Page:The New Europe - Volume 3.djvu/289

 Machar, Dyk and Březina, all the chief novelists, essayists, and musical critics, the Director of the National Theatre, and over thirty professors of Prague University (including Niederle and others of European reputation). Its outspoken expression of national solidarité has created a profound sensation in Austria, and has been much commented on by the Poles, who are now for the first time for a generation themselves in open opposition to the Government:—

“We turn to you, gentlemen, at an eventful moment in our national life, in times for which we shall all bear the responsibility for a century to come. To you, the deputies of the Czech people, we turn, knowing full well that we—the Czech writers, men who are active and prominent in our public life—have not only the right but also the duty to speak in the name of the great majority of the cultural and intellectual world of Bohemia—nay, more in the name of the nation, which cannot itself speak.

“Parliament is to meet shortly, and for the first time during the war the political representatives of the Czech nation will have an opportunity of proclaiming from this forum all that could not hitherto be proclaimed either through the Press or in other ways. We, of course, regret that this forum is not to be the time-honoured Diet of the Bohemian Kingdom, and we expressly declare that we regard the Diet as the only assembly competent to discuss the desires and needs of our nation. Unhappily there is at present no Bohemian Diet, and hence the only free forum of the Czech deputies is in the meantime the Parliament of Vienna. There, at least, then, gentlemen, be the true spokesmen of your nation! There, at least, tell the country and the whole world, what your nation wants and what it stands by! There, at least, fulfil your sacred duty, by defending with resolution and sacrifice Czech rights and Czech claims in this fateful hour of history. For now the destiny of the Czech nation is being decided for centuries to come.

“But you can only fulfil your duty to the full, if beforehand all constitutional conditions are respected—more especially, freedom of assembly before Parliament meets, so that deputies may acquaint themselves with the wishes and grievances of their constituents; the abolition of Press censorship in non-military matters; absolute freedom and immunity for all speeches both in Parliament and in the