +certain."</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Two other Yugoslav leaders, Dr. Srpulje, Mayor of Zagreb, +for the Croats, and V. Šola, President of the Bosnian Sabor, for the +Serbs, expressed the same sentiments.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>After the speech of the Czech author Krejčí, M. +Staněk, President of the Bohemian Parliamentary Union, concluded the +meeting.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Stormy demonstrations then took place in the streets of Prague, +where the people loudly cheered Professor Masaryk and the Entente.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On the same day also the Socialists had a meeting in which +prominent Czech, Polish and Yugoslav Socialists took part.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Polish Socialist deputy Moraczewski, from Cracow, +declared that "the Poles, like the Czechs, are fighting for +self-determination of nations." Comrade Kristan, speaking for the Slovene +workers, emphasised the idea of Yugoslav unity. The spokesman of the Social +Democrats from Bosnia, comrade Smitran, hailed the Czecho-Yugoslav +understanding, and said that, although living under intolerable conditions, his +nation hopes for deliverance, and like the Czecho-Slovak nation, demands +liberty and independence. After the Polish comrade Stanczyk, the leaders of the +two Czech Socialist parties, Dr. Soukup and Klofáč, delivered long +speeches in which they emphasised the solidarity of the three Western Slav +nations, the Poles, Czecho-Slovaks and Yugoslavs, and their identical claims +for liberty and independence. Dr. Soukup declared that "Socialism is +to-day a great factor not only in Bohemia, but in the whole world." The +manifestation was concluded by the Czech Socialist deputy Němec, and by +the singing of the Czech national anthem.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On the day following, fresh manifestations were held in Prague, +and a meeting was arranged, described by the Czech press as the Congress of +Oppressed Nations of Austria-Hungary. Among those who supported the resolutions +were representatives of Czecho-Slovaks, Yugoslavs, Rumanians and Italians, as +well as Poles. The resolution carried unanimously by the assembly reads as +follows:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The representatives of Slav and Latin nations who for +centuries past have been suffering under foreign oppression, assembled in +Prague this seventeenth day of May, 1918, have united in a common desire to do +all in their power in order to assure full liberty and independence to their +respective nations after this terrible war. They are agreed that a better +future for their nations will be founded and assured by the world democracy, by +a real and sovereign national people's government, and by a universal League of + Nations, endowed with the necessary authorities.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"They reject emphatically all steps of the government +taken without the consent of the people. They are convinced that the peace +which they, together with all other democratic parties and nations, are +striving for, will only be a just and lasting peace if it liberates the world +from the predominance of one nation over another and thus enables all nations +to defend themselves against aggressive imperialism by means of liberty and +equality of nations. All nations represented are determined to help each other, +since the victory of one is also the victory of the other, and is not only in +the interests of the nations concerned, but in the interests of civilisation, +of fraternity and equality of nations, as well as of true humanity."</p> + +<p class=Chapter><a name=Bulwark>IX</a></p> + +<p class=ChapterDescription>BOHEMIA AS A BULWARK AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>From the foregoing chapters it is clear that:</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>(a)</i> The Austro-Hungarian Government represents only +the Habsburgs, and the Austrian Germans and the Magyars, who form a minority of +the total population of the monarchy. The majority, consisting of Slavs and +Latins, is opposed to the further existence of Austria-Hungary.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>(b)</i> The Austrian Germans and Magyars, who exercised +their hegemony in Austria and Hungary respectively, will always be bound to +look to Germany for the support of their predominance as long as Austria-Hungary +in whatever form exists. The collapse of the Habsburg Empire in October, 1918, +practically put an end to this possibility.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>(c)</i> The Habsburgs, Austro-Germans and Magyars, just +like the Bulgars, became the willing and wilful partners of Prussia in this +war, while the Austrian Slavs, especially the Czecho-Slovaks, have done all in +their power to assist the Allies at the price of tremendous sacrifices. Under +these circumstances, the only possible policy for the Allies is to support the +claims of those peoples who are heart and soul with them. Any policy which +would not satisfy the just Slav aspirations would play into the hands of Germany.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>(d)</i> The restoration of the <i>status quo ante bellum</i> +of Austria or Hungary is out of the question. The Allies have pledged +themselves to unite the Italian and Rumanian territories of Austria with Italy +and Rumania respectively. The aim of Serbia is to unite all the Yugoslavs. +Deprived of her Italian, Rumanian and Yugoslav provinces, Austria-Hungary would +lose some twelve million Slavs and Latins. The problem of Poland also cannot be +solved in a satisfactory way without the incorporation in Poland of the Polish +territories of Galicia. If the <i>status quo</i> were re-established, the +Czecho-Slovaks, whom Great Britain has recognised as an Allied nation, would be +placed in a decisive minority and would be powerless in face of the +German-Magyar majority. This the Allies in their own interests cannot allow. +They must insist upon the restoration of Bohemia's full independence.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>(e)</i> The disappearance of Austria-Hungary therefore +appears to be the only solution if a permanent peace in Europe is to be +achieved. Moreover, as we have already pointed out, her dissolution is a political +necessity for Europe, and is to-day already an accomplished fact.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The dismemberment of Austria does not mean a destructive +policy. On the contrary, it means only the destruction of oppression and racial +tyranny. It is fundamentally different from the dismemberment of Poland, which +was a living nation, while Austria is not. The dismemberment of Austria will, +on the contrary, unite nations at present dismembered, and will reconstruct +Europe so as to prevent further German aggressive attempts towards the East and +South-East. A close alliance between Poland, Czecho-Slovak Bohemia, Greater +Rumania, Greater Serbia (or Yugoslavia) and Italy would assure a stable peace +in Central Europe.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The issue really at stake was: Central Europe either +Pan-German or anti-German. If Germany succeeded in preserving Austria-Hungary, +the Pan-German plans of Mitteleuropa would be a <i>fait accompli</i>, and Germany +would have won the war: the Germans would, with the aid of the Magyars and +Bulgars, directly and indirectly control and exploit over one hundred million +Slavs in Central Europe. On the other hand, now that Austria has fallen to +pieces the German plans have been frustrated. The Germans will not only be +unable to use the Austrian Slavs again as cannon-fodder, but even the economic +exploitation of Central Europe will be barred to them.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>From the international point of view, Bohemia will form the +very centre of the anti-German barrier, and with the assistance of a new Poland +in the north, and Italy, Yugoslavia and Rumania in the south, she will +successfully prevent German penetration to the East, Near East and the Adriatic.