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Realising this, and seeing that since Austria has voluntarily sold herself to Berlin their only hope for a better future lies in the destruction of the political system called Austria-Hungary, the Czecho-Slovaks have from the beginning staked their all on the victory of the Entente, towards which they have contributed with all possible means at their disposal.
"In agreement with the whole Yugoslav nation, in agreement with Polish representatives, voicing the will of the Polish people, the Czecho-Slovaks declare before the whole world: 'Forward in our struggle for liberty and for a new life in our own liberated, restored state!" In reply to the Austro-Hungarian proposal for an armistice of October 7, 1918, Mr.
The property of those who surrendered was confiscated, while the families of those Czech leaders who escaped abroad were brutally persecuted. It is impossible for us to give a detailed description of all the persecutions committed by Austria on the Czecho-Slovaks, but the following is a brief summary of them: The most important perhaps was the case of Dr.
The Czecho-Slovaks will firmly continue the struggle for complete national independence, strengthened by the support of other Slavs, and by the knowledge that the British and other Allied governments had formally acknowledged and were working for the establishment of an independent Czecho-Slovak State."
That the Czecho-Slovaks have a right to fight on the side of the Entente, and therefore are to be considered as one of the Allies; That the political direction of the army is reserved to the Czecho-Slovak National Council, which right is usually accorded only to the government of an independent state.
The problem of Poland also cannot be solved in a satisfactory way without the incorporation in Poland of the Polish territories of Galicia. If the status quo were re-established, the Czecho-Slovaks, whom Great Britain has recognised as an Allied nation, would be placed in a decisive minority and would be powerless in face of the German-Magyar majority.
The Czecho-Slovaks are resolved not to let themselves be fooled by Austria any longer and claim full independence from Berlin, Vienna and Budapest, which alone will safeguard them against the possibility of being again exploited militarily, economically and politically against their own interests for a cause which they detest.
The false glory which is attributed to them by the Italian command, who have lost all sense of the immorality of these proceedings, cannot efface the eternal crime which history always attaches to the names of traitors." We could give many proofs of the great service the Czecho-Slovaks rendered the Allies by their surrenders.
Unlike the Poles and Czecho-Slovaks, who threw in their lot with the Allies, the Slovenes and Croats fought, and fought desperately, for the triumph of the Central Empires. Had these two peoples turned against their masters early in the war, the great struggle would have ended months, perhaps years, earlier than it did.
More than half the trade of Austria with the British colonies was transacted by the Czechs, and Austria-Hungary exported to British colonies L3,500,000 and imported from them L10,500,000 worth of goods annually. One of the most important reasons why the Czecho-Slovaks, when independent, will be able to render such valuable services to the Allies, is the high degree of their civilisation.
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