such a time as the development of events should throw a clearer light on the situation and our requirements.
And so we took open action and declared war officially upon “the Habsburg Empire on Sunday, November 14, 1915, when the proclamation of the Czechoslovak Foreign Committee was published in Switzerland, France, Russia, and the United States.
In this proclamation the Foreign Committee emphasized the fact that the Czechoslovak nation was entering upon hostilities, irrespective of their result. at a moment when Russia was retreating and Serbia was crushed. It associated itself with the Slavonic nations and the Allies, and proclaimed a life and death struggle against the Empire which was responsible for the war and had already lost its independence, having become a mere implement in the German war policy of an advance towards the East. The manifesto further described the struggle of the Czechoslovak nation against Vienna and Budapest before the war, and drew attention to the regime of persecution against us in Austria-Hungary during the war. It emphasized our historical right to a State of our own, and referred to the fact that the whole nation was resolved to gain its independence by its combative efforts in the war. The cause of Vienna and Budapest was proclaimed to be already a lost one, the downfall of the Habsburg Empire and the formation of an independent Czechoslovak State certain and inevitable.
The publication of the manifesto formed the beginning of our official opposition to Austria-Hungary. It was a step of historic importance, although the immediate effect was not considerable. It was the first decisive measure, open and deliberate, undertaken in agreement with the politicians at home and therefore fraught with responsibility to the nation and its future. There could now be no turning back. With this step began the phase of our organized activity abroad. That problem occupied us entirely for some time.
As in the case of all work, especially that of a political and revolutionary character, the problem of method and organization has a decisive effect upon the results achieved. What therefore concerned us mostly was how to organize, in a unified and well-knit movement, the co-operation of the colonies with those in charge of our policy; how to keep in touch with Prague; how to organize our propaganda and pass gradually from propaganda to politics while creating the executive bodies and