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Austria and Hungary, reduced to their proper racial +boundaries, will be states of about eight million each. The Magyars, being +situated in the Lowlands, which are mainly agricultural, hemmed in between Bohemia, + Rumania and Yugoslavia, will be in a hopeless strategic and economic +position. They will be unable to attack any of their neighbours, and they will +be wholly dependent on them for industrial products. Hungary will thus be +forced to come to an understanding with her neighbours. Austria will be in a +similar position: deprived of her richest provinces, she will no longer be of +any great economic or military value to Germany.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Let us now examine the probable future relations between Bohemia +and her neighbours.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>1. The formation of a strong <i>Polish-Czech block</i> is +the only means of arresting the German expansion towards the East. To-day, when + Russia has collapsed, the liberation of the non-Germans of Central Europe can +alone save Europe from the hegemony of the German Herrenvolk. The creation of a +strong and united Poland with access to the sea at Gdansk (Dantzig) and an +independent Czecho-Slovak State has become a necessity for Europe.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The understanding between the Poles and Czechs is of vital +interest to both peoples concerned, and to Europe as a whole. It is by no means +hypothetical, considering that geographically the Poles and Czechs are +neighbours, that they speak almost the same language, and that their national +spirit, history and traditions bear a close resemblance. The history of Poland +offers many strange parallels to that of Bohemia. It is specially interesting +to note that in the fifteenth century, as to-day, the Poles and Czechs together +resisted the German "Drang nach Osten." The Czech with their famous +leader Zižka participated in the splendid Polish victory over the Teutonic +knights at Grünwald in 1410, while on the other hand, there were many Poles in +the Hussite regiments who so gloriously defended the Czech religious and +national liberties in the fifteenth century. Poland and Bohemia were also +united several times under a common dynasty.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>After Bohemia lost her independence at the battle of the White + Mountain in 1620, she became the prey of Austrian barbarity. The Habsburgs +have done their best to extirpate the Czech heretics and abolish and destroy +the Bohemian Constitution. With Bohemia's loss of independence her contact with + Poland also ceased. And Poland herself became the prey of Prussia, Russia and + Austria some 170 years later, notwithstanding the constitution of May 3 and +the heroic resistance of Kosciuszko.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The regeneration of the Czechs at the end of the eighteenth +century meant the resumption of friendly relations between Czechs and Poles. +The Czechs desired to come to an agreement with the Poles because the latter +are their nearest kinsmen in race and language, and like themselves have +suffered terribly from alien oppression. There were many Polonophils amongst +the first Czech regenerators, and the Polish revolutions always evoked sincere +sympathy in Bohemia. The modern Czech writers were all sincere friends of the +Poles. Thanks to their efforts, Sienkiewicz and Mickiewicz are read in every +household in Bohemia, and the dramas of Slowacki, Krasinski, Wyspianski and +others are frequently played on the stage of our National Theatre in Prague.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The present interests and aspirations of Poles and Czechs +are identical. Like the Czechs, the Poles are threatened by the Pan-German +schemes of Mitteleuropa and "Drang nach Osten," to which they are +bitterly opposed. These plans can be checked effectively only by the +establishment of a strong and united Poland with access to the sea, a strong +Czecho-Slovak State, and a united and independent Yugoslavia and Rumania.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>It was proved by events that Russian imperialism and +oppression was never so dangerous to Europe as Pan-Germanism, since the former +was built upon sand and opposed by the Russian people themselves; while +Pan-Germanism rests upon effective organisation, and its brutal principles of +domination are supported by the bulk of the German people. The Central Powers +are to-day Poland's only enemies, and are a danger to her as to all Europe. Poland's +interests lie only in one orientation: in absolute opposition to Pan-Germany.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The alliance between Poland and Bohemia will provide the +latter with an outlet to the sea (Gdansk). This will draw the two countries +still closer together. Economically such an alliance would be to the mutual +interests of both countries. Since Bohemia has not, like Poland, been +devastated during this war, she could greatly assist Poland in rebuilding her +trade and industries, and this would prevent German economic penetration to the +East. On the other hand, Poland could supply her with oil and salt from Galicia.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czecho-Polish block would prevent German penetration in Russia, +which would thus be able to set her own affairs in order. The Czecho-Polish +block would also frustrate the German plans of creating a Polish-German-Magyar +combination by means of a small Poland, completely dependent on the Central +Powers, or by means of the so-called Austro-Polish solution. The +Czecho-Slovaks, owing to their geographic position and past traditions, and +owing to their advanced civilisation, may be fully relied upon as the pioneers +of peace and stability in Central Europe.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>2. The Czecho-Slovak State will probably have a common +frontier with <i>Rumania</i>. The Rumanians-and Czecho-Slovaks will have common +interests, and their mutual political and economic relations will be of great +importance. Economically, agricultural Rumania and industrial Bohemia will +complete each other. Prague will have direct railway connection with Bukarest +and Jassy, while the Danube will connect the Czecho-Slovaks both with the +Yugoslavs and the Rumanians, under the protection of the League of Nations.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Politically the alliance between a united Poland, Bohemia +and Greater Rumania is of paramount importance, because if Poland and Rumania +remain as small as they are at present, and if the Czecho-Slovaks and Yugoslavs +are left at the mercy of Vienna and Budapest, the Germans will be masters of Central + Europe.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>3. The relations between <i>Czechs and Yugoslavs</i> have +always been cordial, since both of them have always had the same anti-German +and anti-Magyar orientation. By way of the Danube the Czecho-Slovaks would be +in direct communication with Belgrade. The Czechs could further also be +accorded an international railway connecting Pressburg with the Adriatic. The +Czechs, being well developed industrially and commercially, could greatly +assist the Yugoslavs in organising a state sufficiently strong to arrest German +and Magyar penetration in the Balkans.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czechs, being good friends of the Yugoslavs and +Italians, will at the same time exert their efforts to prevent all +misunderstandings between these two Adriatic nations from which only the +Germans would profit. A close alliance between Bohemia, Italy, Yugoslavia and Rumania +will form an effective safeguard against German penetration in the Near East. +Since Rumania will border both on Bohemia and Yugoslavia, the Germans will be +completely encircled by a strong Latin-Slav barrier, of which Bohemia will form +the centre, working for stability in Central Europe and safeguarding Europe +from a repetition of the German attempts at world domination.