Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/165



The first stage on the road to independence has been reached. Czechoslovaks have been admitted to the ranks of the Allies as one of the belligerent nations, and the Czechoslovak National Council has been recognized by the Entente—and that means nine-tenths of the world—as a government carrying on war legitimately against the Central Powers. France on June 29th, Italy on June 30th, England on August 9th, the United States on September 3rd. and Japan on September 9th, gave official pledges to this effect. Even China has now extendad recognition to the Czechoslovaks, and the New York Times in a witty editorial told the Austrian Government that its efforts to bring together the warring sides around the green table could have no effect, since Austria omitted to extend an invitation to one of the governments most closely interested, namely the Czechoslovak National Council.

There are variations in the texts of the various official declarations extending recognition to the new nation. Thus the French who came first with an unqualified endorsement of the claims of the Czechoslovaks for a wholly independent state, speak of the National Council as the trustee of the national interests and the foundation of the future government. Italy chose its own way in extending a hand of friendship to its new Ally; instead of a formal announcement it concluded a treaty with the Czechoslovak National Council by which it recognized the right of the Council to command the Czechoslovak Armies, to make laws for Czechoslovak citizens and to enforce those laws on Italian soil. The British declaration has followed on the whole the tenor of the French recognition, but it is more explicit by stating directly that England looks upon the Czechoslovaks as an Allied and friendly power. The American statement does not go that far in this particular, and leaves the status of Czechoslovaks resident in the United States and not naturalized still in doubt, but on the other hand it goes further than the European Allies in giving the Czechoslovak National Council the status of a de facto belligerent government. The Japanese text, as one may expect from a distant Power, which comes into contact with the Czechoslovaks merely in the course of military operations in Siberia, deals with the status of the Czechoslovak Army| and of the Council as the organ in command of these armies. These differences, while not very serious, illustrate the lack of diplomatic leadership among the Powers of the Entente. There is one commander for all the Allied armies, there is a common war council sitting at Versailles, but the stage has not yet been reached of discussing the diplomatic questions and plans together and issuing a common statement on behalf of all the Allies.

What a difference between the fall of 1918 and the fall of 1914! Four years ago Masaryk left Bohemia with the determination to break up an empire of fifty-two million people into its component parts. He was practically alone. Now he is the president of one of the Allied Governments and the commander-in-chief of great armies. Four years ago a few thousand Bohemian and Slovak emigrants in France and England enlisted to strike a blow at the common enemy of their own nation and of their adopted land. But while they helped to hold up the foe’s march to Paris, they fought and died for the cause of the Allies in general and not for their own country in particular. Today 150,000 of their brothers fight the enemy on all fronts in their own armies, knowing that by dying they help to defeat the Germans and also to free their native land. Four years ago a few Bohemian and Slovak enthusiasts in the United States saw in the war a chance for doing