bad impression would have been made abroad. The subsequent negotiations, under different conditions, with the Lord Lieutenant in Prague were less compromising and less open to misunderstanding. The collapse of the Austrian forces on the Italian front might perhaps have served as a starting-point for a revolt; and I admit that a more radical group, if it could have been organized, might then have turned the situation to account. But by marking time for a while until Austria-Hungary had capitulated to Wilson, success was more surely and easily attained. In basing their action upon the Austrian acceptance of Wilson’s programme—an acceptance the more significant because it came from Andrássy, a Hungarian politician—Dr. Rašín and his friends clearly linked the revolution at home with the highest achievement of the Provisional Government abroad, and thus made their action on October 28 a synthesis of our whole revolution.
From Dr. Rašín’s and Dr. Soukup’s report in the Year Book of the Czechoslovak National Assembly, it appears that the National Committee negotiated, on October 28 and 29, with the Austrian military and civil authorities, and that a “Convention” was concluded with the military Command in Bohemia on October 28. The Austrian military representatives accepted the “cooperation” of the National Committee and undertook to do nothing against its will. Consequently, it was agreed on October 29 between the Lord Lieutenant and the members of Parliament, Soukup, Stříbrný, Rašín and Švehla, that the National Committee should be “recognized” as an executive organ of the Sovereign Nation (not of the State) and that it should be “associated” with the work of public administration. In view of its brevity and vagueness this report needs to be completed and explained by those concerned. What did they “agree” upon and what was the meaning of “cooperation” and of “association”? How long were these arrangements to last, and with what object?
Obviously, the Lord Lieutenant in Prague, Count Coudenhove, as a representative of the Austrian Government, negotiated with the National Committee on the basis of the Emperor’s manifesto, and perhaps on that of Dr. Lammasch’s programme for the establishment of Federal States which the Emperor had sanctioned on October 22. As an Imperial Lord Lieutenant he could not negotiate for the establishment of a Republic and a State independent of Austria and the dynasty. As is known, Count Coudenhove hints that the National Committee referred, in their dealings with him, to the Emperor’s wish to set up