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>4. The Czecho-Slovak State itself will be strong both +strategically and economically. It will number over twelve million, and its +territory, comprising Bohemia, Moravia, Austrian-Silesia and Slovakia, will be +about 50,000 square miles, that is a territory as large as England (without +Scotland, Ireland and Wales).</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Surrounded by high mountains, Bohemia forms a veritable +fortress in the heart of Europe. Economically, too, she will be strong and +self-supporting.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In the past Bohemia was the richest part of the Habsburg +Empire, with well-developed agriculture and industries. Bohemia produced 829 +lbs. of grain per inhabitant, the rest of Austria 277 lbs. The Bohemian lands +are responsible for 93 per cent. of Austria's, production of sugar, most of +which has been exported to England. Hops of remarkable quality are produced in Bohemia, +and Pilsen beer is known all over the world. Bohemia manufactures over 50 per +cent. of all the beer produced in Austria. Bohemia has also abundant wealth in +minerals, the only mineral which is not found there being salt. Bohemia +produces 60 per cent. of Austria's iron and 83 per cent. (26 million tons) of +her coal. As regards trade, almost all the business between Bohemia and Western + Europe has always passed through Vienna, which of course greatly profited +thereby. This will cease when Bohemia becomes independent.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Two-thirds of the total Austrian exports, the value of which +was over £63,000,000 in 1912, come from the Bohemian lands. To England alone Austria +exported £9,000,000 worth of Bohemian sugar annually. Bohemian beer, malt and +hops were exported especially to France, textiles and machines to Italy. On the +other hand, Germany and German-Austria imported from the Bohemian lands +especially agricultural products (butter, eggs, cheese, cereals, fruit), also +coal and wood manufactures.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In 1905 Austria exported 425,000 metric tons of wheat and +186,000 metric tons of malt, which were mostly produced in Bohemia. The export +of Bohemian beer brings Austria 15,000,000 kronen annually (£625,000), of malt +55,000,000 kronen (£2,290,000). The Bohemian lands further export 130,000,000 +kronen (£5,430,000) worth of textiles annually.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Austrian import trade is also largely dependent on Bohemia. +All French articles bought by Bohemia come through Vienna, two-thirds of the +whole French export being destined for that country.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>As regards England, in 1914 £2,676,000 worth of goods were +exported to Austria-Hungary, the greater part of which again was destined for Bohemia, +the chief articles being printing and agricultural machines and textile +manufactures. England will after the war find a good market in Bohemia, and +valuable assistants in Czech banks and business men in the economic competition +against the Germans in the Near East, since the Czechs boycotted German goods +even before the war. Prague is a railway centre of European importance, being +situated just midway between the Adriatic and the Baltic Sea. An agreement with +her neighbours (Poland, Yugoslavia and Rumania) and the League of Nations +arrangement would secure her an outlet to the sea by means of international +railways, while the Elbe and Danube would also form important trade routes. Bohemia +would become an intermediary between the Baltic and Adriatic as well as between +East and West.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Also the future relations of Bohemia with the British +colonies are not without importance. More than half the trade of Austria with +the British colonies was transacted by the Czechs, and Austria-Hungary exported +to British colonies £3,500,000 and imported from them £10,500,000 worth of +goods annually.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>5. One of the most important reasons why the Czecho-Slovaks, +when independent, will be able to render such valuable services to the Allies, +is the high degree of their civilisation. Despite all efforts of the Austrian +Government to the contrary, the Czechs have nevertheless been able to attain a +high standard of education, and they also excel in literature, music and the +arts.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czechs are not only the most advanced of all Slavs, but +they are even the most advanced of all nations of Austria-Hungary. In Austria +as a whole 6.7 per cent. of the children do not attend school; in Bohemia only +1-1/2 per cent. The standard of education of the Czechs compares with that of +the Austrian-Germans and Magyars, according to the <i>Monatschrift für +Statistik</i> of 1913, as follows:</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText style='margin-top:12.0pt'> +Czechs. Austrian Magyars.</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText> Germans.</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>Persons knowing how to write</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>and read 95-1/2% +92% 40%</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>Persons knowing how to read</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>only 3% +1% 4%</p> + +<p class=TablePlainText>Illiterates 1-1/2% +7% 56%</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Czechs have accomplished this by their own efforts, as +is shown by the fact that 151 Czech schools are kept up by a private Czech +society. These 151 schools have altogether 287 classes and 522 teachers, and +are attended by more than 15,000 children. The unjust treatment of the Czechs +in regard to schools is further shown by the fact that 9,000,000 Germans in Austria +had five universities, 5,000,000 Poles two universities, while 7,000,000 Czechs +had only one. The German University in Prague had 878 students in 1912, the Czech + University 4713. The Germans in Prague number some 10,000 (<i>i.e.</i> 1-1/2 +per cent.), yet they have their public schools and even a university; while the +Czechs in Vienna, numbering at least some 300,000 (<i>i.e.</i> over 15 per +cent.), are deprived even of elementary schools, to say nothing of secondary +schools and universities.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The Slovaks of Hungary were, of course, in an absolutely +hopeless position in view of the terrible system of Magyar oppression. The +Magyars consider the schools as the most effective means for magyarisation. In +the 16 counties inhabited by the Slovaks there are only 240 Slovak schools, and +even in those schools Magyar is taught sometimes fully 18 hours a week. The +number of Slovak schools has been systematically reduced from 1921 in 1869 to +440 in 1911, and 240 in 1912, and these are attended by some 18,000 children +out of 246,000, <i>i.e.</i> 8 per cent. The Slovaks opened three secondary +schools in the early seventies, but all three were arbitrarily closed in 1874. +They have, of course, no university. Thus they were deprived of intellectual +leaders and are doomed to complete denationalisation, unless liberated and +united with the Czechs in an independent Bohemia.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In literature the Czechs may rightly range themselves side +by side with the great nations of Western Europe. Practically all the most +important works of foreign literature have been translated into Czech. The +Czechs have many good dramas, novels, and much excellent poetry which can be +fully appreciated only by those knowing their language. They are also very +musical, and their composers such as Dvořák, Smetana, Novák or Suk, +singers such as Emmy Destinn, and violinists such as Kubelík, are known all +over the world. They are also developed in all other arts, and their +folk-songs, peasant arts and industries, especially those of the Slovaks, bear +ample testimony to their natural talents and sense for beauty and art.