Page:The Slavs among the nations by T G Masaryk.djvu/40

 the Poles, the Czechs, and the Jugo-Slavs. We Slavs know well the true meaning of the German “Drang nach Osten.” We know that Berlin-Bagdad is only a new form of the German anti-Slav plan. The first cry for war at Berlin was directed against the Serbians and the Russians.

In Central Europe, between Russia and Germany, there is a belt of small nations. On each side of this belt there lie powerful States; the small nations adjoin one another only in this particular intermediate region. Some are independent, or at least autonomous, Hungary (the Magyars) for instance. But, by the side of these, three oppressed nations claim political independence—the Poles, the Czechs, and the Jugo-Slavs. The present war should effect the liberation of these three nations, as well as of the French of Alsace-Lorraine and the Danes of Schleswig-Holstein, bowed, like them, under the German yoke. That is the reason why it is rightly said that the Allies are carrying on this war for the salvation of the smaller nations.

Germany forced her way into Belgium and occupied it. Then she occupied Poland, and