Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/187



Summaries of the peace terms, imposed upon Germany and Austria, have now been published,and the definite boundaries of the Czechoslovak Republic are emerging from the fog of speculation and conflicting claims. The boundary as against Hungary still remains undetermined, and it is to be hoped that the Allies without waiting for a new deal in Budapest will draw at once the permanent line between the Slovaks and Magyars.

The outstanding feature of the German and Austrian terms, as far as they concern the Czechoslovak Republic, is the recognition of the historical and geographical unity of the Bohemian lands. For more than a thousand years Bohemia and Moravia with parts of Silesia have been settled by Slavs, and during all that time the Czechs had to fight to keep their country from being Germanized. During the last three hundred years some frontier districts succumbed to the German invasion, and recent political history of Austria turned mainly on the question of erecting the districts with apparent German majority into the separate province of German Bohemia, the plan being to suppress the Czech minorities and later concentrate all energy on Germanizing what remained of the Czechs. One of the last acts of the defunct imperial and royal government of Austria was to divide Bohemia into German and Czech districts by means of an administrative decree.

Now the long fight is won. Both Germany and Austria are to recognize the complete independence of the Czechoslovak state in its historical boundaries. From the incomplete summary of German peace terms it does not appear that any rectification of frontier is contemplated along any part of the long line from Prussian Silesia through Saxony to Austro-Bavarian line. From the statements of the German peace commissioners it woud appear, however, that the treaty does provide for the cession of a small part of Prussian Silesia, claimed by Czechoslovaks.

The southern boundary of the Bohemian lands, where it marches with Austria, is also drawn mainly along the historical dividing line, but it distinctly sanctions Czech claims for rectification in the regions of Cmunt, Feldsberg and the Morava River, so as to bring into the republic a number of Czech villages in Lower Austria.

As far as Germans of Bohemia and Moravia are concerned, all evidence shows that with the exception of professional agitators they are quite satisfied to stay out of Germany, and most of those who can talk the Bohemian language already call themselves Czechs. It may also be stated that the Czechoslovak government will readily give to the Allies the desired guarantees that rights of racial, religious and linguistic minorities will be protected; they only ask that Czechs in Vienna receive the same treatment the Germans will get in Bohemia.

The lack of access to the sea is taken care of in the treaties by the internationalization of the Elbe, Oder and Danube rivers and by grant of transit rights on German and Austrian railroads, as well as by harbor rights in Hamburg and Stettin.

The interests of the new Czechoslovak Republic are on the whole carefully guarded in the peace terms submitted to Germany and Austria, and even though the Czechoslovaks, together with the other states that benefited by the break-up of the Austrian empire, are expected to make a contribution to the war expenses of the Allies, the Czechoslovak people cordially approve the work of the Peace Conference, as far as it has been made public.