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>6. It is obvious that the cause of Bohemia is of very great +importance to the very existence of the British Empire. If Germany succeeded in +preserving her grip on Austria-Hungary, the Balkans and Turkey, she would soon +strike at Egypt and India, and thus endanger the safety of the British Empire. Germany +would control vast resources in man-power and material which would enable her +to plunge into another attempt at world-domination in a very short time. On the +other hand, when the non-German nations of Central Europe are liberated, Germany +will be absolutely prevented from repeating her present exploits, Great Britain +will be no more menaced by her, and a permanent peace in Europe will be +assured. Thus with the cause of Bohemia the cause of Great Britain will either +triumph or fall. Bismarck truly said that the master of Bohemia would be the +master of Europe.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Bohemia has many traditions in common with England, and she +will become her natural ally and friend. In the Czecho-Slovaks, the most +democratic, homogeneous and advanced nation of Central Europe, Great Britain +will find a true ally and fellow-pioneer in the cause of justice, freedom and +democracy.</p> + +<p class=Chapter><a name=Appendix>APPENDIX OF SOME RECENT DOCUMENTS</a></p> + +<p class=Section>THE CZECHO-SLOVAK RESOLUTION OF SEPTEMBER 29, 1918</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The following is the text of the resolution passed by the +Czecho-Slovak National Council in Prague, in conjunction with the Union of +Czech Deputies, on September 29, 1918, and suppressed by the Austrian censor:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Our nation once more and with all possible emphasis +lays stress on the fact that it firmly and unswervedly stands by the historical +manifestations of its freely elected representatives, firmly convinced of the +ultimate success of its highest ideals of full independence and liberty. <i>Our +silenced and oppressed nation has no other answer to all attempts at a change +of the constitution than a cool and categorical refusal</i>, because we know +that these attempts are nothing except products of an ever-increasing strain, +helplessness and ruin. <i>We do not believe to-day in any more promises given +and not kept</i>, for experience has taught us to judge them on their merits. +The most far-reaching promises cannot blind us and turn us away from our aims. +The hard experiences of our nation order us imperatively to hold firm in +matters where reality is stronger than all promises. <i>The </i><i>Vienna</i><i> +Government is unable to give us anything we ask for</i>. Our nation can never +expect to get its liberty from those who at all times regarded it only as a +subject of ruthless exploitations; and who even in the last moment do not +shrink from any means to humiliate, starve and wipe out our nation and by cruel +oppression to hurt us in our most sacred feelings. <i>Our nation has nothing in +common with those who are responsible for the horrors of this war</i>. +Therefore there will not be a single person who would, contrary to the +unanimous wish of the nation, deal with those who have not justice for the +Czech nation at heart and who have also no sympathy with the Polish and +Yugoslav nations, but who are only striving for the salvation of their present +privileged position of misrule and injustice. <i>The Czech nation will follow +its anti-German policy, whatever may happen, assured that its just cause will +finally triumph, especially to-day when it becomes a part of the great ideals +of the Entente, whose victory will be the only good produced by this terrible +war</i>."</p> + +<p class=Section>CZECH LEADERS REFER THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT TO THE +CZECHO-SLOVAK GOVERNMENT AS THEIR AUTHORISED REPRESENTATIVES</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Speaking in the Reichsrat, deputy Staněk declared in +the name of the Union of Czech Deputies on October 2, 1918:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"This terrible war, started against the will and +despite the warnings of the Czecho-Slovaks, has now reached the culminating +point. Two worlds have been struggling in this war. One of them stood for the Middle +Ages and has with daring impudence inscribed upon its banner 'Might is Right.' +Inspired by this watchword, the spirit of German Imperialism believed it had a +mission to rule the whole world, and it was voluntarily joined by the rulers of + Austria-Hungary in the mad desire of enslaving the whole world.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"It was not difficult to guess which side would win +unless civilisation were to be thrown back for centuries. On one side stood the +mediaeval spirit of autocracy; on the other, pure love of liberty and +democracy. And we who have been oppressed by Austria for centuries and who have +tasted Austrian 'education' have naturally not formed voluntary legions on the +side of Austria. In fact <i>the Czecho-Slovaks have not voluntarily shed a +single drop of blood for the Central Powers</i>. But our compatriots abroad, +remembering the centuries-old Austrian oppression, have <i>formed voluntary +legions in all the Allied armies</i>. They are shedding their blood for the +most sacred rights of humanity and at a moment of the greatest danger for the +Allies they saved the situation. In Russia, too, they are fighting for +democracy. Nobody will succeed in arresting the triumphant progress of true +democracy, not even the Austrian and German Governments, nor any diplomacy, nor +any peace notes or crown councils. The world will not be deceived again and +nobody takes the Central Powers and their governments seriously any more.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Your peace offensives will avail nothing to you, +nobody will speak with you again. <i>Even the Austrian peoples refuse to +negotiate with you, knowing the value of your words. We have no intention of +saving you from destruction</i>. Your aim is still the German-Magyar hegemony +and the oppression of Slavs and Latins. You must look elsewhere for support. +The fateful hour for you and the Magyars has come sooner than we expected.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"And the dynasty? Look at the electoral reform in Hungary +sanctioned by the emperor! This reform is intended to destroy completely the +political and national existence of the non-Magyars in Hungary. This is how the +emperor keeps his word.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In view of these events we must ask ourselves: Are +there any moral guarantees in this empire? We do not see them and therefore we +declare that we <i>reject all community with the political system of this +empire. We want a single front of three Slav States extending from </i><i>Gdansk</i><i> +(Dantzig) via </i><i>Prague</i><i> to the </i><i>Adriatic</i><i>.</i> We +protest against any partial solution of the Czecho-Slovak question. The Czecho-Slovak + State which must also include the Slovaks of Hungary is our minimum programme. +We again emphasise our solidarity with our Yugoslav brethren, whether they live +in Belgrade, Sarajevo, Mostar or Lubljana, and we ask for the removal of those +statesmen who wish to subjugate the remainder of the Bosnian population. <i>A +free Yugoslavia, an independent Greater Poland and the Czecho-Slovak State</i> +are already in process of formation, closely allied to each other, not only by +the knowledge of common economic interests, but also on the ground of the moral +prerogatives of international right.