CZECHOSLOVAK INDEPENDENCE
hopes, seems sufficient to reconcile the Czechs of Bohemia to incorporation with Austria.”
3. The Czechoslovaks throughout the present war have opposed Austria-Hungary to the utmost of their ability, and immediately upon the outbreak thereof formulated and adopted a program asking for the reconstruction of a sovereign, completely independent, Czechoslovak State, as is evidenced by a solemn manifesto issued in Paris on November 15, 1915, by declarations of Czech deputies in the Austrian Parliament, manifestos of Czech authors and pronouncements of Czech workingmen’s organizations, as well as by the bitter persecution and wholesale executions by the Austrian Government perpetrated upon the Czechs throughout the duration of the war.
4. The legal existence of the Bohemian State is further attested by the existence of a Czechoslovak Army in France and Russia, under the leadership of the Czechoslovak National Council, headed by Prof. T. C. Masaryk. This army in Russia recently declared in public proclamation that the Hapsburgs are deprived of the Bohemian Crown and of Slovakia; that it is conducting a defensive war on Austria-Hungary; that the Czechoslovak Army, led by the Czechoslovak Na-
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