doing lasting damage. The mistakes of some individuals and groups did but serve to bring out more clearly the general discipline of our people.
De Facto and De Jure.
It is now necessary to examine in some detail the circumstances in which our State arose de facto, politically and materially, and those which gave it de jure, lawful, formal existence, that is to say, how our historical and natural right to an independent State was recognized by the Allies and afterwards by the Central Powers, and how our revolution abroad and at home was legalized.
In my work abroad I was always careful to cast our political programme into a juridical form, since I had in mind the legal and international problems that would arise at the Peace Conference. Our right to independence I endeavoured to define as exactly as possible so that foreign public opinion might become familiar with it. This was, indeed, the kernel of our propaganda. Starting from the historical rights of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, which entitled us to the complete restoration of our State, I explained that, de jure, our State had never ceased to exist, and I invoked also our natural right to independence and unity with especial reference to Slovakia. As I was fully aware that, like our National Council abroad, I was a revolutionary instrument, I expected the official representatives of other States to take their stand upon the Legitimist principle in dealing with me. They did so at first, even in regard to our prisoners of war, though not always consistently or in a hostile spirit. But much tact, and utilization of the growing feeling against Germany and her Allies, were necessary in order to establish regular relations between our National Council and the Allied Governments. Express recognition came later. The Allies were waging regular war against Austria-Hungary and observed international usage and wont. But when this usage was violated by the German invasion of Belgium, by the support given to the anti-English agitation in Ireland and by the propaganda in America against America, the Legitimist principle faded and we were recognized de facto and, presently, de jure. The work done by Voska in America and by Dr. Osuský and others in Switzerland in revealing these German and Austrian manœuvres was therefore of great value.
As time went on, our propaganda spread knowledge of our historical rights; and our natural rights and the justification
