Independent Bohemia Part 3

In their proclamation published in the _Narodni Listy_ of February 10, 1918, the executive declared that:

"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 cla.s.ses."

In a speech to the Young Czech Party before its dissolution, Dr. Kramar 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 _the chapter of our former policy was forever closed for us_. 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 _Narodni Listy_ of December 25, 1917, Kramar wrote under the heading "By Order of the Nation":

"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."

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.

When Kramar 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 Smeral, 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.

As the Social Democrats became quite loyal to the Czech cause, the National Socialist Party lost its _raison d'etre_. Owing to the great sufferings of the working cla.s.s during the war, it became imbued with Socialist ideas.

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 Nemec. The National Socialist leader, deputy Klofac, 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 cla.s.ses 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 cla.s.s difference, viz.

Socialists, Agrarians and Democratic Nationalists (_bourgeoisie_), all of whom will stand behind the programme of full Czecho-Slovak independence.

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.

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.

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.

IV

TERRORISM IN BOHEMIA DURING THE WAR

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 ma.s.sacred 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:--

_(a) Czech Deputies and Leaders imprisoned and sentenced to Death_

The most important perhaps was _the case of Dr. Kramar,_ one of the most moderate of the Czech leaders. Dr. Kramar 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. Rasin, Mr. Cervinka, an editor of the _Narodni Listy_, 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:

Dr. Kramar 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. Kramar 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. Kramar Austria meant to strike at the Czech nation. The "proofs" for the high treasonable activity of Dr. Kramar before and during the war were the following:[1]

(1) Dr. Kramar was (before the war) in communication with Brancianov, Bobrinski, Denis, Masaryk, Pavlu and others, who now preach the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary.

(2) In his articles in the _Narodni Listy_, published during the war, Dr.

Kramar advocated the liberation of small nations as proclaimed by the Entente. His organ, "the _Narodni Listy_, laid special stress on news favourable to our enemies and on the state of disruption of Austria, and indirectly invited Czechs to pa.s.sive resistance."

(3) A copy of _La Nation Tcheque_ was found in Dr. Kramar's pocket at the time of his arrest.

(4) Dr. Kramar had a conversation with the Italian consul in April, 1915, which is "an important cause of suspicion."

(5) In a letter to the Governor of Bohemia, Prince Thun, Dr. Kramar admitted that, always faithful to his political principles, he refrained from everything that might appear as approval of the war.

This was the evidence brought up against Kramar, 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.

Equally characteristic is also _the case of the National Socialist leader, deputy Klofac_, who was arrested in September, 1914. Owing to lack of proofs the trial was repeatedly postponed, while Klofac 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 _Narodni Politika_ about his experience in prison, deputy Klofac says:

"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. Vrbensk 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. Kramar and Dr.

Rasin 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 Muller 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_c_ (high treason), he only hissed: 'You do not want any medicine. It would be wasted, for in any case you will be hanged.'"

Besides Klofac, the following four National Socialist deputies were also imprisoned: Choc, Burival, Vojna and Netolick. The accused were condemned on July 30, 1916, for "failing to denounce Professor Masaryk's revolutionary propaganda."

_Professor Masaryk_, 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. Benes, who escaped abroad in the autumn of 1915 and became secretary general of the Czecho-Slovak National Council.

_Dr. Scheiner_, president of the "Sokol" Gymnastic a.s.sociation, was imprisoned, but was again released owing to lack of proofs. A similar fate also met the Czech Social Democratic leader _Dr. Soukup_, who was for some time kept in prison.

_(b) Monster Trials, Arbitrary Executions, Internment of Civilians, etc_.

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. Matejovsk, of the Prague City Council, and fifteen munic.i.p.al 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 Kotikova, aged twenty-one, who, according to the _Arbeiter Zeitung_ of September 8, 1917, refused to say from whom she had received the manifesto, and through her heroic att.i.tude saved the lives of others.

Without a fair trial and without evidence, the editor of the National Socialist organ _Pokrok_ in Prostejov, Mr. Joseph Kotek, was sentenced to death on Christmas Eve of 1914. The sentence was pa.s.sed 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 _Pokrok_, 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 G.o.d 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 _Arbeiter Zeitung_ 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 s.e.xton of the church to allow any one to see the graves of those executed for high treason.

_Dr. Preiss_, the manager of the Czech bank, Zivnostenska 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.

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 Stribrn, who declared in the Reichsrat on June 14, 1917:

"This war was begun by the Austrian Government without the consent of the Austrian Parliament, against the will of the Czech people.

"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.

"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.

"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."

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:

"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....

"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.

"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."

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.

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.

A Czech named Jar, 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.