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Rh It would he difficult to find in history a situation as tragic as that of the Czech people. Forced by their tyrants' bayonets into combat against their racial brothers, their youth is condemned to perish ingloriously on the battlefields for a cause they detest. The prisons are full of political prisoners: executions are frequent. Only a few representatives of the nation succeeded in escaping abroad to inform Europe of the aspirations, sympathies, and efforts of their people, the natural allies of the Entente, and to prevent, if possible, the escape of the Habsburgs from their just punishment.

Led by Professor Masaryk, deputy to the Viennese Parliament, at present lecturer at King’s College, London, they organised the Czecho-Slovak movement in the Allied countries, and are assiduously working for the liberation of their country.

The Belgians, the Poles, and the Serbs have at least the consolation that part of their nation is still free and able to defend their country by word and deed. The Czecho-Slovak countries have the misfortune to have been from the first day of the war in the hands of their enemies, terrorised by threats of imprisonments and executions, and completely isolated from the rest of the world. It is difficult to imagine a situation more disheartening, more unfavourable to resistance. The following facts will demonstrate better than