Independent Bohemia Part 11

"There is another reason which speaks against the creation of a Deutschbohmen. I am convinced that _if a plebiscite were carried out among German people in Northern Bohemia, they would declare against separation from Bohemia_. 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, _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_, especially if we guarantee, not only by promises, but by deeds and laws, full autonomy to the German population within the Bohemian State.

"_The real question which puzzles us to-day is: How can Austria exist at all?_ That is the question. And I again repeat solemnly Palack's word that _Austria may exist only so long as her nations wish for it_, and that _she will cease to exist_ 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 _we shall hate this Austria for all eternity_ (loud cheers and applause) _and we shall fight her, and G.o.d willing, we shall in the end smash her to pieces so completely that nothing will remain of her_."

_The President:_ "I cannot admit such an expression about this state and I call the deputy to order."

_Dr. Stransk_: "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.

"Let Dr. Seidler remember that _we regard Austria, 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 tell you further, gentlemen, that this state, this Austria which Seidler talks about, is not a state at all. _It is a hideous, centuries-old dream, a nightmare, a beast, and nothing else_. It is a state without a name, it is _a const.i.tutional monarchy without a crown and without a const.i.tution_. For what kind of a const.i.tution 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? _It is a state without patriots and without patriotism_, 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.

_As a matter of fact, Austria no longer exists_, 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.

_And if Czecho-Slovak brigades are to-day fighting against Austria-Hungary it is only a proof that there is something very wrong with Austria, that Austria is more rotten than Shakespeare's Denmark._ For what other state has soldiers who ran over voluntarily to the enemy? You keep on saying that England has the Irish problem. _Did you ever hear of Irish brigades, did you ever hear that any French legions were fighting for the Central Powers against France_, 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. _There must therefore be some deep reason for Czecho-Slovak, Polish and Yugoslav legions fighting on the side of the Entente_."

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.

VIII

CZECHO-SLOVAK CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER NON-GERMAN NATIONS OF CENTRAL EUROPE

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.

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.

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.

_(a) The Congress of Rome_

In order to give practical expression to the growing sense of co-operation amongst the oppressed nations of Austria-Hungary, their representatives a.s.sembled 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.

The congress was attended by numerous Italian senators, deputies, ministers and other leading men. The Yugoslav Committee was represented by its president, Dr. Trumbic, the Dalmatian sculptor Mestrovic, the Bosnian deputy Stojanovic and others; the Czecho-Slovak Council by Dr. Benes and Colonel Stefanik; 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 Skupstina 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.

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 Trumbic:

"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:

"1. Each of these peoples proclaims its right to const.i.tute its own nationality and state unity or to complete it and to attain full political and economic independence.

"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.

"3. The a.s.sembly 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.

"The representatives of the Italian people and of the Yugoslav people in particular agree as follows:

"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 _(finalita)_ of the two nations may be completely attained.

"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.

"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.

"4. To such racial groups _(nuclei)_ 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."

The Polish delegates laid before the congress a special memorandum of their own from which we quote the following:

"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 a.s.sociated with Austria or not; above all, upon all-powerful Prussia.

"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 rest.i.tution 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.

"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. _The independence of neighbouring Bohemia is as necessary to an independent Poland as a great independent Poland is necessary to the very existence of Bohemia._ 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."

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:

"We have seen with keen satisfaction this a.s.sembly here in Rome, where for centuries the representative spirits of all peoples and races have always found refuge, and where hard facts seem to a.s.sume a prophetic form and ideal meaning.

"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 pa.s.sions 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, _and to establish a solidarity sprung from common suffering_. 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 a.s.sign to one or the other of the different state groups.

"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, part.i.tioned by strangers, and treated for centuries as a _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 Italy might become a united state_. 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 s.p.a.ce fraternise on the scaffold erected by their common enemy.

"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."

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:

"Above all _I welcome especially the recent congress at Rome_, 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) _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_, and on which she may still go forward to a greater future than she has ever seen in the past. (Cheers.) _That is a great work, and those who have borne any part in it may well be proud of their accomplishment_.

"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, _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,_ 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. _On that alone depends the whole conception of the League of Nations,_ 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."

_(b) The May Manifestations in Prague_

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.

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. Pogacnik, deputies Ravnicar and Rybar, the Mayor of Lublanja, Dr. Tavcar, President of the Chamber of Commerce, J. Knez and others. The Yugoslavs were further represented by Count Vojnovitch and M.

Hribar, by delegates of the Croatian Starcevic Party, the Serbian Dissidents, Dr. Budisavljevic, Mr. Val Pribicevic, Dr. Sunaric, Mr. Sola from Bosnia, representatives of the national, cultural, economic inst.i.tutions, and representatives of the city of Zagreb, with the mayor, Dr. Srpulje, at the head.

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.

The delegation from Galicia included prominent representatives of the Polish Democratic Party, Count Dr. A. Skarbek, deputy and ex-minister Glombinski and deputy Witos, 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 munic.i.p.al and county councils, journalists, artists, painters, sculptors, authors and others.

At a meeting arranged in honour of the Slav guests, Dr. Kramar 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."

The Yugoslav deputy Radic 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!"

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 pa.s.sages from them.