Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/237

 lived with us like our own boys, and they kept us jolly in the most difficult times. They opened up movies for us and refreshment rooms. In my regiment we had “Uncle Miller” from New York; everyone of these uncles is kept on the roll of the regiment. Our uncle knows Bohemia quite well, he spent a year in the old country before the war, so that he knows what we like and he always tried to give it to us. So for instance this Mr. Miller opened in Cheljabinsk a factory for making Bohemian sausages and smoked meat. They were as good as those we used to get at home before the war. This uncle found customers for al he made; in fact the whole army wanted uncle’s sausages. Then we told him that with the sausages we wanted salted rolls, and uncle Miller rented a bakery and started to manufacture Bohemian rolls and “half-moons.” Why, he even got beer for us once, when we came near a Russian brewery. He was best pleased when the boys were having a good time and he liked to be right in the centre of them. We all told him that he must march with us to Bohemia, and then we will keep him there.

The uncle from the second regiment was another jolly fellow; his name was Atherton and he was also from New York. He learned to speak Bohemian pretty well. He was a fine musician and the boys in his regiment loved to crowd around the piano on which he played for them Czech songs. Mr. Atherton came with us to America.

I know that I speak for the whole regiment, when I thank that society for sending these uncles to us. The Czechoslovak soldiers will never forget what they did for us in Russia, and uncles from America will always be welcome in Bohemia.

I am going back to Bohemia with the first ship, and after I talk to my mother I will go to Russia to meet the boys and come back with them to Prague.

Long live our little father Masaryk!

Long live our free country!

Hurrah for our uncles from America!

At the end of October a meeting was held in Geneva between the representatives of the Czechoslovak government, recognized by the Allies, and the delegates of the Czechoslovak people from Prague. It was the first time during all the course of the war that official representatives of the two parallel movements had an opportunity to meet. At the close of the conferences the delegates from Prague addressed to Dr. Edward Beneš, Czechoslovak Minister of Foreign Affairs, the following declaration of confidence and gratitude:

“After four years of complete separation from the civilized world the delegation of the Czechoslovak National Committee of Prague arrived on the soil of free Switzerland and joined hands with the representatives of the provisional government of the Czechoslovak State in Paris.

It is difficult, nay impossible, to describe in a few words the sufferings and misery of the Czechoslovak nation during these four years. Not even approximately can we estimate the sacrifices of life and property for the attainment of its freedom. But however great were the sufferings and however heavy the blows, the nation bore them with a firm faith that the dream of liberty would be realized in this war. In this firm and mystic faith in the victory of its just cause the nation was strengthened by the thought that it was not abandoned in its sufferings and that its more fortunate and free faction was fighting for liberation by the force of spirit and by weapons. On the wide plains of Russia, on the devastated meadows of northern France and in the Italian mountains the Czechoslovak flag flies over the heads of heroes who spuming death laid down their lives daily for the liberty of their nation, gaining immortal glory and winning for themselves the undying gratitude of the entire nation. With bated breath hundreds of thousands read at home news of their own army, families proudly boast of sons who fight under the Czechoslovak banners, and the day of return of the victorious legions will be a national holiday which future generations for centuries will remember.

But no less grateful is the nation to those sons of hers who fought with the weapons of the mind to gain a place for their small nation on the international stage, who voluntarily left their country and their families, afraid of no personal selfdenials and correcting misunderstanding and ignorance they convinced the world that it should return liberty to the nation, which in its greatest periods could shed blood for freedom of faith and conscience.

The names of Thomas G. Masaryk, Milan Štefanik and Edward Beneš, the names of all their associates and coworkers, whom we cannot name here, will be inscribed by the grateful nation in its memory, and history will record them in lines of metal on the most glorious pages of national annals.

The undersigned delegation of the Czechoslovak National Committee and the Union of Czech Deputies, fulfilling a sacred {{SIC|an dpleasant|and pleasant]] duty on be half of the entire nation, expresses its admiration for the heroic Czechoslovak Army, the true sons of their Hussite fathers, and its immeasurable gratitude to all the men who managed the fortunes of the nation abroad. We ask you, dear Mr. Minister, to transmit these sentiments to all those concerned.{{em}}Geneva, October 31, 1918.

{{hin|4em|For the Czechoslovak National Committee of Prague Karel Kramář, President; Václav Klofáč, Vice President.}}

{{hin|4em|For the Union of Czech Deputies Francis Staněk, President; Anton Kalina, Second Vice President; Gustav Haberman, Vice President; Dr. Přemysl Šámal.}}