Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/102

88 necessarily become their natural allies. Austria, broken up, will never again be able to furnish Germany, the formidable enemy of Great Britain, with 5,000,000 men as cannon-fodder. The Magyars, separated from Austria and Germany, and deprived of the possibility of oppressing the Slav and Rumanian nationalities, will no longer pursue their policy of aiding Vienna and Berlin.

Above all, Germany, finding herself thus weakened and reduced to her proper strength, and having strong Slav nations for neighbours in the East, will be unable to recommence her projects of to-day.

But it is in Bohemia that the Allies will find the basis of their resistance against the Germans. In fact, Bohemia will constitute the very heart of the anti-German barrier. Independent Bohemia would be inhabited by some twelve millions of people filled with a determination to withstand encroachment on their liberties; for twelve centuries of struggle against the Germans prove that the spirit of the Czecho-Slovaks is indestructible. Their energy is great enough to represent a real political force, and their conduct during the present war reveals that they are ready to sacrifice all, when their existence and the rights of humanity are at stake.

An independent Czecho-Slovak State would be