Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/220

 A more difficult problem facing the new Czechoslovak government was the question of the Slovaks. Even before the revolution Slovaks had representatives on the National Committee. When news came to Slovakia of the Prague overturn, a meeting was hurriedly called together by the existing Slovak National Council. Representatives of all the principal Slovak cities and towns gathered at Turč. St. Martin on Oct. 30; they issued the following :

Representatives of all the Slovak political parties, assembled on October 30, 1918, in Turč. St. Martin and organized into the National Council of the Slovak branch of the indivisible Czechoslovak nation, take their stand on the principle of the right of nations to self-determination, accepted by the whole world. The National Council declares that it alone is entitled to speak and act in the name of the Czechoslovak nation living on Hungarian territory.

We deny this right to the Hungarian government which for decades considered it its chief task to suppress everything Slovak, did not erect a single school for our nation nor permitted us to have our own schools, did not admit Slovaks into the public administration and beggared our people economically and preyed on it by its medieval, feudal constitution and politics.

We deny the right to speak in the name of the Slovak people to those representative bodies which came forth from narrow electoral provisions contrary to the will of the people and consist of men who violate the law by preventing the use of a single Slovak word even in the assemblies of purely Slovak counties.

We deny this right to such public meetings which pass resolutions under foreign pressure. In the name of the Slovak nation in Slovakia only the Slovak National Council is entitled to speak.

The National Council of the Czechoslovak nation dwelling in Hungary declares:

1. The Slovak nation, both in respect of language and of cultural history, is a part of the unitary Czechoslovak nation. In all the cultural struggles, which had been fought by the Czech nation and which made it known all over the world, the Slovak branch had its share.

2. For this Czechoslovak nation we also demand the full right of self-determination on the basis of full independence. On this basis we signify our agreement with the newly established international situation, formulated on October 18, 1918, by President Wilson and accepted on Oct. 27, 1918, by the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister.

3. We demand the immediate conclusion of peace, on humanitarian and Christian principles, so that peace might be permanent and prevent by international guarantees further war and further armaments. We are convinced that our striving and gifted Slovak nation which in spite of un speakable oppression reached such a degree of national culture will not be excluded from the blessings of peace and from the league of nations, but that it may be enabled to develop according to its own individuality and make its own contribution to the general progress of mankind.

Given at the session of the Slovak National Council at Turč. St. Martin, October 30, 1918.

On the following day, at nine o’clock in the evening, three delegates of the Slovak National Council arrived in Prague. They were Ivan Derer, Fedar Houdek and Jos. Hanzalik. They were welcomed officially by representatives of the Czechoslovak National Committee and by enthusiastic crowds. The two branches of the Czechoslovak nation were thus formally united.

There was left the problem of taking possession of the Slovak territory. The Magyars held on to what they ruled with more tenacity than the Germans did in Austria. The Hungarian National Council under the presidency of Count Michael Karolyi was just as unwilling to give the oppressed nations of Hungary their liberty, as were the governments that ruled before him in the name of the Hungarian king. The Czechoslovak National Council saw that it would be necessary to occupy the unredeemed portion of the new state by armed force. Disbanding Czech soldiers from the former Austrian army were reformed, new classes of recruits called out, and in addition 36,000 Serbian prisoners of war in Bohemia declared their willing ness to serve in the Czechoslovak army, until it was possible to transport them home. Whether the 40.000 Czechoslovak