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Marienbad, Franzensbad, Teplice (Teplitz), Poděbrady (in Bohemia), Luhačovice in Moravia, Piešťany, Trenčianske Teplice, Sliač and Štrbské Pleso (4,100 ft. above sea-level) in Slovakia, are noted. At Jáchymov (Joachimsthal), in North Bohemia, radium is produced. Ethnology.[1]—The population of Czechoslovakia is ethnologically of a mixed character. The prevailing element is that of the Czechs (7 millions), with whom the Slovaks (212 millions) form one people; indeed as long ago as the 9th century the kingdom of Great Moravia, with frontiers roughly identical with the present boundaries of the Czechoslovak Republic, was the creation of the Slav people, who occupied in common a territory stretching from W. Bohemia to the Carpathians. The Czechs and the Slovaks, or, to give them their united name, the Czechoslovaks, are a branch of the great Slav family of which the Russians are the most numerous and the most important member and to which the Serbo-Croats with the Slovenes, the Poles, the Bulgarians and the Wends of Germany also belong. Even after the conquest of Slovakia by the Hungarians, which resulted in Slovak territory being separated from Czech territory till they were reunited in 1918, an intellectual connexion between the two branches of the one family was always maintained, and some of the foremost names in Czech literature are those of writers who were Slovaks by birth. The difference between the Czech language and the language spoken in Slovakia is merely dialectical and the struggle for independence, culminating in the declaration of the Czechoslovak State, has emphasized and developed the sentiment of Czechoslovak unity. It is not without interest to note that the three principal leaders of the movement for independence were a Moravian of Slovak descent (Masaryk), a Slovak (Gen. Stéfanik), and a Czech (Dr. Beneš). Of the non-Czechoslovak races in the republic the Germans are the most numerous, numbering some 35 millions, chiefly dispersed along the W. and N. frontiers of Bohemia and in Moravia and Silesia. Their presence is largely the result, firstly of a colonization which was favoured by the Bohemian kings and princes of the 12th and 13th centuries, and secondly of a policy of Germanization pursued by the Habsburg rulers from the date of the battle of the White Mountain in 1620 (when the Czechs lost their independence) up till the very close of the World War. On the day following the attainment of Czechoslovak independence, Oct. 29 1918, the Germans of Bohemia and Moravia—the so-called Sudetenland Germans—declared the districts where they predominated a province of the new Austrian State, which had been constituted some eight days previously. It was not until the Treaty of St. Germain was concluded on Sept. 10 1919 and the Austrian Government released the Germans from the oath of allegiance they had taken to the new Austrian Republic, that the Germans desisted from openly fighting against incorporation in the Czechoslovak Republic. Their claim to self-determination was rejected by the Peace Conference. From the mere presence of the Germans within
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the historic frontiers of the Czechoslovak State it would indeed have been difficult, with justice, to deduce a right of self-determination, that is to say, the right, in this case, of retaining all the fruits of misused power. In Slovakia the Slovaks were subjected to a similar system of Magyarization. The Hungarian census of 1910 purported to show that in Slovakia there were 1,697,552 Slovaks and 901,793 Hungarians. The correct figures, however, were shown by the census of 1919 to be Slovaks 2,141,000, Hungarians 665,000. Other nationalities occupying portions of the Czechoslovak Republic are Ruthenians 600,000 and Poles 250,000. On the other hand there are some 500,000 Czechoslovaks in Austria, 450,000 in Hungary, more than 200,000 in Yugoslavia and Rumania, and over 800,000 in America. Special provision is made in the Constitutional Charter of the republic (in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of St. Germain) for the protection of national, religious and racial minorities. Difference in religious belief, confession or language, constitute no obstacle to any citizen in regard to entry into the public services or offices, to the attainment to any promotion or dignity, or to the exercise of any trade or calling. In towns and districts in which there lives a considerable section (20% or more) of citizens speaking a language other than Czechoslovak, schools are to be provided, the instruction to be imparted in the language of that minority. Such a minority has also a right to a proportionate amount of the funds set aside by the State or by the local authorities for purposes of education, religion or philanthropy. The courts of justice and the public offices are also required to pay due regard in respect of language to the desires of a minority which numbers at least 20% of the inhabitants of the locality. Every act tending to force a citizen to abandon his nationality in other words oppression of a citizen on account of his race is expressly prohibited. Creation of the Republic.—When in July 1914 Austria commenced hostilities against Serbia, thus bringing about the World War, this act of aggression took place against the will of the Czechs and Slovaks, at that time subject to Austrian and Hungarian rule respectively. Open protest or organized revolt, however, was impossible owing to the proximity and indeed the presence in overwhelming numbers of German and Hungarian troops, who were expressly garrisoned among the Czech population in order to stifle any possible outburst of national and pro-Ally sentiment. Direct political action was equally impossible, as the Austrian Parliament was suspended. Whenever opinions did happen to be expressed which could be construed as criticism of Austria or Germany the offenders were speedily punished, and it was not long before the political leaders of the Czechs and Slovaks found themselves in confinement, some of them under sentence of death, while the Czech and Slovak press was subjected to a rigorous censorship and many of its organs prohibited from appearing. Some of the political leaders escaped over the frontier among them Prof. Thomas Garrigue Masaryk and Dr. Eduard Beneš, who were subsequently to lead a success- |
