Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/173



Dethronement of the Kaiser, election of a socialist for president of the German Republic, even the Spartacide uprisings and the attempts at the establishment of a communist government have not changed the German character. The Germans do not know what it means to be democratic, they have not learned to have any regard for the rights of others, they still consider themselves the superior race entitled to lord it over the inferior races who are their neighbors. While they noisily take their stand on Wilson’s fourteen points and demand a just peace, they plot in Russia and Poland for the extension of their domination over the East of Europe and they make plans for the overrunning of the Czechoslovak Republic. What happened in America during the early years of the world war is taking place now in Central and Eastern Europe. The plots of Bernstorff and Luxburg are repeated in Prague in the conspiracies of the German consul Schwarz against the peace and independence of the country in which he resided.

These plots were exposed and written evidence of them furnished to Allied representatives in Prague and to their military representatives in Vienna and Budapest by the Czechoslovak Government on March 7th. The note embodying these charges and proofs was read in the Czechoslovak National Assembly March 11th by the acting premier Švehla. The note is as follows:

The Government of the Czechoslovak Republic became aware that in certain nationally mixed districts of the republic systematic activity was carried on for some time aimed against the peace and integrity of the Czechoslovak State. By means of agitators, special couriers, newspapers and handbills pan-German propaganda was carried on in these districts; this propaganda, supported by heavy financial subsidies and having at its disposal arms sent from abroad, continually incited the local population to disorders, resistance, strikes and even revolts against the state. The Government of the Czechoslovak Republic followed this agitation with increased attention and ascertained that it was inspired and fed from neighboring states hostile to the Entente. The espionage affair of the former German vice-consul in Prague, Dr. Schwarz, furnished direct proof that the conspiracy against the very existence of the Czechoslovak Republic could be traced to Berlin. From Berlin was sent into the territory of the republic material to create insurrection, and hints in a veiled form as to procedure were given. At the same time, as the attached military orders of German Austrian units indicate, consider able military forces were formed on the territory of the German Austrian Republic, armed and even trained for street fighting; these forces were destined for armed invasion of Czechoslovak territory. This campaign was directly managed by German Austrian authorities, and its wide extent may be estimated by the fact that it was also supported from Hungary and Saxony.

In order to estimate properly the wide extent of this hostile action, menacing the existence of the Czechoslovak Republic, the fact should be considered—as proved by the attached report of the Vienna plenipotentiary of the Czechoslovak Republic—that the state chancellor and the president of the German Austrian Republic finally admitted that the military campaign against the Czechoslovak Republic was conducted by the State Secretary of the German Austrian Republic Mayer, surely not without knowledge of the other members of the German Austrian Government. All these hostile acts were prepared at a time, when the German Austrian Government dared to charge the Government of the Czechoslovak Republic before the whole world with refusing to deliver coal, thus crippling Austrian economic life, although it is well known that the Czechoslovak Government without any legal obligation, solely from humanitarian motives, is trying to supply German Austria as much coal as possible. To guarantee the success of armed invasion planned for early March it was intended to use sabotage in the interior of the Czechoslovak Republic and also declare a general strike, purely political, on March 4th. The real aim was to stir up civil war in the territory of the Czechoslovak Republic, and in many places, especially at Sternberg in Moravia, this led to direct revolts and attacks by local population armed with German Austrian weapons against Czechoslovak garrisons. It was