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CZECHOSLOVAK INDEPENDENCE

Apostolic benediction. (Sindelár, Z Boje Za Svobodu Octiny, pp. 76–78.)

All this was done under the leadership and management of Czechs and Slovaks who had long been residents of this country. The Czechoslovak National Council, with offices in Paris, was nominally the head of the movement all over the world and was always so referred to, but as a matter of fact, owing to distance and differing conditions that could not be known and much less grasped by those living in a purely European environment, the Council was rather a symbol than a directing institution; a statement not in disparagement of its importance, which was great, but as a matter of simple historical truth and justice to thousands of Americans of Czech and Slovak origin, who, unlauded and unsung, have yet contributed much to the liberation of their native land.

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