Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/117

Rh peasant art of the Slovaks; it was even possible to organise an exhibition of Czecho-Slovak art in the Doré Gallery in 1912.

Thus before the war the two countries were united by many bonds which would have increased as time went on. The outbreak of the war has for a moment interrupted these relations, but it has at the same time revealed to both nations the fact that in addition to mutual sympathies and intellectual relations, there are also common political and economic interests, binding the two countries together in a common struggle against a common enemy.

As we have explained above, Bohemia will constitute an important factor in the anti-German barrier which will be erected east of Germany to arrest the Prussian expansion to the East; she will thus aid the Allies in arresting the economic penetration of Germany in the Balkans and in Central Europe.

There is yet another point of this question of great interest for the future relations of Bohemia with England: the economic relations between the two countries. After the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary, and after the closing to Germany of her trade routes to the Near East, Bohemia will be economically closely attached to England. The following figures prove it abundantly.

The export trade of England to Austria-Hungary