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Peace is in sight. We wanted to be admitted to peace +negotiations with representatives of other nations. The Germans refused and +replied: 'If you insist you will be hanged.' Of course the Germans never kept +their word except when they promised to hang some one! But the Entente replied +by deeds recognising the Czecho-Slovak army as an Allied and belligerent army. +Thereupon <i>the Austrian Government asked us, Czech leaders in </i><i>Austria</i><i>, +to protest against it. But of course we refused.</i> I said so openly to the +Premier, and if you like, I will tell it to the Austrian Emperor himself. <i>You +would not admit us to the peace negotiations with </i><i>Russia</i><i>, and now +you will have to negotiate with Czech leaders after all</i>, whether you like +it or not. <i>These leaders will be representatives of the same Czecho-Slovak +brigades which Count Hertling called rascals</i> ('<i>Gesindel</i>'). <i>You +will have to negotiate with them, and not with us</i>, and therefore we will +not speak with you. Our question will not be solved in Vienna. If you accept +President Wilson's terms, if the German people, and not the German bureaucrats, +accept them, then you can have peace at once and save humanity from further +bloodshed. There is no other way out, and <i>we therefore advise you honestly +and frankly to surrender to the Allies unconditionally</i>, because in the end +nothing else will be left to you.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In agreement with the whole Yugoslav nation, in +agreement with Polish representatives, voicing the will of the Polish people, +the Czecho-Slovaks declare before the whole world:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>'Forward in our struggle for liberty and for a new life in +our own liberated, restored state!'"</p> + +<p class=Section>PRESIDENT WILSON'S REPLY TO THE AUSTRIAN PEACE OFFER</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>In reply to the Austro-Hungarian proposal for an armistice +of October 7, 1918, Mr. Robert Lansing addressed the following communication +from President Wilson to the Austrian Government through the medium of the +Swedish Legation in Washington on October 18, 1918:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The President deems it his duty to say to the +Austro-Hungarian Government that he cannot entertain the present suggestion of +that government because of certain events of the utmost importance which, +occurring since the delivery of his address of January 8 last, have necessarily +altered the attitude and responsibility of the Government of the United States.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Among the fourteen terms of peace which the President +formulated at that time occurred the following:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuoteLevel2>"'The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place +among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded +the freest opportunity of autonomous development.'</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Since that sentence was written and uttered to the +Congress of the United States, the Government of the United States has +recognised that a state of belligerency exists between the Czecho-Slovaks and +the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, and that the Czecho-Slovak National +Council is a <i>de facto</i> belligerent government, clothed with proper +authority to direct the military and political affairs of the Czecho-Slovaks.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"It has also recognised in the fullest manner the +justice of the nationalistic aspirations of the Yugo-Slavs for freedom.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The President therefore is no longer at liberty to +accept a mere 'autonomy' of these peoples as a basis of peace, but is obliged +to insist that they, and not he, shall be the judges of what action on the part +of the Austro-Hungarian Government will satisfy their aspirations and their +conception of their rights and destiny as members of the family of +nations."</p> + +<p class=Section>THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAK PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>On October 14, Dr. E. Beneš addressed the following +letter to all the Allied Governments:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"By the declaration of the Government of the United + States of September 3, 1918, the Czecho-Slovak National Council, whose seat +is in Paris, has been recognised as a <i>de facto</i> Czecho-Slovak Government. +This recognition has been confirmed by the following Allied Governments: by +Great Britain in her agreement with the National Council of September 3, 1918; +by France in her agreement of September 28, 1918, and by Italy in the +declaration of her Premier on October 3,1918. I have the honour to inform you +that in view of these successive recognitions a Provisional Czecho-Slovak +Government has been constituted by the decision of September 26, 1918, with its +provisional seat in Paris and consisting of the following members:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuoteLevel2>"<i>Professor Thomas G. Masaryk</i>, President +of the Provisional Government and of the Cabinet of Ministers, and Minister of +Finance.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuoteLevel2>"<i>Dr. Edward Beneš</i>, Minister for +Foreign Affairs and of the Interior.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuoteLevel2>"General Milan R. Štefanik, Minister of +War.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The undersigned ministry has subsequently decided to +accredit the following representatives with the Allied Powers:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuoteLevel2>"<i>Dr. Stephan Osuský</i>. Chargé d'Affaires of +the Czecho-Slovak Legation in London, accredited with His Majesty's Government +in Great Britain.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuoteLevel2>"<i>Dr. Leo Sychrava</i>, Chargé d'Affaires of +the Czecho-Slovak Legation in Paris, accredited with the French Government.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuoteLevel2>"<i>Dr. Leo Borský</i>, Chargé d'Affaires of the +Czecho-Slovak Legation in Rome, accredited with the Royal Government of Italy.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuoteLevel2>"<i>Dr. Charles Pergler</i>, Chargé d'Affaires +of the Czecho-Slovak Legation in Washington, accredited with the Government of +the United States.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuoteLevel2>"<i>Bohdan Pavlu</i>, at present at Omsk, is to +represent our Government in Russia.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Our representatives in Japan and Serbia will be +appointed later.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We have the honour to inform you that we have taken +these decisions in agreement with the political leaders at home. During the +past three years our whole political and military action has been conducted in +complete agreement with them. Finally, on October 2, 1918, the Czecho-Slovak +deputy Staněk, President of the Union of Czech Deputies to the Parliament +in Vienna, solemnly announced that the Czecho-Slovak National Council in Paris +is to be considered as the supreme organ of the Czecho-Slovak armies and that +it is entitled to represent the Czecho-Slovak nation in the Allied countries +and at the Peace Conference. On October 9, his colleague, deputy Zahradník, +speaking in the name of the same union, declared that the Czecho-Slovaks are +definitely leaving the Parliament in Vienna, thereby breaking for ever all +their ties with Austria-Hungary.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Following the decision of our nation and of our +armies, we are henceforth taking charge as a Provisional National Government +for the direction of the political destinies of the Czecho-Slovak State, and as +such we are entering officially into relations with the Allied Governments, +relying both upon our mutual agreement with them and upon their solemn +declarations.