Part 24

Gathered at Prague while the world war has made necessary a new reorganization of the world on the basis of a higher authority given to the people, we proclaim that we shall remain in the front line of battle for the freedom of peoples, that we shall fight together in favor of each other's interests, that we shall repulse together any despotic measure, and that we shall denounce together the oppression of the Austrian State.

We want to promote together the confidence of our people in the achievement of their aspirations, to encourage them to express their will more positively.

We raise our right hand and solemnly swear that we shall give all that we own, all our strength, all our possessions, for the liberation of our people and for the achievement of the political unity of the Czecho-Slovak people, the political unity of the Jugoslavs, and the political unity of the Polish people.

RIOTS IN WENSEL SQUARE

The disorders leading to the declaring of martial law were described by the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger a few days later in these terms:

The chief demonstration in the new outbreak occurred in Wensel Square in Prague on May 20. The demonstration was a big one and reached such pitch that in the evening the police had to interfere. The Czechs sang their patriotic hymn with its additional anti-German verses and raised cheers for President Wilson and Professor Masaryk, the Bohemian delegate now in the United States. Although Wensel Square was thereafter barred to the demonstrators by the police, the demonstrations were repeated at 10 o'clock at night, and not until midnight did the mounted and foot police succeed in restoring order.

Another account gave other details:

At the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Czech National Theatre speeches violently attacking Germany were delivered, and the renewal of the alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary was denounced. Several deputies addressed the crowd, urging resistance to the end and the sacrifice of wealth and blood for Bohemia. The theatre was then closed and rioting occurred in the streets outside. The Jugoslavs who had participated in the Bohemian festivities were ordered to leave the city. Crowds singing patriotic songs accompanied them to the railway station.

In the next week about 800 Czechs were arrested at Prague and other Bohemian cities on a charge of seditious conspiracy.

REVOLT IN AUSTRIAN ARMY

Riots and disorders in Bohemia continued to increase during the following weeks. Crowds at Chozen, exasperated by police brutality, set fire to barracks and to the City Hall, where the mounted police were lodged. Eight of the officers were burned to death. At Kolin the people pulled down the Austrian and raised the Bohemian flag. Public buildings were burned at Tabor and in other Bohemian towns, also at Olmutz, Moravia. At Prague the offices of two German newspapers were sacked. The Neue Freie Presse of Vienna declared: "Only the tenacity and union of those who desire the preservation of the State can make the monarchy survive this great crisis."

Mutinies among the Slavic troops in the Austrian Army also assumed serious proportions. A Vienna dispatch to the Berliner Tageblatt on May 3 gave the following details:

The troubles began in the Slovene Battalion of the 9th Infantry Regiment at Judenbourg. The German officers were killed, after which the troops gave themselves up to acts of anarchy. In time they were driven into the mountains, where they finally were disarmed after a combat.

The Czechs of Pilsen, stationed at Fumberg, also revolted. The rising was put down by the sword. Part of the rebels, having succeeded in passing the frontier, took refuge in the mountains of Saxony, where they were made prisoner by the Germans.

A third case of serious revolt took place at Funkirchen, where a Serbian regiment from Austria revolted and massacred the officers. The exact details of these revolts are difficult to obtain. It appears, however, the instigators were Austrian soldiers returned from the prisoners' camps in Russia.

GERRYMANDERING BOHEMIA

On May 22 the Austro-Hungarian Government issued a decree dividing Bohemia into twelve districts, under a system giving new administrative and electoral advantages to the Germanic population. The German minority in the Imperial Parliament had been about to be completely isolated by a union of the Czechs, Slovaks, Jugoslavs, Ruthenians, and Poles. The electoral redistribution sought to avoid this by reducing the Czech strength in the Reichsrat at Vienna as well as in the Bohemian Diet. An official French bulletin dated May 22 said:

The law bulletin of the Austrian Empire publishes a decree according to which the district Governments which were so long demanded by the Germans are established in Bohemia. The twelve district Captains who are nominated will represent the Statthalter of Prague in each district and will have the same powers.

The boundaries of the districts are fixed, so far as possible, according to the national grouping. In the words of the decree, "the aim is to take the first steps toward the re-establishment of order in Bohemia." This decree foreruns undoubtedly a policy of repression, the first act of which tends to dismember Bohemia by granting to the German elements the guarantees or, better, the privileges which they demand.

Up to the present, Bohemia comprised thirteen districts, only two of which had a majority of German population, according to statistics from Vienna. In four of the districts there are hardly any Germans. The new plan aims at creating in each of the twelve new districts a German minority and to grant to this minority, however small it may be, considerable advantages in the administrative and electoral domains.

