Page:The Bohemian Review, vol1, 1917.djvu/11

 the monarchy for the benefit of Serbia. Masaryk proved at the celebrated Friedjung trial in Vienna that the Austro-Hungarian legation in Belgrade manufactured the evidence by means of which the prosecuting attorney convinced the court of the guilt of the accused. But neither the exposure, with its European scandal, nor the most severe attacks delivered by Masaryk in the Delegations against the foreign minister, Count Aehrenthal, availed to turn the ruling circles of the Dual Monarchy from their mad policy of crushing Serbia. Germany approved and would back Austria to the limit; that was all the big men in the two capitals of the Hapsburg empire cared to know.



When the long impending war finally came, Masaryk was the one man in Bohemia who was prepared for it and knew what to do. The entire Czech nation was furious at the crime committed by their rulers; they, the Slavs of Bohemia, were ordered to shoot brother Slavs for the greater glory of Germany. The country seethed with discontent, reservists mutinied, whole Czech and Slovak regiments surrendered. But armed rebellion in Bohemia would have been an act of madness. Little could be