Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/114

 on account of the disorganization of the railway traffic to join the army. The majority of them were in Siberia and it is certain that a large number have by this time succeeded in reaching their comrades. In fact it is known that many thousands of Roumanian prisoners of war from Siberia preferred to attach their fortunes to the disciplined Czechoslovak army and go with them to France. It is not far from truth to estimate the number of Czechoslovak soldiers strung all the way from the River Volga to the Pacific Ocean at one hundred thousand.

Just how the conflict arose between them and the Bolsheviki is not yet quite clear. The policy of the Czechoslovak Council, the political direction of which is followed by the army, has been to remain absolutely neutral in Russian internal affairs. It is for the Russians themselves to decide, what their government shall be and how they will achieve a stable rule. The only aim of the Czechoslovaks is to fight Austria-Hungary and Germany. In February of this year an agreement was reached between the Bolshevik authorities and Professor Masaryk, President of the Czechoslovak National Council, that these troops would be allowed free and unmolested passage from Southern Russia to France by way of the Pacific, or by any other route that might be available. If the Bolsheviki violated this agreement at the inspiration of the Germans, as seems most likely, the Czechoslovak National Council is set free of its obligation, and its future tactics will be dictated according to the changed situation and the needs of the moment.

Not much has been said in the war reports of the fighting done by Czechoslovak volunteers, recruited from prisoners, in the Slav legion which operated in 1916–17 in Dobrudja in co-operation with the Roumanian army. Those of them who remained alive, together with some thousands of men who went over from the Austrian side to the Roumanians, have already been transported to France with a few hundred volunteers from Russia. These men were the foundation of the Czechoslovak army in France, augmented by volunteers from the United States and by drafted men of Czechoslovak race in France. Two of their regiments are now at the front.

The third Czechoslovak army is fighting on the Italian front. The number actually engaged with the Austrians is 18,000, but the army is still growing. This army is recruited from prisoners of war who had gone over to the Serbians in 1914 and who had retreated with the Serbians in the terrible march across the Albanian Mountains; out of 30,000 men only 18,000 reached the sea. They are also recruited from the Czechoslovak soldiers who are constantly pass ing from the Austrian lines to the Italian and who simply change their uniforms and fight again, this time in real earnest. For fighting is for these heroes a very serious matter. During the recent disastrous Austrian offensive 300 of the Czechoslovaks were captured, and the desperate Austrian authorities hoped to stop the practice of going over to the Italian side by hanging all three hundred. The Czechoslovak National Council has instructed their soldiers on the Italian front to proceed to reprisals, and the world may be prepared to hear soon of German and Magyar prisoners of war hanged by the Czechoslovaks. One may expect that the enraged comrades of the Czechoslovak victims will make special efforts to capture an Austrian general, and if at all within the range of possibility, a Hapsburg archduke, and show the blood thirsty tyrants that the game of hanging can be played by both sides.

If one could include the Bohemian and Slovak boys in the United States army, the number of the Czechoslovak fighters would be raised still higher. But counting only the men who stand under the orders of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia, France, Italy and even on the Macedonian front, there are 150,000 disciplined, devoted men, an army more numerous than that of Belgium or Serbia or Portugal, an army of fighters coming close after the American, English, French and Italian armies.

The significance of these troops is obvious. They mean that the Czechoslovak nation is in an armed revolt against Austria-Hungary, and that the Czechoslovaks have broken completely and finally with the Hapsburgs. But the significance goes further than that. An army is today the main attribute of sovereignty. We can imagine a state deprived by the enemy of all its territory; Belgium and Serbia control only a tiny strip of land, but they are still real states, because they have armies.

Once an army comes into being and becomes subject to central political control, a new government has come into existence.