This method is meant to bring about as a first result a considerable increase in the number of German deputies in the Diet to the prejudice of the Czechs, who until now have held the majority of the seats. It is clear that this device of the Pan Germans is bound to arouse the most violent opposition on the part of the Czechs.

A dispatch printed in all the Wagram papers calls attention to the fact that martial law has been proclaimed in several districts of Bohemia because in certain regions serious riots have occurred. More than 150 persons have been put in prison. The estate of Prince Furstenberg was ransacked. Riots occurred at Marsch, Ostrau, Pilsen, and Nachod. The Czech press expresses itself very violently. The Vetcher writes:

"The Government is trying in vain to present its reform under bright colors, but it is evident at first sight, in fact, that nothing but the dismembering of Bohemia is under way. The Ministerial decree is preparing the parceling out of our fatherland and the foundation of a German province made of our own flesh."

The Narodni Listi, which was suppressed by the censorship as guilty of "criminal dealings," has written:

"It is in vain that threats are hurled at us to divert us from the line of conduct which we have decided to follow according to our proclamation. It is in vain that the sessions of Parliament are adjourned. Our indignation will not be less in June (the Austrian Chamber is to resume its sittings on June 19) and our opponents will have the opportunity of realizing it. The chart which, according to von Seidler, is to be granted to us will not change our resolution: 'We shall fight on without any consideration, with compromise, for the defense of the Czech State.'

"This evidently shows the attitude of all the nationalities crushed by the Germans and the Magyars in the Dual Monarchy. The movement was not entirely unexpected, but it is possible that the fact of threatening them with a pitiless repression has advanced it and made it more formidable.

"Emperor Charles is away from Vienna, and on his return he will find political conditions which the food situation will make even more distressing. Once more the frightfulness of German methods, so dear to the Germans, will bear its fruit by arousing rebellion of the people oppressed."

AUSTRIAN OFFICIAL VIEW

An official Austrian note, referring to the decree, said:

Certain events, which were a danger to the safety of the State and presented even a character of high treason, took place during the first days of the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the founding of the National Bohemian Theatre, and led the authorities to take repressive measures.

Swiss commentators explain that this alludes to a note from the police posted in Prague, which declared that mob gatherings and processions would be dispersed by force if necessary. Jugoslav guests, who had come to Prague to participate in the celebration, were obliged leave the city, and the newspaper Narodni Listi was suspended because the Austrian authorities declared: "The manner in which this paper is worded tends to arouse sympathy in favor of the Entente States."

Accounts of the great gathering at Prague, which caused the Austrian Government to declare martial law, stated that the city was adorned with the Czech colors and the Slav tricolor flag. The Czech press expressed regret at the absence of Russians and great satisfaction at the presence of Poles. It was reported that the Ruthenians of Eastern Galicia were prevented by the authorities from attending.

The festival was organized by the recently formed Independence Party of Dr. Kramarcz, and the ceremonies consisted generally of a glorification of the union of the Slavic peoples.

WEAKENING NATIONALISM

It is stated by American sympathizers of the Czechs that the new decree is intended also to weaken the Bohemian national movement by decentralizing the forces of the nation and partly to prepare for the possible establishment of a province of "German Bohemia," such as has been talked of in case the national movement is so strong as to force the Austrian Government to try to compromise on some sort of federalization.

The Czecho-Slovak Nation, which has declared its demands for unity and complete independence, includes the Slovaks in the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Czechs, now divided among Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, three of the seventeen crown lands of Austria.

There has been much reference in German-Austrian papers recently to the possible establishment of a German Bohemia, to include the districts with the largest German population. Any rearrangement on this basis would be beset with obstacles, for the Czecho-Slovaks refuse to consent to any partition and the Germans demand not only the border districts for their German Bohemia, but the City of Prague itself.

It was recently reported that in April the Pope, acting through the Papal Nuncio at the request of the Vienna Government, had caused the arrest of Dr. Yeglitch, Prince Archbishop of Laibach, on account of his activities in behalf of the Jugoslav movement. Dr. Yeglitch was the head of the Slovene Catholic party in Parliament, and his arrest produced an outburst of indignation in Croatia and Slovenia. A Vatican dispatch later declared the report of the Pope's connection with the matter to be entirely without foundation.

