Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/79

 workingmen of Budapest made demonstrations and inaugurated a strike of 100,000 men, the oligarchy won and Wekerle resigned, because Charles would not allow him to dissolve the parliament and appeal to the country.

And while everything in Austria is seething with discontent and is ready to boil over, Italy which six months ago suffered a serious blow through clever German-Austrian propaganda is paying back to Austria in an even more effectual manner. Delegates of the Austro-Hungarian oppressed nationalities were invited to Rome in the middle of April to sit together with Italian delegates and agree upon measures in their common interest. Detailed reports of the proceedings of the convention are not yet available, but it is known that the following resolutions were passed unanimously, setting forth the aims of the oppressed nationalities: 1. Every race maintains its right to constitute its own nationality and unity as a state and to achieve entire independence. 2. Every race recognizes in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy an instrument of Germanic domination and a fundamental obstacle to the realization of its rights. 3. The Assembly recognizes the necessity for a combined struggle for complete liberation against common oppressors.

The fruit of all this is seen on the Italian front. Entire regiments of Slavs and Roumanians are going over to the enemy. And worse than that. The men who desert put on Italian uniforms and eagerly fight against their oppressors. As usual, Bohemians lead. Edgar Ansel Mowrer, correspondent of the Chicago Daily News, has just cabled from the Italian Army Headquarters a sympathetic account of the important part played by Czechoslovak volunteers on the Italian front. We are proud to quote it here:

“Czechoslovak troops of the national army are now present behind the Italian front representing the independent Czechoslovak state recognized by Britain, France and Italy, which might, for the lack of a better name, be called Greater Bohemia. Thus the recent meeting of the Italian-Slav leaders in Rome is proved not to have been in vain and the apprehensions so clearly manifested by the Austro-Hungarian newspapers, with the exception of those representing the Slav element, are shown to have been thoroughly justified.

Soon there will be struck the first of those blows against the Austro-Hungarian national carcass which will eventually do away with its unity—struck by Slavs who hitherto have been a component and even an invaluable element of the dual monarchy.

When the history of the war is written not the least brilliant story will be that of the Czechslovak opposition to their oppressors, their dogged resistance, mostly passive but becoming active whenever circumstances permitted, finally constituting one of the decisive factors in the dissolving of the Hapsburg state. But for this history meanwhile we must thank our Italian allies, who showed calm generosity in thus collaborating with a portion of their enemies, for needless to say, the Czechoslovaks on the Italian front were, until their independence was proclaimed, enemy subjects.

To-day in certain parts of the front one may see tall, blond men passing, fine looking fellows, dressed in uniforms resembling those of the Italians. To assist them, the French and Italian officers are working with them. These, however, have been imposed not by any constraint of the allied governments, but have been freely chosen by the Czechoslovak leaders and after long consultation with their recognized heads, Benesh and Stefanik.

Soon we shall see them at work. They cannot but become a nucleus to which all Czechoslovaks, whatever their present position may be, will be drawn to strike a blow in defense of that Bohemia “which was before Austria and will be when Austria has ceased to be.”

We have at last reached a situation where one of the two dominant races, the Germans of Austria, finding that the machine of state has broken down, and that the only alternatives to the present situation are federalism or disruption, is coming to the conclusion that even from its own selfish point of view the latter is preferable, since it would unite them to the German EmipreEmpire [sic] and rescue them from the position of a minority in a mainly Slav State. The same calculation will weigh with the Magyars who, rather than submit to a definite collapse of the German hegemony in Austria, would, as no less eminent a statesman than Count Andrassy has publicly hinted, within the last few months, prefer complete severance between Austria and Hungary, in the calculation that in an independent Hungary the Magyars could still hold their own by means of a close alliance with the German Empire.

R. W . SETON WATSON, in Contemporary Review