Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/46

 its workingmen. Now the relations between the Czechs and the Poles, both Slav peoples and both threatened by Germans, had always been friendly, and while the Czechs deprecated the unseemly haste of the Poles in taking possession of disputed territory, they did not want to use armed force and aggravate the original cause of the quarrel. A peaceful course appeared the more commendable, because it was ascertained that the forcible occupation of the coal district was undertaken by orders of Polish authorities in Cracow, while on the other hand the principal Polish government at Warsaw was willing to negotiate with the Czechs about the disposition of the district and the Polish National Council of German Poland sent a delegation to Prague to congratulate the Czechoslovaks on the winning of independence and to express a hope for close alliance.

But in the meantime the disruption of public life in Polish territory and the strong taint of Bolshevism among certain classes of Polish workingmen brought about an almost total suspension of coal production, and as a result of it great steel mills in the neighboring Czech districts and the whole of Slovakia and even Magyar territory were deprived of necessary coal. At the same time Bolshevist agitators found their way into Moravia from the Silesian coal mines seized by the Poles. Finally at the end of January the district was taken possession of by Czech troops to be held for final disposition by the peace conference.

In internal matters the peaceful and orderly development went on. Czech talent for public administrition showed itself in the smooth working of the old Austrian governmental machinery under the sovereingty of the new republic. Taxes continued to be paid and in fact were paid far more promptly than under the imperial regime. The eight-hour working day was enacted as the standard, but workingmen and especially coal miners voluntarily worked longer hours in order that production might be increased and that the new state might have merchandise with which to buy needed supplies and set its financial housekeeping on a safe foundation. The greatest financial problem is the introduction of new currency in place of the depreciated Austrian financial medium. The reports of the Austro-Hungarian Bank indicate a total circulation of 34 billion crowns, but the real amount is 46 billion. The gold reserve back of this immense mass of paper is insignificant, and as a result the value of the crown which before the war was a fraction over 20 cents is now only about 6 cents. It is simply impossible for the Czechoslovak Republic to purchase its needs abroad and pay a three-fold price in depreciated Austrian currency. But until the boundaries of the new republic are permanently settled, the Austrian paper crown must remain the circulating medium of Czechoslovakia. A number of sharp conflicts between Prague and Vienna were caused by the reckless acts of the amateur statesmen of German Austria who on the one hand kept working the press of the Austro-Hungarian bank so as to produce a few more billion crowns and on the other hand kept selling the immense supplies of the dissolved Austrian army at ridiculous prices. To evolve order out of the bankrupcty [sic] of the Dual Monarchy will be a terrific task.

The Czechoslovaks hope that the peace conference will hurry its labors and that at least the preliminary peace will be signed early in Spring. Until then the position of the republic will remain difficult and irregular. So far only the French and the British have accredited their ministers to the Prague government and neutral countries like Switzerland have not as yet extended their recognition. Nor has America sent a diplomatic representative to Prague.

Allied military intervention in Russia has been ineffective because it has ben half-hearted and on a parsimonious scale. Practically all that has been accomplished in the way of saving Russia from a Bolshevist regime, acting in Germany’s interest, was accomplished by the Czechoslovaks—ex-prisoners of war who dropped miraculously out of the clouds at the propitious moment. But for them the Allies at this moment would probably be holding only Kola, Archangel, Vladivostok and the Black Sea ports and Russia would be a malignant and powerful enemy, extremely difficult to deal with because of the spread everywhere of the Bolshevist fanaticism.—N. Y. Tribune.

Formerly the city authorities of Vienna claimed that there lived fewer than 100,000 Czechs in their city. Now, when they have to ask for food from the Czechoslovak republic, they figure the number at 417,000.