Beneš and Kramář Report to the Nation
On September 30 Edward Beneš, minister of foreign affairs, and Karel Kramář, chief of the Czechoslovak peace delegation, made a report to the National Assembly of their work at the peace conference. Both speeches are of very great importance and intrinsic interest, presenting the work of the Paris conference from the point of view of one of the smaller and new nations. We quote extensively from both speeches. Dr. Beneš said:
After four years of work abroad I return to my own land to render an account as foreign minister of the Czechoslovak Republic, of our activities at the peace conference and to lay the results of it in the form of several treaties before the National Assembly for ratification. . .
It seems to me proper on this occasion to say a few words about the spirit of our revolutionary labors and to point out, why and by what means we have achieved victory.
We declared war officially on Austria-Hungary on November 15, 1915, by a solemn declaration, and immediately commenced journalistic work in Switzerland, Paris and London. The first official assistance extended to us by the French government dates from February 1916. During the whole year 1916 we organized the Paris center with various branches in other Allied states, and already we looked forward toward the formation of a national revolutionary army. By our press propaganda and personal contact we archieved the first important success in January 1917, when the Allies in their note to President Wilson made the liberation of the nations of Austria-Hungary one of their war aims. At that lime we started to organize our prisoners of war into a national army, and in the summer of 1917 negotiations went on both in Russia and in France about creating a distinct army. On December 16, 1917, the French government published a decree, constituting the Czechoslovak army. Since that time the results of our labor grew and multiplied, and we reached one success after another. Even before that the revolutionary changes in Russia made possible the formation of a strong Czechoslovak army; and through the influence of these two armies we received the consent of the Italian government in April 1918 to the formation of another army in Italy. When our Siberian army in the spring of 1918 carried out its remarkable anabasis to the East, we obtained from the Allies the first private acknowledgement of our national independence.
As early as April 1918 French premier Clemenceau pledged himself to recognize our National Council as a government and our whole movement as the national movement of an Allied nation. This pledge was embodied in a letter of minister Pichon, dated June 28, 1918, by which our right to independence was for the first time clearly, solemnly and decisively acknowledged. The acts of the Italian government, signed in April 1918, constituting the Czechoslovak army in Italy, implied this also. One of the most serious blows to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was inflicted by the declaration of the British government, August 11, 1918, by which in a manner precluding all ambiguity we- were recognized as an Allied and free nation. The same meaning was contained in the declaration of the United States, dated September 2, 1918, by which the National Council of Paris was definitely recognized as a government. These changes of supreme importance culminated in the constitution of the first provisional Czechoslovak government in Paris, October 14, 1918, which took place under very interesting circumstances, because at that time the Allies were not yet certain, whether Austria was destroyed or not. The declaration of our government came out at a moment, when Austria asked for peace and when strong friends of Austria worked for its salvation. By the formation of our government which confronted the Allies with an accomplished fact this question was settled, and thus, when the Allies granted armistice to Austria-Hungary and Germany, the Czechoslovak state from the point of view of the international law was already in existence. As Czechoslovak delegate I signed armistice terms, imposed upon our former tyrant, the Hapsburg empire. . . By this we automatically entered into the rank of states that must be represented at the peace conference. We entered the conference as an existing state on the same plane as others. It is difficult to realize -what would have happened, if we had not possessed the right to participate in the peace conference from the beginning as a fully acknowledged state. . .
Of great service to our cause was especially the strong national consciousness of all the elements of the nation, readiness to sacrifice lives and fortunes, and the passionate, convincing, sometimes almost fanatical fight against lies, deceit and violence, represented by the Central Powers. We made people respect us. When we entered the conference, it was under the influence of Siberian events, under the influence of accounts of the organization of our French and Italian armies and their bravery, under the influence of reports about the brave struggle of our nation, imprisoned in Austrian cells. All that gained strong friends and sympathies for our claims.
Our situation was very good, far better than that of many nations long in existence, incomparably better than that of nations which also