BOHEMIANS IN ITALY'S ARMY

Troops from Bohemia began joining the Italian Army in April to fight against Austria. The first detachments of this Czecho-Slovak army, which is being formed in many centres out of the one-time subjects of Emperor Karl, have taken up their positions in various parts of the Italian line. They wear the Italian uniform, with certain distinctive signs. The effect upon their fellow-Slavs who are still fighting under the Austrian colors is a subject of considerable interest on both sides. The new position of affairs is being assiduously explained to them by airplane propaganda, and committees of their own race are accredited to and working with the Italian high command. G. Ward Price, a British correspondent, telegraphed from Italian headquarters on May 1:

One night recently some of the Czechs fighting with the Italians were in the front line at a place where the Austrian battalion holding the trenches opposite consisted largely of their fellow-countrymen. After some preliminary conversation by megaphone one of the allied Czechs crawled out to the other lines and urged his compatriots to come over to our side, where they would be treated not as prisoners or deserters but as friends. The Austrian Czechs replied that they would willingly do so, but that the line behind their own was held by Hungarians, who would almost certainly see them moving out of the trench and open fire on them with machine guns.

The allied Czech brought this message in to his friends, whereupon the Italian guns were asked to put down a barrage between the Austrian front trenches and their support line, driving the Hungarians to cover and isolating them from the Czechs, of whom some were thus able to cross over in safety to our side.

RACIAL DIVISIONS IN HUNGARY

Hungary in no less degree than Bohemia presents a problem of racial antipathies which has been a cause of serious unrest for centuries; aggravated by the present worldwide aspiration for independent nationalism it has thrown the country into turmoil and given a strong impetus to a revolutionary movement by the non-Magyar inhabitants. In a recent issue of The New Europe, D. Draghicescu, in discussing the situation in Hungary, gives the following facts regarding its racial divisions:

Hungary is a country of 22,000,000 souls, of whom approximately 9,000,000 are Magyars and 13,000,000 non-Magyars, belonging to four or five different races. The Magyars have always insisted upon the fact that in Hungary they form by themselves a block of 9,000,000, while the other nationalities, taken altogether, are but 13,000,000, and that each of these, taken separately, constitute beside the Magyars a negligible minority. Naturally, if the 9,000,000 Magyars lived dispersed in all the provinces of Hungary, mingled with other nationalities in the proportion of 9 to 13, or 41 per cent., or if in each or in the majority of these provinces they formed a majority over the non-Magyars, or even an overwhelming majority over the most important of these nationalities, nothing could be done; the racial question in Hungary should not and would not arise. In that case, no doubt, the Hungarian State would properly bear the impress of the most numerous race, and would be, in fact, a national Magyar State, and the minority races would necessarily be sacrificed, even although their blood-brothers across the frontier might form powerful and prosperous States, (Rumania, Serbia, &c.) However objectionable might be the measures taken by the Magyars against these nationalities, they would, in such conditions, be up to a certain point excusable. It is impossible to create a strong and workable State and to insure peace and prosperity in a country so heterogeneous and containing an _imbroglio_ of peoples each facing in its own direction and gravitating toward other neighboring States.

EACH RACE ISOLATED

He states that the Magyars, however, have never allowed it to be understood how the various races have been distributed in the kingdom, and he elucidates this as follows:

Hungary consists of several provinces, each of which is inhabited by a separate nationality, homogeneous and compact. Of these provinces one of the most important beyond question is the Hungarian Pousta, situated on the banks of the Theiss and the middle Danube, and inhabited by 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 Magyars. The remaining 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 Magyars are scattered over the other provinces, forming the ruling caste and providing officials, magistrates, and police. Their business is to dominate the nationalities of these provinces and bend them under the yoke of the Magyars.

In these other provinces each race is at home, and is as compact and homogeneous as the Magyars in the Pousta. Transylvania, for example, with the neighboring plains of the Banat, of Chrishana and Mamaramuresh is peopled by 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 Rumanians, among whom there are to be found here and there small bodies of Magyars. The Southern Slavs in their turn dwell in compact masses of between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 in the southern part of Hungary; and there are at least 2,000,000 Slovaks in the north, who also form a compact group. The Magyars are determined that the 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 of the Hungarian Pousta shall rule the 13,000,000 of non-Magyars in Transylvania, Jugoslavia, and Slovakia, and that these nationalities shall disappear, losing their language and individuality and adopting those of the Magyar people. It is nothing less than national suicide which the Magyars demand from these races, and, since this is refused, the jingoes of Budapest, enjoying carte blanche from the Emperor and the European powers, have for sixty years been carrying out a veritable campaign of murder against the non-Magyar races of Hungary.

