Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/61

 trary we have opposed it in all our declara tions and motions, because from our innumerable bitter experiences we see in it the total negation of the principle of self-determination of nations We charge indignantly that our nation was robbed of her own independent state and of the right to determine her destinies and was placed by artfully contrived electoral schemes at the mercy of the German minority and made subject to the rule of German Centralizing Bureaucracy.

Our Slovak branch became a victim of Magyar brutality and unspeakable violence in a state which in spite of its seemingly constitutional regime has remained the darkest corner of Europe and in which non-Magyar nations, forming a majority, are oppressed and exterminated by the ruling minority, robbed of their children, without public schols and deprived even of their private schools.

The constitution to which the Austro-Hungarian delegate appeals tampered even with the fairness of the universal manhood franchise by increasing artificially the representation of the German minority in parliament. Its absolute worthlessness, as far as the rights of the peoples are concerned, was demonstrated in an infamous manner by the brutal military absolutism during the war. Every reference to this constitution means in reality a denial of the right of self-determination to the non-German races of Austria, leaving them at the mercy of the Germans; and it means especially a coarse insult to the non-Magyar races of Hungary, where the constitution is merely the means by which the shameless oligarchy of a few high-born Magyar families maintain its rule, as has been once more proved by the last electoral reform bill.

Our nation, like every other democracy of the world desires a general and lasting peace, but is fully conscious that only that peace will be lasting which will put an end to ancient wrongs, brutal force and supremacy of cannon, as well as the rule of states and nations over other nations; that peace only will be lasting which will guarantee free development to nations great and small and which will especially liberate those nations that are still subject to foreign dominion It is therefore necessary that the right to a free national existence and self-determination of nations, great and small, of whatever state they may now be a part, shall be the foundation of future international law, the guarantee of peace and friendly relations of nations, as well as the great ideal possession which will free humanity from the horrors of general war.

We, the representatives of the Bohemian nation, declare that a peace which would not bring liberty to our nation could not and would not be for us a peace, but only the beginning of a new, mighty and thorough going fight for political independence in which our nation would employ to the utmost all its material and moral strength; and in this relentless struggle it would not pause until it reached its goal Our nation reclaims this independence relying upon its historical state right; it is pervaded by an ardent desire that it shall in its own Sovereign, Equal, Democratic and Socially just state, erected on the principle of equality of all the citizens and within the Historical limits of its Territories, together with its Slovak branch, contribute to the new growth of mankind in free competition with other free nations on the foundation of Liberty and Brotherhood, granting freely in this national state full and equal rights to racial minorities

Guided by these principles we protest solemnly agaist the rejection of the right of nations to self-determination at the peace conference We demand that in accordance with this principle all nations, including our own, shall be guaranteed participation at the peace conference and full liberty to defend their rights.

The Czechs laid down the principle of the right of small nations, as well as large, to self-determination half a century ago and they have always adhered to it. Reasserting that fundamental which has been accepted in principle by all the belligerent countries in this war, they make their demand to participate and defend their right in the peace conference. It is inconceivable that they can be denied, regardless of what becomes of the Dual Monarchy as a consequence of the decision. Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, March 15.

Of the 13,233 Austrian subjects accepted in our first national draft approximately 30 percent are of Bohemian birth.

The Czech believes in his national destiny in Europe. He believes that this war is the certain means by which he shall escape that persecution and commence the independent working out of that destiny. With his battalions of police and his frantic courts-martial the Pan-German shows that he, too, believes it. Richard Wilmer Rowan in World’s Work.