to Serbia in July, 1914! No one responsible for the policy of the Central Powers in that crisis can plead ignorance as to the character and policy of that man.
The Czechs had been prepared to work for a better Austria and to continue in it, even though promises given to them were regularly disregarded. Yet though wishing for the existence of Austria, if Austria was to be a real home for its nationalities, they were always equally determined to destroy it, should it choose to become a jail, with the Germans and Magyars for its jailers. Now Austria has become worse than a jail to the Czechs, worse even than a slave-driver. It has driven them not into slavery, but into fratricide. When Czech regiments were first marched against Russia and Serbia, all past bonds between Austria and the Czech nation were broken for ever. There are words on which one does not go back, and there are facts which can never be undone. Not even centuries can erase the memories of the war into which the Czecho-Slovaks have been driven, contrary to their will, under the command of their bitterest enemies—the Germans and the Magyars. Never again in history are the Czechs to find themselves in the position of mute victims driven into a death dishonourable for men, into a death of slaves fighting for the maintenance of slavery. The Hapsburgs have crossed the Rubicon on their way to Berlin; there can be no comity in the future between the Czechs and the Hapsburgs.
The outbreak of the war placed the Czechoslovak nation in a tragic position. They were now to fight for a cause which they knew to be that of their enemies and oppressors, and against those who
