Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/87

 larged, some diminished, or their independence will be strengthened (Finland, Hungary). Of course, Austria-Hungary will be radically changed, and so will Russia and partly Prussia. It is just the transformation of Eastern Europe which furnishes the strongest proof that the world war will end far differently then Pangermanism expected.

But the New Man, homo Europaeus, will be the result not merely of external politics, but principally of internal. All nations will be obliged, after the war, to devote all their thought to material and spiritual rebirth. Mutual slaughter is not a great action, the belligerent nations will realize the greatness of this moment, they will create a new historical epoch if they rightly appreciate the horrors of this war, if they overcome the war and orientate themselves as to where and how further development should proceed, and if they decide for permanent peace and for humanity. Democracy must become the faith of all, a world view. In Prussia the Germans organized a forcible germanization of the Poles, and a philosopher was found (Ed. V. Hartmann) who declared in the name of the Prussian ideal the necessity to exterminate the Poles (“ausrotten”); in Hungary the Magyar oligarchy maintained itself by shooting Slovak, Serbian and Roumanian voters and by the suppression of their schools, literature and press; in Austria the Pangermans publicly plotted their schemes of forcibly germanising whole nations; Russian tsarism followed the German example; civilized Europe remained quiet and acquiesced in all these political atrocities, until this war revealed the danger, under which the nations of Eastern Europe were languishing for years and years

The political task of the democratic reconstruction of Europe must be attained and actually made possible by a moral reeducation of the nations—either democracy or dynastic militarism, either Bismarckism or rational and honest politics, either force or humanity, either matter or spirit!

Prussian and Austrian politicians, the German and Austrian Emperors louder than others, emphasize the religious foundation of their policy and their states; but this religion is political religion. Prussia and Austria are survivals of the theocratic, mediaeval imperialism; democracy is the antithesis of theocracy.

Religion will not lose thereby the weight of the authority, on the contrary it will gain, if it is freed from the state and the arbitrary will of deified dynasties: What was right in the medieval theocracy—the idea of catholicity, universality, mankind as an organized whole—will not be lost by democracy. Democracy also hopes and works to the end that there may be one sheepfold and one shepherd.

Caesar or Jesus—that is the watchword of democratic Europe, not Berlin-Bagdad, if Caesar is conceived as Mommsen constructed him, seeing in him the ideal of Pangerman imperialism.

General Bowes, chief of the British military mission attached to the Czechoslovak army, addressed to the Czechoslovak National Council, Russian branch, the following letter:

Omsk, November 19, 1918.

I have been instructed to inform you that His Majesty King George V. has been pleased to confer the high distinction of the Order of the Bath upon Gen. Syrový, Gen. Gajda and Gen. Čeček. His Majesty has also been pleased to distribute among the soldiers of the Czechoslovak army the following decorations: to officers 10 distinguished conduct crosses and 40 military crosses, to men 250 distinguished conduct medals and 250 war medals. I beg that you will communicate this to Generals Syrový, Gajda and Čeček, and to the Czechoslovak forces under their command.

In connection with the order conferring these decorations King George addressed a letter to General Syrovy which reads as follows:

I have followed with admiration the heroic fight led by your armies. Please express to them my warm acknowledgment of the services they have rendered to the common cause of the Allies. The work which is yet to be completed, namely of saving Russia for the Russians and restoring peace and prosperity to the land, is a work of great importance for civilization. This task which was undertaken and is still pursued by the brave Czechoslovak armies places Great Britain under an obligation to Czechoslovakia that shall never be forgotten. I congratulate you all in the name of all our people most heartily; I wish you full success and strength for further labors.