furnishing documents and evidence of our charges. When the session of parliament was opened at Capetown, Mr. Duncan addressed an interpellation to the minister of interior on the subject of Czech prisoners of war. The minister answered by giving the expected excuses furnished him by his German subordinates. That gave an opening to Mr. Duncan: “Why, these interned Boers are rebels and allies of the Germans; how can you class them with the Czechs who are our faithful friends and enemies of the Central Powers?” The minister was compelled to release all our countrymen at once and to place Czechs on the same plane as other British allies. That was at the end of 1917.
In 1918 a number of our men who had been formerly in camps volunteered for service in the British army; the rest of us were busy saving and collecting money for Czechoslovak legionaries and the independence campaign; our contributions were sent to London and Paris.
When the fighting ceased and the Czechoslovak Republic came formally into existence, we received written applications for certificates of Czechoslovak citizenship from Germans born in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, and from Jews born in these lands and in Slovakia. In the absence of any authorized representative of the Czechoslovak Republic Mr. Dornik-Plotner verified their place of birth, took from them an oath of allegiance to the Czechoslovak Republic and secured their release from internment camps. During the present year our collections were sent to the Czech Heart and to the Anglo-Czech Relief Fund.
The total number of Czechs and their children in the Union of South Africa is only about 130; in addition there is about 100 Germans and Jews who owe allegiance to the Czechoslovak Republic. We want a Czechoslovak consular representative in South Africa to protect the interests of his countrymen and to establish direct commercial relations between the two countries. We all hope that our leader during the war, Mr. Dornik-Plotner, will be the first Czechoslovak Consul for South Africa.
Courtesy of the Czechoslovak Information Bureau.
Masaryk Reviews Legionaries before Hus Monument on the occasion of ‘Old Guard’ Anniversary.
