Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/80

66 in Russia and Serbia. Thus the State derives a double benefit: it acquires property, and at the same time satisfies the vengeance of the Austro-Germans on the soldiers' wives and children, who are thus deprived of the means to live, and are doomed to perish of starvation.

In several cases the government tried to intimidate public opinion through infamous trials. The following are some of the most important ones.

The trial of Klofáč, leader of the National Socialist Party.—Klofáč was arrested in September 1914 on a charge of high treason. He was reproved for his travels to Serbia and Russia, and his relations with Slav politicians. Documents produced by agents provocateurs presented Klofáč as a secret member of the Serbian "Narodna Obrana" Society, which, with Serbian aid, had stirred up revolt in Bohemia during the mobilisation. The trial was suspended owing to a lack of proofs, but Klofáč was left in prison.

The trial of the National Socialist Deputies, Choc, Voina, Buřival, and Netolický.—This trial, in which the accused were condemned on July 30th, 1916, for failing to denounce the revolutionary propaganda of Prof. Masaryk, is a judicial scandal. No serious proof was produced. The only documents were some notes by Prof. Masaryk, found by the police amongst his