Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/94

 not only righteous but compulsory are still imperfectly grasped.

The liberty of the little nations is necessary to our own peace, freedom and safety. That is the last remaining discovery which the American people must make.

Long before the white men went there, the natives of India caught wild elephants in snares, trained them, and then used them to catch other wild elephants. That is precisely what the Hohenzollerns and Hapsburgs have been doing with the free peoples of Central Europe for almost as long a time. When the war broke, Germany commanded the services, the treasure and the blood of 6,000,000 non-Germans within her own borders and of 40,000,000 non-Germans in Austria-Hungary. Turkey and Bulgaria added 27,000,000 serfs and allies to the list of Pan-German subjects, the conquest of Poland, Finland, Lithuania and the Ukraine increased the number still farther, till today, the kaiser's will is law to more than 200,000,000 people, only 73,000,000 of whom are Germans, and only 94,000,000 of whom are Germans, Magyars, Bulgars and Turks.

Give him time to organize this vast population, crush out their national cultures and school them to blind obedience, and the kaiser will rule the world. In sheer self defense, we must break his grip and free his slaves.

The little nations of Europe are the outposts of our own liberty. We must see that their own freedom is made secure. It will be the hardest task ever set for modern diplomacy, but it can be accomplished—because it must. Our own fate is bound up with the fate of the little nations whose very names were unfamiliar to us a few short years ago, and as we deal with them, so will the future deal with our own nation.

The situation in Bohemia has reached a stage where it may be best described as open rebellion against Austria. Martial law rules in Prague, conflicts between citizens and soldiers are frequent, and war has been declared by the Vienna government upon the Czech deputies and upon the entire Czechoslovak nation.

For a long time the astute Czernin, himself a descendant of an ancient Bohemian family, but a German renegade in sentiment, had hoped to divide the people from their leaders. His last attempt was made only a few days before his fall. Speaking before the City Council of Vienna he sought to blame the failure of his peace maneuvers on the attitude of the Czech deputies; according to Czernin, Masaryk in foreign lands and men of his stamp within Austria encouraged the Entente to keep up the struggle under the belief that Austria-Hungary would break down of internal difficulties. But, added Czernin, the Czech deputies do not represent the real sentiments of their people.

An answer was given to Czernin by the Czech nation on April 13. A wonderful gathering was held in the “Representation House” of the City of Prague, composed not only of the deputies, but of delegations from the Bohemian cities and of representatives of every profession, class and interest. In all the addresses rang the lofty tone of firm determination to fight for freedom till death, and the culmination of the meeting was the swearing of a solemn oath to persevere to the end. The meeting afforded an opportunity for a remarkable manifestation of the solidarity of the Czechoslovaks and Jugoslavs. Not only the deputies of Austrian Jugoslavs, but a delegation from the diet of Croatia, representing the Jugoslavs of Hungary, pledged their firm alliance to the Czechoslovaks in the common fight for liberation from the Austrian yoke. For days and weeks after this meeting resolutions were showered upon the deputies from the city councils of Bohemia and Moravia, from county boards, from societies and corporations of all kinds, assuring them that they had the people back of them and urging them to go on with the fight. These resolutions ranged from that voted by the City Council of Prague to one adopted by the Bohemian colony in Berlin.

The fall of Czernin and these manifestations of absolute unanimity in Bohemia coincided in point of time with the German successes in Picardy and Flanders. They no doubt coincided also with the exertion of pressure from Berlin on Vienna. At any rate, since the middle of April, even