Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/43



West of the Rhine and north of Italy everything is in a state of chaos. Only the Czechoslovak Republic stands firmly in the very heart of Europe as an island of order and an outpost of the Allies. Its complete isolation from all friends is the principal complaint voiced by the Czechoslovaks who are trying to make the best of a difficult situation. It takes four days for a telegram to go from Prague to Paris and letters are forwarded only upon special occasion and as a special favor. Badly needed supplies which the Western Powers are ready to sell can not be forwarded, and when the Czechoslovak delegates to the peace conference, premier Karel Kramář, and foreign minister Edward Beneš desire to communicate with their government, [sic]they are obliged to send a courier in a round about way, through Italy, Jugoslavia and German Austria. Even the wireless service between Prague and Paris is maliciously interfered with by the great German wireless station of Nauen.

All this emphasizes the soudness of a plan which has long been advocated by Czechoslovak and Jugo-Slav statesmen, namely to create a corridor running along the western boundary of Hungary and connecting Jugoslav territory with Czechoslovakia. This zone which would be about 100 miles long covers a territory which is settled by a racially mixed population; the strongest element in it are the Germans, but there are also both Magyar, and Jugoslav and Slovak minorities. If the peace conference decided to create this corridor, it would mean the inclusion of some 200,000 Germans and 100,000 Magyars in Slav territory, but it would give twelve million Czechoslovak citizens access to the sea through friendly territory and it would separate permanently eight million Magyars from their German friends. If there is a case, where the wishes of a small number of local population must yield to higher strategic and economic considerations, surely the plan for a corridor to connect the Czechoslovaks with the Jugoslavs should commend itself to Allied statesmen.

Notwithstanding their difficult position the Czechoslovaks are trying to put their state in order and repair the ravages of the war. Masaryk’s great reception in Prague on December 21 and 22 was in a manner of speaking the closing act of those two great months since the overthrow of Austrian rule.

Accounts of Masaryk’s welcome given in Czech papers make one feel that December 21st, 1918, was the greatest day in twelve hundred years of Prague’s history. In addition to half a million people living in Prague who lined up the streets through which Masaryk passed on the way from the station to the castle of Hradčany there were half a million visitors in Prague. Out of several speeches made by representatives of the people on this occasion one may quote a few sentences from the address of welcome pronounced by Alois Jirásek, the greatest living Czech novelist: “You left your country at the time of its greatest slavery. Now you return to a free state as its first president. You left Prague alone, now you return at the head of noble companies of Czechoslovak warriors who bring moral and material help to our young republic. Our age-long enemy is vanquished; the terrible fight of two worlds is ended in a victory of justice and humanity, of which you have ever been a herald and defender by word and pen. We have lived to see our deepest desires fulfilled, the government of our country has been returned to us. For centuries there have been no such glorious moments in the life of our nation, unless perhaps when George Poděbrad was elected king,’ when many wept for joy, because they were freed of subjection to Ger-