telegrams, letters, lectures and articles, how much help from Allied Ambassadors and from our political friends! But without our propaganda abroad, without our diplomatic work and the blood of our Legions we should not have achieved our independence. How our Legions and the part they took in the common struggle were appreciated may be seen from the official declaration made by Mr. Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, on August 9, 1918:—
DECLARATION.
Since the beginning of the war the Czechoslovak nation has resisted the common enemy by every means in its power. The Czechoslovaks have constituted a considerable army, fighting on three different battlefields and attempting, in Russia and Siberia, to arrest the Germanic invasion.
In consideration of its efforts to achieve independence, Great Britain regards the Czechoslovaks as an Allied nation and recognizes the unity of the three Czechoslovak armies as an Allied and belligerent army waging regular warfare against Austria-Hungary and Germany.
Great Britain also recognizes the right of the Czechoslovak National Council, as the supreme organ of the Czechoslovak national interests, and as the present trustee of the future Czechoslovak Government, to exercise supreme authority over this Allied and belligerent army.
On the basis of this declaration Dr. Beneš negotiated and signed, in the name of the National Council, our first Treaty with Great Britain on September 8, 1918; and, after the end of the war, the President of the French Republic tersely defined the political significance of our Legions in his opening speech to the Paris Peace Conference by saying: “In Siberia, France and Italy, the Czechoslovaks have conquered their right to independence.” The fighting strength of our forces in those three countries was approximately―
In Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
92,000 men |
In France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
12,000 men„ |
In Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
24,000 men„ |
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
128,000 men„ |
If to this number of combatants be added the 54,000 reserves who were organized in Italy after the Armistice, the grand total is 182,000. These figures correspond to the data collected up to February 1928. As far as I can estimate, we actually lost 4,500 men in Russia and Siberia, France and Italy the price in human life which we paid for the recognition of our independence. These rough figures give, I think, an
