Page:The Bohemian Review, vol1, 1917.djvu/51

 German or Czech minorities. The Germans object that the Czech minorities in North Bohemia, etc., are “only” working men—people who live on German bread; but this antisocial argument is obviously false, and it is inconsistent with the process of the industrialisation of Bohemia, which, of course, needs factory “hands”; moreover, it was the Germans themselves who invited the Czechs to immigrate.

The question of national minorities is of capital significance not only in Bohemia, but in almost all countries, almost all States being nationally mixed. Even if the new Europe cannot be remodelled on a strictly nationalist basis, the national rights of the minorities must be assured. This will be done in Bohemia. The Bohemians have always claimed equal, not superior, rights. Owing to her central position it will be to Bohemia’s interest to grant full rights to the Germans and the two smaller minorities. Common sense will demand it. Nor would it be contrary to the spirit of the proposal that the rights of national minorities should be granted and secured by an International Court.

So far as the German minority is concerned, I should not be opposed to a rectification of the political frontier; parts of Bohemia and Moravia, where there are only a few Czechs might be ceded to German Austria. In that way the German minority could be perhaps reduced by one million. But it must be remembered that there are large Czech minorities in Lower Austria and Vienna ($1⁄2$ million), and there are also Czechs in Prussian Silesia, in the territories of Glatz and Ratibor and a large Sorb minority in Lusatia. Pangermans cannot, therefore, justly complain of the fate of the minority in Bohemia. The just rule for national redistribution in Europe consists in the fair application of the principle of the majority. Which is the more just—that nine million Czechs should be under German rule or that three million Germans should be under Czech rule?

If the Germans insist on the argument that their culture invests them with the right of ruling the less cultured nations, the fact must be emphasised that the Czechs are not less cultured than the Germans. Even Austrian statistics show a smaller number of illiterates in Bohemia than in German Austria.

There is one means, of a more financial nature, which might help to rearrange national minorities. The German and Ausstrian politicians, especially the Pangermans, have very often proposed that the various States should undertake a system atic intermigration of national minorities. I see that in England Mr. Buxton recommends this means for the Balkans. It may be doubted whether this expedient would be very effective, if equal national rights were granted. The Magyars tried some years ago to repatriate the small Magyar minority of the Bukovina; the undertaking was a complete failure, for the repatriated colonists soon left Hungary and went back. But after the war, many countries will need men—farmers, artisans and members of the professional classes, and, therefore, a systematic transplanting of minorities might be attempted.

6. The International Position of Bohemia in regenerated Europe.—The re-establishment of independent Bohemia is only one part of the Allied programme of reconstruction. In close connection with the Bohemian are the Polish and Southern Slav questions. The Poles, Czech-Slovaks, and Southern Slavs, form a natural barrier against the Germans, Magyars and Turks, and their Pangerman plans in the East. The liberation and reunion of Poland and Bohemia aim directly at Prussia: to crush Prussian militarism means, in effect to liberate the two nations which are its primary object. The reunion of the Poles means, of course, the liberation of Posnania and Prussian Silesia from Prussian rule, and the liberation of Galicia and Bukovina from Austrian rule. This Slav barrier is not to be understood in the sense of the so-called Buffer-States. A buffer-State presupposes continuous antagonism between two neighbours; whereas the Allies’ programme aims at the reconstruction and regeneration of the whole of Europe.

The liberation of the Roumanians and Italians, as demanded by the Allies, requires a further dismemberment of Ausstria-Hungary, with which indeed the programme of the Allies is synonymous. “Lasting Peace!” means the break-up of this a-national, mediaeval State.

The Magyars will also have their own State, being, of course, reduced to the bounds of their own nationality, and German Austria will remain under the Habsburgs.

The plan of the Allies implies the creation of only one or at most two new