The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 1/Situation in Bohemia

SITUATION IN BOHEMIA.

The Austrian Reichsrat met again on September 25 after an adjournment of several months. The government in the meantime had been engaged in finding a solution for the sharp constitutional crisis which developed owing to the determined opposition of the Slavs and principally of the Bohemians. Herr von Seydler reconstructed his cabinet and included therein a number of bureaucrats of Slav race, but he was unable to secure the acceptance of places in his ministry by any parliamentary leaders.

It is the Czech problem which worries the ministers of Emperor Charles the most. The people of Bohemia are becoming bolder and are talking and acting more radically every day. Bohemia’s political developments in the last few months revolved around the interpretation of the memorable declaration which had been made in common by all the Czech deputies at the opening of the Reichsrat on May 30. It became necessary to define further the demand for “the union of all the branches of the Czechoslovak people into one democratic Bohemian state.” The words used were susceptible of being interpreted in the sense of a national state like Hungary under the sceptre of the Hapsburgs. It appears that in the executive sessions of Czech Deputies’ Club a fight went on for a straight out demand for complete independence. The division in the Club, as one may guess at it, was along the lines of temperament, rather than along former partisan allegiance. Thus some Catholic deputies made the strongest demand for an absolute break with the Hapsburgs, while certain Socialist leaders were in favor of a pro-Austrian construction. The radical spirit won the day, as was inevitable in view of the bitter hate of the people of Bohemia for the German-Austrian cause, and the first fruits of it was the refusal of the Bohemians to have any part in the deliberations of the commission for constitutional revision. The Czechs declared that they denied the competency of the Vienna Parliament to decide how Bohemia should be ruled, and that the affairs of Bohemia would be thrashed out at the peace conference.

Another sign of the growing boldness of the Czech leaders is a resolution drafted by Deputy Prášek and approved at a meeting of his constituents at Lysá on the Elbe September 2. The resolution reads: “It cannot be denied that the politico-legal declaration of May 30 must be amended so as to cast out every ambiguity. The Czech nation will not be satisfied with any sort of autonomy, or with the so-called self-determination; it will keep up its fight for a completely independent Czechoslovak state.”

An interesting light is shed on the attitude of the Czech deputies by the scene in the Reichsrat on on October 29. The president of the chamber announced the startling victories of the Austro-German offensive on the Italian front and called for cheers for the emperor and the “brave” army. Cheers were given with a will by the German and Polish deputies, while the Czechs remained ostentatiously silent. One can well imagine their feelings. Not only must they have been downcast by the delay of their ardent hopes for the speedy downfall of the Central Powers, but they also realized at once that the police regime in Bohemia would be again made severe and that new prosecutions for treason were likely to come.

And while the elected representatives of the Czech people opposed the Austrian government in parliament, the unwilling Czech soldiers continued to manifest their hostility to the German cause in the field. For the second time the minister of public defense had to admit in parliament that in the brief July offensive of the Russians three regiments, composed principally of Bohemians, failed to offer the resistance expected of them, or as the Russians had it, three Czech regiments surrendered without a shot. On the Italian front several regiments of Czech recruits were guilty of rebellion and as a punishment were sent to the Palestine. On the other hand all reports from the Bohemian centers in Russia tell of successful recruiting among the captured Czech and Slovak soldiers for the creation of a big Czechoslovak army in Russia, while prisoners in France and Italy and immigrants in the United States hasten into the new Czechoslovak army which will fight the Germans on the western front.

Bohemians want liberty, and they want it badly enough to fight for it.