Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/9



Out of the ruins of the German, Austrian and Russian empires a number of new, democratic states are arising. But so far only one has reached the stage, where it possesses a properly functioning government, as solid, stable and truly democratic as France, England or America. The new Czechoslovak republic has justified all the high expectations of its friends.

In the orderly development which went on in Prague after the revolution of October 28th took place one has to record first of all the opening of the National Assembly on November 14th. Whereas in Germany the small group of men calling themselves the German government was practically self-appointed with a very uncertain tenure of office, while in other parts of the Austrian empire there exist makeshift governments which cannot claim to represent all the people, in Prague the Czechoslovak National Committee which assumed power on October 28th transformed itself in an orderly manner into a constitutional government. There was never any doubt that the National Committee had behind it all classes of the people, but a larger body in the nature of a parliament was felt to be necessary. And since elections would have consummed much precious time, an expedient was resorted to by which was secured a truly representative national government. The various political parties were called upon to nominate deputies in proportion to the strength shown by each party in the last general elections of 1911. Thus on November 14th a National Assembly met in the halls of the ancient Bohemian Diet, composed as follows: to the left sat 46 social democrats, 28 Czech socialists, 4 representatives of the so-called centralist social democrats; the centre was composed of 40 representatives of the democratic party of independence, 6 progressists, 4 Old Czechs; on the right sat 54 agrarians, 28 members of the Catholic party and 40 Slovaks. The socialists claimed that their present strength entitled them to a larger representation, but in the interest of harmony they waived their claim.

The first national parliament of the Czechoslovak State was opened by Dr. Karel Kramář as chairman of the National Committee. The most important part of his address was a report on the conference held at Geneva between the leaders of Prague and the representatives of the recognized Czechoslovak government. After announcing that complete harmony had been reached on all points Kramář submitted for the ratification of the Assembly the proposal of the National Committee that the independent Czechoslovak state should be declared a republic and Masaryk its first president. These proposals were unanimously adopted amid a storm of applause. A government of 16 members was then constituted with Kramář as premier, and Francis Tomasek was elected president of the Assembly.

The new government had to contend with a number of serious difficulties. Naturally the most urgent question was the food supply. An appeal was made to the patriotism of the Czech farmers, and as a result of it was possible to increase the daily rations; while there is still much suffering among the people on account of insufficient nutrition, conditions are better than they were under the Austrian rule, when the fertile Czech districts had to feed the Austrian Army and the barren lands of German Austria. The spirit of the people is kept up by promises that the Allies would soon send food, and especially fats, to the Allied Czechoslovak Republic. In other respects the internal administration was gradually overhauled and some necessary reforms introduced. All parties, including the socialists, were agreed that changes