Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/172

 Radical Party, said in a speech in Styria: “What shall we do with the Slavs? Decimate them and break them up. The war is the best means to that end. That is why every German-thinking man must stand for the continuation of the war

The war annihilated at least 20 million Slavs. The Germans suffered relatively less owing to the fact that war is being exclusively fought on non-German soil. That was the greatest strategic and political move made by Emperor William and Hindenburg. If now war were carried to Czech soil, no German would burst into tears over it. The war will destroy Slav race to such an extent that they will not be able to recover within perceivable time. We Germans have annihilated Serbia, Montenegro and Russia. So shall we also deal with the Slavs of Austria-Hungary.”

The government, too, practices frightfulness as far as it dares. It knows now that it is useless to deny the fact of disaffection in the Austrian Army, as was its practice during the first three years of the war. Recently the Vienna papers published the names of 74 soldiers who were executed for treason, nearly all of them were Slavs. The paper also states that 17 men of the Czechoslovak Army in Italy captured by Austrians were executed, and a standing reward of 450 crowns and 14 days’ furlough is offered to any soldier who captures a member of the Czechoslovak Army.

At the front it may still be possible to enforce discipline, but in the interior the process of disorganization has gone so far that the most treasonable talk and open preparations for rebellion are ignored by the authorities. There is no class of the people on whom the helpless ministers can any longer rely. Government officials of Czech race and even the Catholic clergy in Bohemia, in spite of the pressure of German bishops, openly endorse the Czechoslovak Committee as the real Government of the people. Deputy Mashtalka who a year ago was opposed to a total break between the Czech deputies and the Government now returns to the emperor the order of the Iron Crown, being unwilling to wear any longer an Austrian decoration. In the country soldiers are stationed everywhere to watch the growing crops with orders to shoot hungry people who at night and even in daytime dig up a few potatoes.

The parliament is to meet early in October and the Austro-Hungarian delegations are also to deliberate on the common interest of the monarchy. We shall hear some revolutionary talk and shall probably see the Polish deputies under force of Polish public opinion make a common front with the rest of the Austrian Slavs. Austria is ripe for an explosion.

In celebrating today the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council as a de facto belligerent government, we are celebrating an act which perhaps more than any other illustrates the deep gulf existing between Austro-Hungarian and German methods, on the one hand, and American and Allied ways and means on the other. For their own selfish ends, and not out of consideration for any desires on the part of the peoples concerned, Germany endeavored to stir up trouble in Ireland, India, Egypt and elsewhere. The purpose sought was not to give recognition to the aspiration of any nation, but to weaken Allied power for a successful prosecution of the war. The United States, even to win the holiest of wars, would not stoop to such German and Austro-Hungarian methods. America always stood ready to extend support to those justly asking for it. She always recognized any movement which showed itself to be really one of the people. So she has now accorded recognition to the Czechoslovak movement for independence. She waited, and properly waited, until it was demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that Czecho-Slovak peoples demanded severance from Austria-Hungary, until they showed on the battlefield that they themselves were willing to lay down their lives to achieve their independent purposes. In other words, in according recognition to the Czechoslovak National Council and the Czecho-Slovak national aspirations, the United States Government recognizes an