Page:The Bohemians (Czechs) In The Present Crisis.djvu/19

 after the 3rd of April, 1915, the twenty-eighth regiment was dissolved by a special army order, signed by the emperor himself, and its re-establishment was resorted to merely for the purpose of deceiving the outside world.

Reliable information has it that the thirty-sixth Bohemian regiment and a Bohemian regiment from the south of Moravia revolted, and it is a fact that after the surrender of the twenty-eighth regiment at Bardejov of those who did not succeed in reaching the Russian lines every fifth man was executed.

There is no gainsaying the fact that several hundred Bohemian officers and soldiers, formerly of the Austrian army, have fought with and are still in the army of Serbia. In Russia there is a whole Bohemian regiment called now the Bohemian Slavic sharpshooters' regiment. Last March there were fifteen hundred Bohemians in this regiment, and five hundred of these wear now the cross of St. George, awarded only for conspicuous deeds of bravery.

The fact remains that the number of Czechs who deserted would make six army corps. That explains many of the Austrian defeats in Serbia and Galicia.

The socalled Bohemian regiments in the Austrian army at the present time are largely made up of a mixture of Magyars, who keep watch over the Bohemians remaining in these regiments.

It is an interesting fact that the president of the branch of the Bohemian National Alliance in Paris, the famous painter, Francis Kupka, himself for months fought in the trenches in France and returned to Paris only after being incapacitated by rheumatism.

Czechs from Australia fought with the English soldiers at Gallipoli.

The services of the Bohemian volunteers have been recognized by Senator Martin in the French senate; by Millerand, a member of the French cabinet, and by Miljukov and Kovalevsky in the Russian duma.

It is no exaggeration to speak of the heroism of these Bohemians fighting voluntarily in the Allied armies; they volunteered because they felt that no Bohemian can stand indifferent and impassive in the struggle against the German desires for world dominion.