The Bohemian Review | ||
Jaroslav F. Smetanka, Editor, 2324 South Central Park Avenue, Chicago. | ||
| Vol. II, No. 1. | JANUARY, 1918 | 10 cents a Copy |
Bohemians and the Allied Peace Terms.
Amid the universal chorus of approval raised in the lands of the Allies over the memorable peace terms announcements of Premier Lloyd George and President Wilson the small voice of scattered Bohemians will hardly be heard. They are few in number, feeble in influence, and they speak for a small and subject nation. But they cannot keep silence, when their friends have forsaken them.
Just one year ago the Allies, of whom America was not yet one, announced for the first time their war aims. These included “the liberation of Slavs, Italians, Roumanians and Czechoslovaks from foreign domination”.
That implied the disruption of the Dual Empire. Today President Wilson in dealing with this part of his peace program promises distinctly less:
The peoples of Austria-Hungary whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development.
The words may be susceptible of two interpretations, but their natural meaning is that Austria-Hungary shall continue to exist as a Great Power, after concessions have been made to its oppressed nationalities. Still more unmistakable is the tenor of the English premier’s references to this point:
Although we agree with President Wilson that the breaking up of Austria-Hungary is no part of our war aims, we feel that unless genuine self-government on true democratic principles is granted those Austro-Hungarian nationalities who have long desired it, it is impossible to hope for removal of those causes of unrest in that part of Europe which so long have threatened its genuine peace. The right of self-government should apply to enemy as well as friend. On the same ground we regard with vital satisfaction the legitimate claims of the Italians for union with those of their own race and tongue. We also mean to press that justice be done to the men of Roumanian blood and speech to their legitimate aspirations. If these conditions were fulfilled, Austria-Hungary would become a power whose strength would conduce to the permanent peace and freedom of Europe instead of being an instrument of the pernicious Prussian military autocracy.
So Austria-Hungary will continue to disfigure the map of Europe. An Austria, which the spokesmen of the Allies fondly hope will be a reformed Austria. They plan to detach from it five million Poles, nearly a million Italians, possibly also four million Roumanians as Lloyd George seems to hint, and leave the rest under the Hapsburgs. But this would also mean that close to four million Ruthenians or Ukrainians of Eastern Galicia and Bukovina would be geographically altogether detached from Austria of which they are now a part and would be sure to gravitate toward the Ukraine and be lost to the Hapsburgs. And the result? Instead of thirty-two million Slavs and Latins as against twenty million Germans and Magyars there would be less than twenty million Slavs against a somewhat larger number of their enemies. Germans and Magyars ruled and oppressed when they were in the minority; can any reasonable man believe that with numerical majority on their side they will give up their ambition to make all Austrian provinces German and all Hungary Magyar? The new peace program of the Allies involves not merely the preservation of Austria-Hungary, but also the weakening of those elements in it that are friendly to the Allies. It would turn over the Dual Empire definitely to the German-Magyar partnership.
The Bohemians are deeply disappointed. But they are not discouraged; neither will they give up the fight for an independent Czechoslovak state. They accept this blow as one of the fortunes of war. The military and diplomatic situation seems to demand that the Allies show the utmost moderation in their demands. But the peace conference is still far away and the fate of Bohemia is not yet settled. Before it is decided, the Bohemian nation and the Czechoslovak army will be heard from.
