of Bohemia and Moravia, where there are only a few Czechs might be ceded to German Austria. In that way the German minority could perhaps be reduced by one million. But it must be remembered that there are large Czech minorities in Lower Austria and Vienna (4 million), and there are also Czechs in Prussian Silesia, in the territories of Glatz and Ratibor and a large Sorb minority in Lusatia. Pangermans cannot, therefore, justly complain of the fate of the minority in Bohemia. The just rule for national redistribution in Europe consists in the fair application of the principle of the majority. Which is the more just—that nine million Czechs should be under German rule or that three million Germans should be under Czech rule?
If the Germans insist on the argument that their culture invests them with the right of ruling the less cultured nations, the fact must be emphasised that the Czechs are not less cultured than the Germans. Even Austrian statistics show a smaller number of illiterates in Bohemia than in German Austria.
There is one means, of a more financial nature, which might help to rearrange national minorities. The German and Austrian politicians, especially the Pangermans, have very often proposed that the various States should undertake a systematic intermigration of national minorities. I see that in England Mr. Buxton recommends this means for the Balkans. It may be doubted whether this expedient would be very effective, if equal national rights were granted. The Magyars tried some years ago to repatriate the small Magyar minority of the Bukovina; the undertaking was a complete failure, for the repatriated colonists soon left Hungary and went back. But after the war, many countries will need men—farmers, artisans and members of the professional classes, and, therefore, a systematic transplanting of minorities might be attempted.
6. The International Position of Bohemia in regenerated Europe.—The re-establishment of independent Bohemia is only one part of the Allied programme of reconstruction. In close connection with the Bohemian are the Polish and Southern Slav questions. The Poles, Czech-Slovaks, and Southern Slavs, form a natural barrier against the Germans, Magyars and Turks, and their Pangerman plans in the East. The liberation and reunion of Poland and Bohemia aim
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