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We make this declaration in a specially solemn manner +at a moment when great political events call upon all the nations to take part +in decisions which will perhaps give Europe a new political régime for +centuries to come.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Assuring you of my devoted sentiments, believe me to +remain, in the name of the Czecho-Slovak Government,</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>(Signed)</i> "DR. EDWARD BENEŠ,</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Minister for Foreign Affairs."</p> + +<p class=Section>CZECHO-SLOVAK DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"At this grave moment when the Hohenzollerns are +offering peace in order to stop the victorious advance of the Allied armies and +to prevent the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary and Turkey, and when the +Habsburgs are promising the federalisation of the empire and autonomy to the +dissatisfied nationalities committed to their rule, we, the Czecho-Slovak +National Council, recognised by the Allied and American Governments as the +Provisional Government of the Czecho-Slovak State and nation, in complete +accord with the declaration of the Czech deputies in Prague on January 6, 1918, +and realising that federalisation and, still more, autonomy mean nothing under +a Habsburg dynasty, do hereby make and declare this our Declaration of +Independence:</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Because of our belief that no people should be forced +to live under a sovereignty they do not recognise and because of our knowledge +and firm conviction that our nation cannot freely develop in a Habsburg +confederation which is only a new form of the denationalising oppression which +we have suffered for the past three centuries, we consider freedom to be the +first pre-requisite for federalisation and believe that the free nations of +Central and Eastern Europe may easily federate should they find it necessary.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We make this declaration on the basis of our historic +and natural right: we have been an independent state since the seventh century, +and in 1526 as an independent state, consisting of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, +we joined with Austria and Hungary in a defensive union against the Turkish +danger. We have never voluntarily surrendered our rights as an independent +state in this confederation. The Habsburgs broke their compact with our nation +by illegally transgressing our rights and violating the constitution of our +state, which they had pledged themselves to uphold, and we therefore refuse any +longer to remain a part of Austria-Hungary in any form.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We claim the right of Bohemia to be reunited with her +Slovak brethren of Slovakia, which once formed part of our national state, but +later was torn from our national body and fifty years ago was incorporated in +the Hungarian State of the Magyars, who by their unspeakable violence and +ruthless oppression of their subject races have lost all moral and human right +to rule anybody but themselves.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The world knows the history of our struggle against +the Habsburg oppression, intensified and systematised by the Austro-Hungarian +dualistic compromise of 1867. This dualism is only a shameless organisation of +brute force and exploitation of the majority by the minority. It is a political +conspiracy of the Germans and Magyars against our own as well as the other Slav +and Latin nations of the monarchy.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"The world knows the justice of our claims, which the +Habsburgs themselves dare not deny. Francis Joseph in the most solemn manner +repeatedly recognised the sovereign rights of our nation. The Germans and +Magyars opposed this recognition, and Austria-Hungary, bowing before the +Pan-Germans, became a colony of Germany and as her vanguard to the East +provoked the last Balkan conflict as well as the present world war, which was +begun by the Habsburgs alone without the consent of the representatives of the +people.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We cannot and will not continue to live under the +direct or indirect rule of the violators of Belgium, France and Serbia, the +would-be murderers of Russia and Rumania, the murderers of tens of thousands of +civilians and soldiers of our blood, and the accomplices in numberless +unspeakable crimes committed in this war against humanity by the two degenerate +and irresponsible dynasties of Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns. We will not remain +a part of a state which has no justification for existence and which, refusing +to accept the fundamental principles of modern world organisation, remains only +an artificial and immoral political structure, hindering every movement towards +democratic and social progress. The Habsburg dynasty, weighed down by a huge +inheritance of error and crime, is a perpetual menace to the peace of the +world, and we deem it our duty towards humanity and civilisation to aid in +bringing about its downfall and destruction.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We reject the sacrilegious assertion that the power +of the Habsburg and Hohenzollern dynasties is of divine origin. We refuse to +recognise the divine right of kings. Our nation elected the Habsburgs to the +throne of Bohemia of its own free will and by the same right deposes them. We +hereby declare the Habsburg dynasty unworthy of leading our nation and deny all +their claims to rule in the Czecho-Slovak land, which we here and now declare +shall henceforth be a free and independent people and nation.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We accept and shall adhere to the ideals of modern +democracy as they have been ideals of our nation for centuries. We accept the +American principles as laid down by President Wilson, the principles of +liberated mankind of the actual equality of nations and of governments, +deriving all their just power from the consent of the governed. We, the nation +of Comenius, cannot but accept those principles expressed in the American +Declaration of Independence, the principles of Lincoln and of the Declaration +of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. For these principles our nation shed +its blood in the memorable Hussite wars five hundred years ago. For these same +principles beside her Allies our nation is shedding its blood to-day in Russia, + Italy and France.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"We shall outline only the main principles of the +constitution of the Czecho-Slovak nation. The final decision as to the +constitution itself falls to the legally chosen representatives of the +liberated and united people. The Czecho-Slovak State shall be a republic in +constant endeavour for progress. It will guarantee complete freedom of +conscience, religion and science, literature and art, speech, the press and the +right of assembly and petition. The Church shall be separated from the State. Our +democracy shall rest on universal suffrage; women shall be placed on an equal +footing with men politically, socially and culturally, while the right of the +minority shall be safeguarded by proportional representation. National +minorities shall enjoy equal rights. The government shall be parliamentary in +form and shall recognise the principles of initiative and referendum. The +standing army will be replaced by militia. The Czecho-Slovak nation will carry +out far-reaching social and economic reforms. The large estates will be +redeemed for home colonisation, and patents of nobility will be abolished. Our +nation will assume responsibility for its part of the Austro-Hungarian pre-war +public debt. The debts for this war we leave to those who incurred them.