Independent Bohemia Part 14

"The President therefore is no longer at liberty to accept a mere 'autonomy' of these peoples as a basis of peace, but is obliged to insist that they, and not he, shall be the judges of what action on the part of the Austro-Hungarian Government will satisfy their aspirations and their conception of their rights and destiny as members of the family of nations."

THE CONSt.i.tUTION OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAK PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

On October 14, Dr. E. Benes addressed the following letter to all the Allied Governments:

"By the declaration of the Government of the United States of September 3, 1918, the Czecho-Slovak National Council, whose seat is in Paris, has been recognised as a _de facto_ Czecho-Slovak Government. This recognition has been confirmed by the following Allied Governments: by Great Britain in her agreement with the National Council of September 3, 1918; by France in her agreement of September 28, 1918, and by Italy in the declaration of her Premier on October 3,1918. I have the honour to inform you that in view of these successive recognitions a Provisional Czecho-Slovak Government has been const.i.tuted by the decision of September 26, 1918, with its provisional seat in Paris and consisting of the following members:

"_Professor Thomas G. Masaryk_, President of the Provisional Government and of the Cabinet of Ministers, and Minister of Finance.

"_Dr. Edward Benes_, Minister for Foreign Affairs and of the Interior.

"General Milan R. Stefanik, Minister of War.

"The undersigned ministry has subsequently decided to accredit the following representatives with the Allied Powers:

"_Dr. Stephan Osusk_. Charge d'Affaires of the Czecho-Slovak Legation in London, accredited with His Majesty's Government in Great Britain.

"_Dr. Leo Sychrava_, Charge d'Affaires of the Czecho-Slovak Legation in Paris, accredited with the French Government.

"_Dr. Leo Borsk_, Charge d'Affaires of the Czecho-Slovak Legation in Rome, accredited with the Royal Government of Italy.

"_Dr. Charles Pergler_, Charge d'Affaires of the Czecho-Slovak Legation in Was.h.i.+ngton, accredited with the Government of the United States.

"_Bohdan Pavlu_, at present at Omsk, is to represent our Government in Russia.

"Our representatives in j.a.pan and Serbia will be appointed later.

"We have the honour to inform you that we have taken these decisions in agreement with the political leaders at home. During the past three years our whole political and military action has been conducted in complete agreement with them. Finally, on October 2, 1918, the Czecho-Slovak deputy Stanek, President of the Union of Czech Deputies to the Parliament in Vienna, solemnly announced that the Czecho-Slovak National Council in Paris is to be considered as the supreme organ of the Czecho-Slovak armies and that it is ent.i.tled to represent the Czecho-Slovak nation in the Allied countries and at the Peace Conference. On October 9, his colleague, deputy Zahradnik, speaking in the name of the same union, declared that the Czecho-Slovaks are definitely leaving the Parliament in Vienna, thereby breaking for ever all their ties with Austria-Hungary.

"Following the decision of our nation and of our armies, we are henceforth taking charge as a Provisional National Government for the direction of the political destinies of the Czecho-Slovak State, and as such we are entering officially into relations with the Allied Governments, relying both upon our mutual agreement with them and upon their solemn declarations.

"We make this declaration in a specially solemn manner at a moment when great political events call upon all the nations to take part in decisions which will perhaps give Europe a new political regime for centuries to come.

"a.s.suring you of my devoted sentiments, believe me to remain, in the name of the Czecho-Slovak Government,

_(Signed)_ "DR. EDWARD BENES,

Minister for Foreign Affairs."

CZECHO-SLOVAK DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

"At this grave moment when the Hohenzollerns are offering peace in order to stop the victorious advance of the Allied armies and to prevent the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary and Turkey, and when the Habsburgs are promising the federalisation of the empire and autonomy to the dissatisfied nationalities committed to their rule, we, the Czecho-Slovak National Council, recognised by the Allied and American Governments as the Provisional Government of the Czecho-Slovak State and nation, in complete accord with the declaration of the Czech deputies in Prague on January 6, 1918, and realising that federalisation and, still more, autonomy mean nothing under a Habsburg dynasty, do hereby make and declare this our Declaration of Independence:

"Because of our belief that no people should be forced to live under a sovereignty they do not recognise and because of our knowledge and firm conviction that our nation cannot freely develop in a Habsburg confederation which is only a new form of the denationalising oppression which we have suffered for the past three centuries, we consider freedom to be the first pre-requisite for federalisation and believe that the free nations of Central and Eastern Europe may easily federate should they find it necessary.

"We make this declaration on the basis of our historic and natural right: we have been an independent state since the seventh century, and in 1526 as an independent state, consisting of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, we joined with Austria and Hungary in a defensive union against the Turkish danger. We have never voluntarily surrendered our rights as an independent state in this confederation. The Habsburgs broke their compact with our nation by illegally transgressing our rights and violating the const.i.tution of our state, which they had pledged themselves to uphold, and we therefore refuse any longer to remain a part of Austria-Hungary in any form.

