races of the Monarchy (except the Poles) found its final logical expression in an alliance between Austria-Hungary and the new German Empire. The seeds were sown of the present war. Again and again the Czechs, seeing the spectre of the approaching catastrophe, implored the Hapsburgs not to compromise the future of their Monarchy by aggressive, adventurous plots. To create a counter-balance to Prussian ascendancy the Czechs worked for a rapprochement between Austria on the one hand and Russia and France on the other; they were untiring in their endeavours to secure the peace of Europe. They knew what their position was bound to be as citizens of an Austria-Hungary, situated in the very heart of Central Europe, if a war broke out between their German enemies and their Slav and West European friends. It was a thing which no Czech could face without a shudder. When the series of Austro-Magyar intrigues against Serbia had begun, the Czechs tried to save the honour of the Hapsburg Monarchy by revealing the infamy of some of its servants. It was Professor Masaryk, the man now in the forefront of the Czech movement for liberation, who in 1909 took the lead in exposing the notorious Friedjung forgeries—in case of war these forgeries were to have served as Austria’s excuse for attacking Serbia. Professor Masaryk showed up and branded their main author, Count Forgach, as a common agent provocateur, and Count Forgach never dared to defend himself by bringing an action against his accuser. Yet the same Count Forgach soon afterwards became Under-Secretary of the Austrian Foreign Office, and was one of those mainly responsible for the drafting of the ultimatum
