nexion between the Czech and the German parts of the historic Bohemian Lands.
At that time we held part of the German regions in military occupation. Between our troops and their German fellow-citizens a number of agreements were made. At Reichenberg, for instance, the seat of the “Government of German Bohemia,” a municipal authority and a Czech-German administrative commission, in the ratio of seven Germans to four Czechs, were set up by reciprocal agreement on December 16, 1918. At Eger there was, according to German accounts, an arrangement which the people of Eger interpreted as confirming their particular constitutional rights. They claim that our historian, Palacký, recognizes these rights; and it is certainly interesting to observe how Čelakovský describes the evolution of constitutional law in the Egerland and its “Bohemification.” The Peace Treaty of St. Germain declares, however, that the Egerland belongs to the historical Bohemian State—a position which Austria also recognizes by her ratification of the Treaty. A thorough examination of the juridical aspects of the occupation of our German territory would nevertheless be expedient.
Nor is our relationship to the Germans of Bohemia our only constitutional problem. Political men and theorists have long busied themselves with a constitutional definition of the union of Slovakia with our State. Theoretically it is a question of distinguishing more precisely between “historical” and “natural” right. We invoked both of them during the war; and in view of Slovakia, I had long endeavoured to harmonize them. Many of our public men, under the influence of a reactionary German conception of the historical rights of the Bohemian Lands, ignored our natural right to union with Slovakia; and, though I admitted historical right, I always upheld natural right alongside of it. Indeed, when I left Prague in 1914 I firmly intended to work for union with Slovakia. The Allies gave us plenary powers to unite Slovakia with our Republic on December 4, 1918, the first delimitation of the Slovak frontiers being undertaken on February 19, 1918, after discussion between Dr. Beneš and the Allied military authorities (Marshal Foch and General Weygand) and with the French Foreign Minister, M. Pichon, and M. Berthelot. Our frontier with Poland was likewise determined by the Allies, small Austrian and Prussian areas being included in our territory. In principle, the recognition of the right to independence is far weightier than the question of frontier delimitation or that of the status of racial minorities. In the