"We claim the right of Bohemia to be reunited with her Slovak brethren of Slovakia, which once formed part of our national state, but later was torn from our national body and fifty years ago was incorporated in the Hungarian State of the Magyars, who by their unspeakable violence and ruthless oppression of their subject races have lost all moral and human right to rule anybody but themselves.

"The world knows the history of our struggle against the Habsburg oppression, intensified and systematised by the Austro-Hungarian dualistic compromise of 1867. This dualism is only a shameless organisation of brute force and exploitation of the majority by the minority. It is a political conspiracy of the Germans and Magyars against our own as well as the other Slav and Latin nations of the monarchy.

"The world knows the justice of our claims, which the Habsburgs themselves dare not deny. Francis Joseph in the most solemn manner repeatedly recognised the sovereign rights of our nation. The Germans and Magyars opposed this recognition, and Austria-Hungary, bowing before the Pan-Germans, became a colony of Germany and as her vanguard to the East provoked the last Balkan conflict as well as the present world war, which was begun by the Habsburgs alone without the consent of the representatives of the people.

"We cannot and will not continue to live under the direct or indirect rule of the violators of Belgium, France and Serbia, the would-be murderers of Russia and Rumania, the murderers of tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers of our blood, and the accomplices in numberless unspeakable crimes committed in this war against humanity by the two degenerate and irresponsible dynasties of Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns.

We will not remain a part of a state which has no justification for existence and which, refusing to accept the fundamental principles of modern world organisation, remains only an artificial and immoral political structure, hindering every movement towards democratic and social progress. The Habsburg dynasty, weighed down by a huge inheritance of error and crime, is a perpetual menace to the peace of the world, and we deem it our duty towards humanity and civilisation to aid in bringing about its downfall and destruction.

"We reject the sacrilegious a.s.sertion that the power of the Habsburg and Hohenzollern dynasties is of divine origin. We refuse to recognise the divine right of kings. Our nation elected the Habsburgs to the throne of Bohemia of its own free will and by the same right deposes them. We hereby declare the Habsburg dynasty unworthy of leading our nation and deny all their claims to rule in the Czecho-Slovak land, which we here and now declare shall henceforth be a free and independent people and nation.

"We accept and shall adhere to the ideals of modern democracy as they have been ideals of our nation for centuries. We accept the American principles as laid down by President Wilson, the principles of liberated mankind of the actual equality of nations and of governments, deriving all their just power from the consent of the governed. We, the nation of Comenius, cannot but accept those principles expressed in the American Declaration of Independence, the principles of Lincoln and of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. For these principles our nation shed its blood in the memorable Hussite wars five hundred years ago. For these same principles beside her Allies our nation is shedding its blood to-day in Russia, Italy and France.

"We shall outline only the main principles of the const.i.tution of the Czecho-Slovak nation. The final decision as to the const.i.tution itself falls to the legally chosen representatives of the liberated and united people. The Czecho-Slovak State shall be a republic in constant endeavour for progress. It will guarantee complete freedom of conscience, religion and science, literature and art, speech, the press and the right of a.s.sembly and pet.i.tion. The Church shall be separated from the State. Our democracy shall rest on universal suffrage; women shall be placed on an equal footing with men politically, socially and culturally, while the right of the minority shall be safeguarded by proportional representation. National minorities shall enjoy equal rights. The government shall be parliamentary in form and shall recognise the principles of initiative and referendum. The standing army will be replaced by militia. The Czecho-Slovak nation will carry out far-reaching social and economic reforms. The large estates will be redeemed for home colonisation, and patents of n.o.bility will be abolished. Our nation will a.s.sume responsibility for its part of the Austro-Hungarian pre-war public debt. The debts for this war we leave to those who incurred them.

"In its foreign policy the Czecho-Slovak nation will accept its full share of responsibility in the reorganisation of Eastern Europe. It accepts fully the democratic and social principle of nationality and subscribes to the doctrine that all covenants and treaties shall be entered into openly and frankly without secret diplomacy. Our const.i.tution shall provide an efficient, national and just government which will exclude all special privileges and prohibit cla.s.s legislation.

"Democracy has defeated theocratic autocracy, militarism is overcome, democracy is victorious. On the basis of democracy mankind will be reorganised. The forces of darkness have served the victory of light, the longed-for age of humanity is dawning. We believe in democracy, we believe in liberty and liberty for evermore.

"Given in Paris on the 18th October, 1918.

_(Signed)_ "PROFESSOR THOMAS G. MASARYK,

Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

GENERAL DR. MILAN STEFANIK,

Minister of National Defence.

DR. EDWARD BENES,

Minister for Foreign Affairs and of the Interior."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PAN-GERMANISM

CHeRADAME, A.: _The Pan-German Plot Unmasked_. John Murray, London, 1916.

NAUMANN, F.: _Central Europe_. King & Son, London, 1916.

For complete survey of Pan-Germanism and Pan-German literature, see Prof.

Masaryk's articles in the first volume of the _New Europe_, as well as various articles in _La Nation Tcheque_.

THE SLAVS

BAILEY, V.F.: _The Slavs of the War Zone_. Chapman & Hall, London, 1917.

LEGER, Louis: _Etudes slaves_. Leroux, Paris, 1875, 1880 and 1886.