Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/340

 German minority in affairs of state cannot be indefinitely denied. The government is ready to deal with German leaders, but it naturally insists as a prerequisite to negotiation that the Germans accept as irrevocable the decision of the peace conference, making them citizens of the Czechoslovak Republic, and that they dissolve their farcical government of so-called German Bohemia, still existing in Vienna. But there seems to be very little good-will on the German side to make the best of the situation. They cannot realize that they are the defeated party and cannot dictate conditions to the Czechs.

It was thought that German social democrats would show less national chauvinism, than the German nationalist parties. But at their recent conference the German socialists made the following ridiculous demands: that the Czechoslovak Republic break off its alliance with “Allied imperialism”, that there should be no standing army, that militia regiments should be formed on the basis of nationality so as to have special German regiments with German comamnd, that all officers should be elected, that each militiaman should keep his gun and ammunition at home, that both Germans and Czechs should have separate National Councils with power to legislate on practically every subject, and that the government of the Czechoslovak Republic should consist of delegations of these two councils with power to administer common affairs only by common agreement. Of course, all negotiation on any such basis is out of question, and Germans will have to remain excluded from participation in government, until they are amenable to more moderate counsels.

An unpleasant problem, though fortunately not of great practical importance, is separatist agitation carried on in Slovakia. It is due to several causes. The Magyars, whether radical, as under Karolyi, or Bolshevist, as under Bela Kuhn, or Christian socialist, as under the present premier Friedrich, never give up hopes of getting the Slovaks back under their rule. There are still many Magyar officials scattered in Slovakia, there are many men, Slovak by birth, but thoroughly Magyarized, who hold positions of influence; a large part of the Catholic clergy, and especially the bishops, who had received their preferment from the former Magyar government, look with newly aroused hope to the Christian socialist ministry of Budapest. Many Czech of ficials and teachers, sent to Slovakia to supply the vacancies caused by the expulsion of Magyar functionaries, have not been men of sound character or tact, and have been guilty of offending the sensibilities of the Slovak peasants. The leader of the discontented element is Father Hlinka who went to Warsaw to seek Polish support for Slovak separatism and traveled to Paris on a Polish passport to bring Slovak complaints before the peace conference. His action was sharply rebuked by the unanimous resolution of the Slovak deputies to the National Assembly, the more so, as he is seeking Polish help at a time, when the

Poles are trying to obtain cession of the Orava and Spiš districts of Slovakia. There is no danger that this separatist movement will assume any serious proportions, especially as the Czechs show the utmost willingness to comply with any request of the Slovak deputies for special treatment.

In domestic politics the outstanding sensation was the resignation of the minister of railways, Jiří Stříbrný. An official of a Prague savings bank lost considerable sums of money, belonging to the bank, in gambling, and minister Stříbrný was accused of being frequenter of the gambling palace in question. He resigned in order to be free to defend his honor by court proceedings. His action had no effect on the political situation.