Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/122



new organization of the world based upon the self determination of nations, declare that we shall stand in the ranks of fighters for the liberty of nations; we shall work in complete co-operation; we shall fight together against attacks and to gether uncover plots; we shall together strengthen our people’s confidence, confirm their will and increase their determination.

“We lift our hands and pledge ourselves with a solemn and irrevocable pledge. All that we have, and all that our ability and strength can accomplish, we shall devote to the liberation of our nations.”

Among the reports made to the convention, the most interesting was the one by Dr. Antonin Hajn, on the Imperial Royal Correspondence Bureau. He said that the business of gathering news and disseminating it by telegraph was in Austria subject to a license and that the state had granted only one license, namely to itself. The Vienna Correspondence Bureau is as much a state monopoly as the sale of tobacco. That fact in itself indicates its real character and value. It enables the government to govern the public opinion within the state and exert an influence on foreign opinion. It twists news, emasculates them and even suppresses what it does not like, but it has exceeded all former records during this war. The bureau is a weapon of war by means of which the government creates an artificial mist of words and conceals by it the real condition of the Empire, both before the world and before its peoples. It is nothing but one of the means of the internal offensive of the German-Magyar system against the aspirations for freedom of the oppressed nations of the monarchy.

The resolutions adopted by the convention of journalists have been badly mutilated by the censor. From the incomplete account published in the Czech papers only this much can be cited: The resolutions condemn the unheard of persecutions of all Slav press, making impossible a free expression of opinion, compelling newspapers to publish official copy as if it were editorial matter, and punishing refractory editors with jail or with service in the army. A protest is made also against the discrimination by which German papers are assured of a supply of paper while the Slav newspapers are unable to obtain the necessary supplies and are threatened with suspension. A strong protest is also made against what the resolutions call, “the world disgrace”, namely prohibition of bringing newspapers from enemy countries to Austria and the prohibition of permitting most of Slav journals to be sent even to neutral countries.

The principal, and almost the only surviving Slovak newspaper, “Slovenský Týždenník", has this to say of the Slovak participation in the Prague celebrations:

Over twenty people came from our land, but what gave special weight to the Slovak participation, was the presence of Hviezdoslav, the greatest and noblest poet not of the Slovaks only, but of the entire contemporaneous Slav world. It was the first time that our prophet, the pride of our literature, undertook to come out publicly as the spokesman of his people. We Slovaks are not abandoned people, when poets speak for us; we are not a poor people, when Hviezdoslav is our spokesman. Ut to now our people looked upon Hviezdoslav with great respect and admiration as upon a great genius; now a deep satisfaction is in our hearts, when we realize that we have the right kind of spiritual leadership. Crowds of people in Prague, great and small, noble and common guests and citizens, surrounded our bard with expressions of love and respect.”

The Executive committee of the German National Socialist Labor Party had a meeting in Vienna on May 21. Deputy Knirsch presided. After the current business of the party had been transacted, resolutions were adopted welcoming the closer alliance with the German Empire. At the same time the resolutions expressed the conviction of the party that only the union of the western Austrian lands, formerly a part of the German Bund, would constitute a satisfactory solution of German-Austrian relations. The resolutions further take up the decree of the Minister of the Interior, Count Toggenburg, breaking up the unity of Bohemia by erecting there twelve administrative districts subject directly to the ministry at Vienna, instead of to the governor of Bohemia. The resolutions look upon this decree as a very indifferent substitute for German demands, upon the fulfillment of which the party must insist, namely the annexation of German-speaking districts of southern Bohemia to Upper Austria, of southern Moravia ot Lower Austria, and of northern Moravia and northeastern Bohemia, together with the industrial district of Moravian Ostrava to Silesia. At the southern end of the monarchy the party is opposed to all attempts to unite the South Slav districts with Croatia; it favors the union of CraotiaCroatia [sic] with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dalmatia, Montenegro and Western Serbia and as compensation Hungary is to cede to Austria German,-speaking territory in Western Hungary.

(The rest of this paragraph, containing four lines, is confiscated.)

Wenzel Titta, president of the German National Council of Bohemia, had promised to get food for the Germans of Bohemia from the German Empire. So he proceeded to the proper quarters in Germany to get the promised assistance. Now Mr. Titta boasts in the papers about the success of his intervention and calls upon German towns to send their applica-