Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/57



January 1918 marked the ebb tide in the movement for Bohemian independence. Many things came to a head about that time that greatly discouraged the Czechs and their friends. Russia, the gigantic Slav nation, the one Great Power upon which the Czechs had counted confidently, made peace with Germany without even mentioning Bohemia. Italians whose interests run parallel with the interests of Austrian Slavs had recently suffered a terrific disaster. Serbia and Roumania, the only other states that were enemies of Austria rather than of Germany, were crushed. France was still full of good will for her Bohemian friends, as she proved by her official recognition of the Czechoslovak army, but England and America courted Austria and seemed inclined to take Czernin’s peace talk at its face value. The whole world seemed to take it for granted that Austria-Hungary would remain intact and would continue to be ruled by the Hapsburgs.

But by April the situation has undergone great changes. The effects of the shock caused by Russia's desertion passed away. The four Great Powers, remaining united against Germany, took stock of their resources and of the enemy’s strength, and realized that they were not reduced to the necessity of accepting a compromise. BesidsBesides [sic], whatever willingness there had been in England and America to compromise, was destroyed by Germany’s faithlessness and greed in the East and by Austria’s two-faced policy. While Czernin repeatedly declared in most solemn form that Austria wanted no annexations, he was negotiating with Berlin about the division of the Russian booty, trying to get for his master the crown of Poland and the control of Ukrainia. After assuring the Austro-Hungarian delegations that the Dual Empire would not follow Germany in the new drive into Russia, he sent Austrian soldiers into the Ukraine in partnership with the Germans. And so nothing more is heard in the West about separate negotiations with Vienna.

At the same time a great change of sentiment has occurred in Italy. Her original aims at expansion and especially her claims to control both shores of the Adriatic, conflicted with the racial claims of the Jugoslavs, and this conflict Austria knew how to use to her advantage. But the democratization of the Entente under President Wilson’s leadership, and the searching of heart after the defeat of October brought about an abandonment of all imperialistic ambitions on the part of Italy. A complete understanding has been reached as to territorial adjustments in the Adriatic between Italy on the one hand, and Serbia and Austrian Jugoslavs on the other. And now Italy, which arose fifty years ago as the incarnation of the principle of nationality against the brute force of the dynastic principle undertokundertook [sic] to be the leader of the oppressed races of Austria-Hungary. Under Italian auspices the Czechs, Jugoslavs, Poles and Roumanians are being brought together for the purpose of creating a free federation of national states in place of the medieval Hapsburg empire.

But the most encouraging feature of recent happenings for friends of Bohemia is the ever-growing revolt within Austria. At the very time, when the Entente listened to Czernin and flattered Austria, the Czech and Jugoslav deputies in the Austrian parliament defied the government, and incidentally angered the population of Vienna, by denouncing peace with the bolsheviki and the trick of separating Ukrainia from Russia for easier exploitation. While Poland and America spoke about autonomy for the races of Austria, the Czechoslovak elected representatives voted unanimously for an independent Bohemia, and the Slavs of Southern Austria demanded openly united Jugoslavia. They cannot and will not fail in their brave struggle for freedom.