from the Austrian Commander-in-Chief. We considered the part the Sokols might play in the immediate future and particularly during the expected Russian occupation of the country. Through him I met Dr. Scheiner, the head of the Sokols, with whom we agreed that, in case of a Russian occupation, the Sokols should act as a Public Safety Guard and, should need arise, as a national army. But I did not hide from him my doubts of the Russian army and of Russian policy, and I alluded to the possibility that, if the Germans should advance through Saxony and the Austrians from the South, the Russians might be compelled to retreat. There was a serious possibility, nay, a probability that, should the Russians push forward as far as Moravia and, perhaps, Bohemia, they would be obliged to withdraw. We were bound in conscience to exercise the greatest prudence lest the Austrians take cruel revenge after a Russian retreat in order to terrorize the people for the future.
In the spring of 1914 Dr. Scheiner had been in Russia, and had realized that Russo-Czech political relations were so slight as to be practically non-xistent. M. Sazonof, the Russian Foreign Minister, had complained to him that Czech politicians took no account of Russia and were therefore unknown to the Russians. He had said frankly that we were not to count upon Russia and that the Russian army was not yet ready for a decisive war. Earlier in the year Sazonof had said much the same thing to Klofáč, another Czech Member of Parliament, whom he had assured that the Great Powers wanted no war. But these things were not said or known openly. Our public opinion was uncritically pro-Russian, in the expectation that the Russians and their Cossacks would set us free. Not only did I repeat to Dr. Scheiner my misgivings on the subject of the Russian army, but I expressed my fears of the Russian dynasty and even of a Russian Governor, since Russian absolutism and indolence, as well as Russian ignorance of things and men among us, would soon demolish our Russophilism.
To these arguments Dr. Scheiner replied that, under existing conditions, a Russian would be the most popular candidate for the “Czech Throne,” and that we were obliged to take this into account. I agreed, for it was certainly not the moment to expound to the public the true state of Russia. But I made my conviction clear to Seton-Watson, who explained it in the memorandum which, as I have said, he drew up and caused to be sent to Sazonof. In the interest of
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