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RV 109 tional Council, is a regular army and should be recognized as such under international law.

5. Emperor Charles of Austria-Hungary, as far as the Bohemians are concerned, and even from the legal point of view, is nothing but a usurper, never having been crowned King of Bohemia, and thus not having performed the ceremony which would give him the legal sanction to govern Bohemia, and the throne of Bohemia is therefore vacated.

6. The Czechs demand now an independent republic. As substantiating this, I append hereto as Exhibit “A” a dispatch appearing in the London Morning Post, of January 19, 1918.

7. Slovaks and Czechs are members of the same nation, the only difference being that the Slovaks are suffering under Magyar domination in Hungary, while the Czechs are suffering under German domination in Austria.

8. It appears, therefore, that the Czechoslovaks ask the right of development in an independent state. Mere autonomy would mean that they would have to submit, at least temporarily, to a sovereignty to which they are opposed.

9. The Hapsburg dynasty has never kept its pledges: it has made of Austria-Hungary its family estate. It cannot be expected that the