CZECHOSLOVAK INDEPENDENCE
avoided the appearance of propaganda, a word which by that time had become rather discredited owing to unsavory German methods. The writer recalls distinctly how a small western daily would occasionally make use of the bulletins in editorial form, as its own material. The truth of the facts registered in these bulletins was never challenged even by those hostile to the work.
Toward the end the offices of the Bureau became much more than a press office and developed into a political center, particularly of the representatives of the smaller nationalities. More than one conference was held there and more than one resulted in concerted important action. Thus, when in 1918 a conference of small nationalities was called in New York, and it became evident that it would be made use of as anti-Ally propaganda, the Slavic representatives met in the offices of the Bureau, joined by the spokesmen of Armenians and others, and there formulated their declaration, declining to participate and resulting in making the conference abortive. In fact, the Czechoslovak movement became the axis around which movements of other nationalities revolved.
The intense political activity of the Czechoslovaks in America is further well illustrated by
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