Page:The Bohemian Review, vol1, 1917.djvu/50

 spirits, the consumption of all those articles is far greater in the Bohemian lands.

The Bohemian lands are, indeed, the “pearl of Austria,” not only from the point of view of agricultural and industrial production, but also, and as the inevitable result thereof, from the financial stand point. In the other lands of the Monarchy the State expenses are greater than the in come received from them in return, and this deficit is made good by the Bohemian countries. In view of the foregoing facts few people will entertain any doubts as to Bohemia’s chances of being self-supporting and progressive.

Bohemia has, unfortunately, no seaboard (except in one of Shakespeare's plays), and that, no doubt, is a great drawback as compared, for instance, with little Denmark and the other sea-bordered countries. But Bohemia does not stand alone in that respect; she is no worse off than Serbia, Hungary, Switzerland. The example of Switzerland shows that not only political independence can be preserved, but also that modern means of communication enable even a landlocked country to maintain a flourishing industry. Switzerland has not even any coal, and yet she has succeeded in becoming an industrial country. Bohemia, on the other hand, is very rich in coal, and will therefore be able to run the necessary railways. But she will have at her disposal Trieste, which, it may be presumed, will be a free port; and she will also have the Serbo-Croatian ports and Polish Danzig, should her relations with Germany prevent the use of Hamburg. The distance from Prague to Hamburg is the same as that to Trieste; Danzig is a little further, as is also Fiume. There is the possibility of creating a cheap waterway by a Moravia-Oder-Vistula channel, of which there already exists the beginning.

Although the sea undoubtedly furnishes comparatively strong strategical frontiers, yet the development of modern navies easily counterbalances that advantage, as has been experienced in this war. Belgium, Denmark, Norway, for instance, can make little use of the sea.

Bohemia would, of course, take her share of the Austrian public debt contracted before the war; but she will decline to participate in the debt resulting from the war. The financial situation of Austria-Hungary is very precarious; the war has cost the country an enormous amount of money, and the Austro-Hungarian bank has been degraded into an institute for false coining. Independent Bohemia would have to begin her own administration with a considerable financial burden; and the leading political men of Bohemia are well aware of their serious task, and of the necessity for a solid, thoroughly balanced financial administration. It may be mentioned that after the war the financial exhaustion of all the nations will necessitate the most stringent financial administration. But it may be said without exaggeration that Bohemia will have excellent administrators in all departments of public and private service, who will be quite fit for the work of remodelling the new State.

In this outline it is impossible to discuss all the social and economic problems of Bohemia. But it is of general interest to point out the peculiar position of the Bohemian landed proprietors or aristocracy, which is very similar to that of the famous East Elbian Junkers. As in East Prussia, the Germans confiscated the soil of the Slavs, so did Austria and her aristocratic accomplices in Bohemia after the battle of the White Mountain. It was as a result of these and former robberies that, in Bohemia, landed estates were created of a size equal to some of the small German States. These proprietors, for the most part, are Austrian in sentiment, and would perhaps form a dangerous element. Bohemia might, in that case, follow the methods of land purchase and parcelling out pdopted in Ireland; as indeed, all the liberal parties demand.

5. The National Minorities in Bohemia.—As it is not my intention to hide the difficulties which face the establishment of a free Bohemia, reference must be made to the question of national minorities.

The Bohemian State would be composed in round figures, of 9,000,000 Czechs and Slovaks, 230,000 Poles in Silesia, 3,000,000 Germans, and 150,000 Magyars in Slovakia.

Though we advocate the principle of nationality we wish to retain our minorities. That seems a paradox, but it is on the very principle of nationality that we wish to retain them. Bohemia is a unique example of a nationally mixed country. Between the Italians and Germans, the ethnographical frontier is simple and sharply defined. Not so in Bohemia; in a great many places, and in all the cities, there are