Page:The New Europe (The Slav standpoint), 1918.pdf/58

 American, Japanese and other Governments recognised the army as part of the Allied Armies and the Czecho-Slovak National Council abroad as the Provisional Government of the independent Czecho-Slovak nation.

A consequence of this recognition and its practical confirmation is the relief expedition of the United States and the Allies to Siberia. By these acts the Allies have given the Czecho-Slovak question the importance of an international question; the ravings of German and Magyar journalists and official declarations of the Austro-Hungarian and German Governments against this recognition merely emphasised the international importance of the Czecho-Slovak question.

The press in Austria-Hungary and Germany at first suppressed all news of the Czecho-Slovak movement; only occasionally, for the purpose of intimidating the population, official reports of executions and confiscations of property were published, but in the end the Czecho-Slovak Army and its deeds could no longer be ignored. The Viennese Government, upon the occasion of the Allies’ recognition of the National Council and the Army, issued a statement (August 17th, 1918) that the National Council was a committee of private individuals without a mandate from the nation; the statement says further that the Czecho-Slovak Army cannot be recognised as one of the Allied Armies in the sense of international law, because there is no Czecho-Slovak nation (to wit, an internationally recognised nation); besides, the Vienna Government claims that it is a matter of common knowledge that a very small part of the army consists of Czechs and Slovaks. Therefore, in spite of the recognition by the Allies the Austrian Government would treat the Czecho-Slovak soldiers as traitors.

This declaration of the Viennese Government is purely Austrian—mendacious and false. The National Council is not a committee of private individuals, and the Vienna protest itself proves that, for such an official declaration would not be issued against a committee of private individuals. In reality the National Council is the organ of the entire Czecho-Slovak people, and it worked and proceeded in accordance with the plans and desires of the national leaders at home, who in numerous declarations adopted and approved the policy of the National Council abroad. The National Council is the political organ of the entire Czecho-Slovak nation. That the Czech lands are legally independent in an international sense is proved by history and by the oaths of fealty of the Austrian rulers as crowned kings of Bohemia; Francis Joseph on four occasions recognised in a solemn manner the historical rights of the Bohemian State.

It is a lie that the Czecho-Slovak Army is composed of very few Czechs and Slovaks. We understand that Vienna would like to have the world believe that Russians and other allied contingents are in this army, but in reality the whole army consists of Czechs and Slovaks, and this army (in France, Italy, and Russia) numbers considerably more than 100,000 men. This means that all Czecho-Slovak soldiers who enjoyed the freedom of decision have proved themselves opponents of Austria-Hungary; and if that part which is under German and Magyar pressure, would have enjoyed a similar freedom, then the entire nation would have ranged itself openly on the side of the Allies. When the Czecho-Slovak army in the Ukraine fought the invading Austrians the Emperor sent his plenipotentiary to negotiate with them and to induce them to return, promising full amnesty.

The threat that captured men will be treated as traitors does not scare the Czecho-Slovak army; it issued a proclamation that for every life taken a life will be exacted from German and Magyar prisoners, and