TRANSYLVANIA'S CASE

The problem is intensified by the fact that the Serbs and Rumanians of Hungary see 5,000,000 of their brother Serbs and 7,500,000 of their brother Rumanians across their frontiers in Serbia and in Rumania under separate sovereignties of their own people. Mr. Draghicescu continues as follows:

Doubtless, if Transylvania and Jugoslavia were merely isolated provinces without affinity or resemblance to neighboring States, as is, for example, the case of Ireland in the United Kingdom, we should admit that, however great might be the majority of these races over the Magyars, the racial question would not and could not arise. It would in that case be merely a question of domestic politics and administration without international interest. But this is far from being the case in Transylvania, for instance, where the Rumanian population touches upon three sides the Rumanians of the kingdom, and where it has no contact with the Magyars, except on one-third of its racial frontier. Moreover, assuming the Magyars to have a certain superficial claim to ascendency in Hungary, where they are 41 per cent. of the whole population, this claim cannot be admitted in Transylvania, where they are but 15 per cent. to 18 per cent. In Jugoslavia the proportion of Magyars is even smaller. Now, if we imagine the reunion of Transylvania to Rumania to be an accomplished fact, the proportion of races in Greater Rumania would be 92 per cent. Rumanians to 8 per cent. Magyars; for if to the 7,500,000 Rumanians of the kingdom there are added 4,500,000 Rumanians of Hungary among whom there live scattered bodies of Magyars to the number approximately of 1,000,000, we shall have 12,000,000 Rumanians to 1,000,000 Magyars.

In this case, in place of the crying injustice of a 15 per cent. Magyar population seeking to dominate and exterminate a Rumanian population of 60 per cent., we should have a liberal State in which the Rumanians would constitute 93 per cent. and the Magyars between 6 and 7 per cent. In Jugoslavia the same process would give similar results. It is impossible for Serbs and Rumanians to be indifferent to the fate of their kinsmen threatened with Magyarization. If they desire to save their captive brethren, if they desire to liberate them and unite with them, it is not because they are themselves impelled by a spirit of conquest and inspired by a reprehensible imperialism. In them such aims would be absurd. They are roused against the Magyars by legitimate fears for their own fate and liberty in the future. If the Rumanians and Serbs of Hungary were finally Magyarized it would be a proof that the Serb and Rumanian Nations were ephemeral and might easily disappear without harm to any one. Once the resistance of the Serbs and Rumanians of Hungary was broken, the fate of the Serbian and Rumanian Kingdoms would be sealed. The Magyars, with the help of their German allies and masters, would soon overcome the Serbs and Rumanians in the free kingdoms, exposed as these would be to the treacherous onslaughts of Bulgaria.

Therefore, the true terms and proportions of this question may be stated as follows: It is a war of life or death between 9,000,000 Magyars and some 25,000,000 Slavs and Latins. The former are vigorously upheld by the Germans and the Bulgars. And the others? Surely they should have for allies all who desire that Germany and her vassals should not destroy the liberties of the world.

Supreme War Council Favors Free Poland and Jugoslavia

The session of the Supreme War Council of the allied Governments, held at Versailles on June 4, 1918, was attended by the Premiers of Great Britain, France, and Italy. At the close of its deliberations it issued the following statement:

The Supreme War Council held its sixth session under circumstances of great gravity for the alliance of free peoples. The German Government, relieved of all pressure on the eastern front by the collapse of the Russian armies and people, has concentrated all its effort in the west. It is now seeking to gain a decision in Europe by a series of desperate and costly assaults upon the allied armies before the United States can bring its full strength effectively to bear.

The advantage it possesses in its strategic position and superior railway facilities has enabled the enemy command to gain some initial successes. It will undoubtedly renew its attacks and the allied nations still may be exposed to critical days.

After a review of the whole position, the Supreme War Council is convinced that the Allies, bearing the trials of the forthcoming campaign with the same fortitude as they have ever exhibited in defense of the right, will baffle the enemy's purpose and in due course bring him to defeat. Everything possible is being done to sustain and support the armies in the field. The arrangements for unity of command have greatly improved the position of the allied armies and are working smoothly and with success. The Supreme War Council has complete confidence in General Foch. It regards with pride and admiration the valor of the allied troops.

Thanks to the prompt and cordial co-operation of the President of the United States, the arrangements which were set on foot more than two months ago for the transporting and brigading of American troops will make it impossible for the enemy to gain victory by wearing out the allied reserve before he has exhausted his own.