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"In its foreign policy the Czecho-Slovak nation will +accept its full share of responsibility in the reorganisation of Eastern Europe. +It accepts fully the democratic and social principle of nationality and +subscribes to the doctrine that all covenants and treaties shall be entered +into openly and frankly without secret diplomacy. Our constitution shall +provide an efficient, national and just government which will exclude all +special privileges and prohibit class legislation.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Democracy has defeated theocratic autocracy, +militarism is overcome, democracy is victorious. On the basis of democracy +mankind will be reorganised. The forces of darkness have served the victory of light, +the longed-for age of humanity is dawning. We believe in democracy, we believe +in liberty and liberty for evermore.</p> + +<p class=BlockQuote>"Given in Paris on the 18th October, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>(Signed)</i> "PROFESSOR THOMAS G. MASARYK,</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>GENERAL DR. MILAN ŠTEFANIK,</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Minister of National Defence.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>DR. EDWARD BENEŠ,</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Minister for Foreign Affairs and of the Interior."</p> + +<p class=Chapter><a name=Bibliography>BIBLIOGRAPHY</a></p> + +<p class=Section>PAN-GERMANISM</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>CHÉRADAME, A.: <i>The Pan-German Plot Unmasked</i>. John +Murray, London, 1916.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>NAUMANN, F.: <i>Central Europe</i>. King & Son, London, +1916.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>For complete survey of Pan-Germanism and Pan-German +literature, see Prof. Masaryk's articles in the first volume of the <i>New +Europe</i>, as well as various articles in <i>La Nation Tchèque</i>.</p> + +<p class=Section>THE SLAVS</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>BAILEY, V.F.: <i>The Slavs of the War Zone</i>. Chapman +& Hall, London, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>LEGER, Louis: <i>Etudes slaves</i>. <span lang=FR>Leroux, +Paris, 1875, </span>1880 and 1886<span lang=FR>.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>----<i>Le monde slave</i>. </span>Hachette, +Paris, 1910.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>MASARYK, T.G.: <i>The Slavs amongst Nations</i>. <span +lang=FR>London, 1915.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>NIEDERLE, L.: <i>La race slave</i>. Hachette, +Paris, 1910.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>TUČIĆ, S.: <i>The Slav Nations. Daily Telegraph</i> +War Books, London, 1914.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>See also <i>Le Monde Slave</i>, a monthly review published +in Paris by Prof. Ernest Denis at 19-21 rue Cassette.</p> + +<p class=Section><span lang=FR>THE AUSTRIAN PROBLEM</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>BENEŠ, EDWARD: <i>Le problème autrichien +et la question tchèque</i>. Girard-Brière, Paris, 1908.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>----<i>Détruisez l'Autriche-Hongrie.</i> </span>Delagrave, +Paris, 1915.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>COLQUHOUN, A.R.: <i>The Whirlpool of </i><i>Europe</i>. <span +lang=FR>Harpers, London, 1907.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>CHÉRADAME, A.: <i>L'Europe et la question +d'Autriche-Hongrie</i>. </span>Paris, 1900.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>DRAGE, GEOFFREY: <i>Austria-Hungary</i><i>.</i> <span +lang=FR>John Murray, London, 1909.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>EISENMANN, L.: <i>Le compromis +austro-hongrois.</i> Paris, 1904.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>FOURNOL, E.: <i>Sur la succession de +l'Autriche-Hongrie.</i> </span>Paris, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>GAYDA, V.: <i>Modern </i><i>Austria</i>. Fisher Unwin, London, +1914.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>GRIBBLE, F.J.: <i>The Emperor Francis Joseph</i>. <span +lang=FR>Eveleigh Nash, London, 1914.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>LEGER, Louis: <i>Histoire de +l'Autriche-Hongrie.</i> Hachette, Paris, 1888.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>----<i>La liquidation de l'Autriche-Hongrie.</i></span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>MITTON, G.E.: <i>Austria-Hungary</i><i>.</i> A. & C. +Black, London, 1915.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>McCURDY, C.A., M.P.: <i>The Terms of the Coming Peace</i>. W.H. +Smith & Son, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>STEED, HENRY WICKHAM: <i>The Habsburg Monarchy</i>. Constable, +1914 and 1916.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>SETON-WATSON, R.W.: <i>The Future of </i><i>Austria-Hungary</i><i>.</i> +Constable, London, 1907.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>SETON-WATSON, R.W., and others: <i>War and Democracy.</i> +Macmillan & Co., 1914.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>TOYNBEE, A.: <i>Nationality and the War.</i> Dent & +Sons, London, 1915.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>The New </i><i>Europe</i><i>.</i> Dent & Sons.</p> + +<p class=Section>HUNGARY AND THE SLOVAKS</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>ČAPEK, THOMAS: <i>The Slovaks of </i><i>Hungary</i><i>.</i> +Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1906.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>DENIS, ERNEST: <i>Les Slovaques.</i> Delagrave, Paris, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>SCOTUS-VIATOR: <i>Racial Problems in </i><i>Hungary</i><i>.</i> +Constable, 1908.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>SETON-WATSON, R.W.: <i>German, Slav and Magyar.</i> <span +lang=FR>Williams & Norgate, London, 1916.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>BOHEMIAN HISTORY</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>DENIS, ERNEST: <i>Huss et la Guerre des +Hussites.</i> Leroux, Paris, 1878.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>----<i>Les origines de l'unité des frères +bohèmes.</i> Angers, Burdin, 1881.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>----<i>Fin de l'indépendance bohème.</i> +Colin, Paris, 1890.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>----<i>La Bohème depuis la Montagne Blanche.</i> +Leroux, Paris, 1903.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>FRICZ: <i>Table de l'histoire de la Bohème.</i></span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>GINDELY, A.: <i>History of the Thirty Years' War.</i> Translation +from Czech. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1884.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>GREGOR, F.: <i>Story of </i><i>Bohemia</i><i>.</i> <span +lang=FR>Hunt & Eaton, New York, 1895.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>HANTICH, H.: <i>La révolution de</i> 1848 <i>en +Bohème.</i> Schneider, Lyon, 1910.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>----<i>Le droit historique de la Bohème.</i> +Chevalier, Paris, 1910.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>LEGER, LOUIS: <i>La renaissance tchèque en</i> +XIX<sup>e</sup> <i>siècle.</i> </span>Paris, 1911.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>LÜTZOW, COUNT FRANCIS: <i>Bohemia</i><i>.</i> A historical +sketch. Everyman's Library. Dent & Sons, London, 1907.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>The Story of </i><i>Prague</i><i>.</i> Dent & +Sons, London, 1902.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>Life and Times of John Hus.</i> Dent & Sons, +1909.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>MAURICE, C.E.: <i>The Story of </i><i>Bohemia</i><i>.</i> +Fisher Unwin, 1896.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>SCHWARZE, REV. J.: <i>John Hus.</i> The Revel Co., New York, +1915.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>SCHAFF, DAVID: <i>John Huss.</i> George Allen & Unwin, London, +1915.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>WRATISLAW, A.H.: <i>John Hus.</i> Young & Co., London, +1882.</p> + +<p class=Section>BOHEMIAN LITERATURE</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>BOWRING, SIR JOHN: <i>Cheskian Anthology.</i> Rowland +Hunter, London, 1832.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>BAUDIŠ, PROF. JOSEPH: <i>Czech Folk Tales.</i> George +Allen & Unwin, London, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>FRICZ: <i>L'idée nationale dans la poésie et +la tradition</i> bohème.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>GAMBERT, E.: <i>Poésie tchèque contemporaine.</i> +Paris, 1903.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>JELINEK, H.: <i>La littérature tchèque +contemporaine</i>. </span>Paris, 1912.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>KOMENSKY, J.A.: <i>Labyrinth of the World</i>. Translated +from Czech by Count Lützow. Dent & Sons, London, 1900.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>LÜTZOW, COUNT FRANCIS: <i>Bohemian Literature</i>. +Heinemann, London, 1907.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>MARCHANT, F.P.: <i>Outline of Bohemian Literature</i>. London, +1911.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>MORFILL, W.R.: <i>A Grammar of the Bohemian (Čech) +Language.</i> With translations from Bohemian literature. Clarendon Press, Oxford, +1899.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>Slavonic Literature</i>. London, 1883.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>NĚMCOVÁ, B.: <i>The Grandmother</i>. A novel translated +from Czech. McClurg, Chicago, 1892.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>SELVER, PAUL: <i>Anthology of Modern Bohemian Poetry.</i> +Drane, London, 1912.</p> + +<p class=Section>BOHEMIAN CIVILISATION</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>BAKER, JAMES: <i>Pictures from </i><i>Bohemia</i>. Chapman +& Hall, London, 1904.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>HANTICH, H.: <i>La musique tchèque</i>. Nilsson, Paris, +1910.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>MONROE, W.S.: <i>Bohemia</i><i> and the Čechs</i>. Bell +& Sons, London, 1910.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>PROCHAZKA, J.: <i>Bohemia</i><i>'s Claim for Freedom</i>. Chatto +& Windus, London, 1915.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>TYRŠOVA, R., and HANTICH, H.: <i>Le paysan tchèque</i>. +Nilsson, Paris.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>ZMRHAL, J.J., and BENEŠ, V.: <i>Bohemia</i>. Bohemian +National Alliance, Chicago, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>Les pays tchèques</i>, published by the Ligue +Franco-Tchèque, Paris, 1917.</p> + +<p class=Section>BOHEMIAN POLITICS</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>BENEŠ, EDWARD: <i>Bohemia</i><i>'s Case for </i><i>Independence</i>. +<span lang=FR>George Allen & Unwin, London, 1917.</span></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR>BOURLIER, JEAN: <i>Les Tchèques et la Bohème</i>. +</span>F. Alcan, Paris, 1897.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>ČAPEK, THOMAS: <i>Bohemia</i><i> under Habsburg Misrule</i>. + Chicago, 1915.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>For reference <i>re</i> the Czecho-Slovak movement, see its +official organ <i>La Nation Tchèque</i>, published at 18, rue Bonaparte, Paris. +First two volumes edited by E. Denis, the following by Dr. E. Beneš.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>Numerous useful articles on Bohemia and the Austrian problem +from the pen of H.W. Steed, R.W. Seton-Watson, L.B. Namier, Professor Masaryk, +Dr. Beneš, V. Nosek and others will be found in the weekly review of +foreign politics, the <i>New Europe</i>, published by Messrs. Constable & +Co., 10, Orange Street, London, W.C.2.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>The following list of some recent articles in the English +(not American) monthly and quarterly reviews is also recommended:</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>BARRY, The Very Rev. Canon WILLIAM: <i>Break </i><i>Austria</i><i>. +Nineteenth Century</i>, September, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>How to Break </i><i>Austria</i><i>. Nineteenth +Century</i>, November, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>Shall </i><i>England</i><i> save </i><i>Austria</i><i>? +Nineteenth Century</i>, June, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>CHÉRADAME, A.: <i>How to Destroy Pan-Germany. National +Review</i>, January, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>The Western Front and Political Strategy</i>. <i>National +Review</i>, July, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>FORMAN, JOSEPH: <i>The Liberation of the Czecho-Slovaks. +Nineteenth Century</i>, March, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>GRIBBLE, FRANCIS: <i>Czech Claims and Magyar Intrigues. +Nineteenth Century</i>, March, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>The Passing of a Legend. Nineteenth Century</i>, +October, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>LANDA, M.J.: <i>Bohemia</i><i> and the War. Contemporary</i>, +July, 1915.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>AN OLD MAZZINIAN: <i>Italy</i><i> and the Nationalities of </i><i>Austria-Hungary</i><i>. +Contemporary</i>, June, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>NOSEK, VLADIMIR: <i>The New Spirit in </i><i>Austria</i>. A +Reply to Mr. Brailsford. <i>Contemporary</i>, October, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>Bohemia</i><i> as a Bulwark against Pan-Germanism. +National Review</i>, July, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>POLITICUS: <i>Austria</i><i>'s Hour of Destiny. Fortnightly</i>, +August, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal><i>Round Table</i>, Quarterly Review of the Politics of the +Empire: No. 16 (September, 1914): <i>Origins of the War.</i></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----No. 17 (December, 1914): <i>Racial Problems in </i><i>Austria-Hungary</i><i>.</i></p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----No. 26 (March, 1917): <i>Methods of Ascendancy: </i><i>Bohemia</i>.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>SELVER, PAUL: <i>Březina's Poetry. The Quest</i>, +January, 1916.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>Modern Czech Poetry. Poetry Review</i>, May, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>SETON-WATSON, R.W.: <i>Pan-Slavism. Contemporary</i>, +October, 1916.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>Austria-Hungary</i><i> and the Federal System. +Contemporary</i>, March, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>STEED, HENRY WICKHAM: <i>The Quintessence of </i><i>Austria</i><i>. +</i><i>Edinburgh</i><i> Review</i>, October, 1915.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>The Programme for Peace. </i><i>Edinburgh</i><i> +Review</i>, April, 1916.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>----<i>What is </i><i>Austria</i><i>? </i><i>Edinburgh</i><i> +Review</i>, October, 1917.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>TAYLOR, A.H.E.: <i>The Entente and </i><i>Austria</i><i>. +Fortnightly</i>, May, 1918.</p> + +<p class=MsoNormal>For a detailed and exhaustive list of all writings in the +English language on Bohemia and the Czecho-Slovaks, see <i>Bohemian +Bibliography</i>, by Thomas Čapek and Anna Vostrovsky Čapek, +published by the Fleming H. Revell Co., Chicago, New York, Edinburgh and London, +1918.</p> + +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Independent Bohemia, by Vladimir Nosek + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDEPENDENT BOHEMIA *** + +This file should be named 8iboh10h.htm or 8iboh10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8iboh11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8iboh10ah.htm + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Kline and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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