The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 1/The Present Status of the Bohemian Question

by Jaroslav František Smetánka

The Present Status of the Bohemian Question.

For Austria the chief problem through out the greater part of the nineteenth century and the years that have passed by of our new century has been the Bohemian problem. For Europe this question might be said not to have existed until January 10 of this year, when the Allies in their famous answer to President Wilson declared that among the changes that will have to be made upon the conclusion of war must be the liberation of Czechs and their nearest kin, the Slovaks. For the first time since the thirty years’ war the fate of Bohemia came to be discussed on the international forum.

In the five months that have elapsed since the Allies’ note several events of the highest importance have occurred which necessarily have a bearing on the question of Bohemian independence. The Russian revolution and the entry of America into the war aside from their world significance affect closely the fate of Austria. The war has become definitely one of democracy against autocracy, and that means that if democracy wins, there will be no room for “monarchies”, as Austria-Hungary is officially known, especially monarchies that hang together only through common subjection to a ruler by divine grace and that would fall to pieces the moment that the force majeure holding them together is overthrown.

The Russian revolution had a double effect on the internal situation in Austria-Hungary. It made it clear on the one hand to Emperor Karl that concessions must be made to the Slavs of his empire. There has been for generations a very close intellectual and spiritual connection between the Slavs of Austria and the tremendous mass of Slavs of the Russian empire. Since 1867, when a great pilgrimage of Bohemians and other Slav subjects of Francis Joseph went to Moscow as a protest against the division of the Hapsburg empire into a German and a Magyar sphere, every significant movement in Russia found an echo in the monarchy to the southwest, and every injury to the Slavs of the Danube realm aroused resentment among the people of Holy Russia. It was therefore unthinkable that the complete overthrow of the old order of things in Russia should leave Austria untouched. Especially in Hungary and Galicia, where the comparatively low degree of popular education interfered with the growth of racial patriotism and favored blind obedience to hereditary monarch, the revolution among the kindred race of Russians aroused dangerous discontent which made concessions advisable. That is the principal reason why the strong man of Hungary, Count Tisza ,the greatest exponent of Magyar chauvinism, had to resign, and that is why in Austria the parliament was called together for the first time since the beginning of the war, although the preliminary demands of the Germans for the introduction of German as the only language of the state and for administrative division of Bohemia were not yet fully carried out. For even the organs of Germany urged the Austrian emperor to gain the good will of his Slav subjects by timely concessions; otherwise Austria would be lost to Germany.

 

Of still greater importance to the continued existence of Austria-Hungary was to create the impression abroad that the demand for the disruption of the monarchy voiced by the Allies and endorsed by Miljukoff during his brief term of office was contrary to the wishes of the peoples in whose interests it was made. Any means were good enough to be employed for this purpose. Intimidation and cajoling, jail and high decorations, threats of instant service at the front and promises of fat contracts for the army, all were used to obtain expressions of confidence in the government and loyalty to the reigning house. And when all this was in vain, the government of Emperor Charles went even further; it forged public statements of the elected representatives of the people. The Club of Bohemian deputies to the Reichsrat issued a protest on April 14 addressed to deputies of all parties and races as follows: “We protest very strongly, because the decisions of our last plenary meeting held March 16 and 17 aimed against octroyed measures have been suppressed by the censor in their entirety and instead of them different text, prepared by the correspondence bureau, has ben sent out to the press. Since the minister-president expressly approved this act of the censor, it is necessary to look up on it as a measure of the government. For the present the Bohemian Club can only communicate this fact to the other deputies. Our real opinion will be expressed, when we have free speech in parliament.”

A few days later, April 25, the Union of Czech Journalists in Prague made this public announcement: “The manner in which the censor performs his work in Prague must be characterized as one opposed to the ideals and spirit of intelligent journalism. Newspapers are compelled to publish articles and are not allowed to mention the source from which they come. This is not only opposed to the fundamental principles of journalism, but it is humiliating in that the periodical is not really the organ of the editor and publisher, but of the state.”

The Austrian parliament is in session now; but what is really happening there cannot be ascertained from the meager reports which are allowed to reach America from Vienna. The speech from the throne breathes with good will toward the once “minderwertig” (inferior) races of Austria, and emperor Charles now speaks of free national and cultural development of equally privileged peoples. Beautiful words, but the Hapsburg subjects have heard many such, and do not trust them any more. At the very time, when Karl was pronouncing his irenic speech to the deputies at Vienna, the report reached this country that another great treason trial was commenced in Bohemia. Five of the most prominent bankers of Bohemia are in jail, their property was confiscated as a preliminary to their trial, while the leaders of the Bohemian deputies are still confined in custody. And the forceful Germanization of the country continues.

The eyes of Bohemians are now turned toward America with hope and toward Russia with fear. The new program of the provisional Russian government—no annexations and no indemnities—sounds beautifully, but it is too hazy and too much liable to misinterpretation. It forgets Belgium and Serbia and it does not say what shall be done with the Hapsburg empire. One must emphasize over and over again that Austria-Hungary and the Hapsburg dynasty cannot be separated; the existence of the empire depends absolutely on the maintenance of the dynasty. The dynasty is German and has found its support in the past in the German minority. The Hapsburg empire represents the rule of majority by minority, and as long as it continues, Europe will be in a state of unstable equilibrium.

America has not yet announced its views on the European reconstruction. But signs multiply that when it does, it will be found to be in complete accord with the program stated by the Allies in their peace terms note. On May 21 the Associated Press sent out from Washington “by authority” a long statement published in all the leading dailies of the country, stating the real war aims of Germany and approving by implication the peace terms of the Allies. About Austria the article has this to say: “Austria-Hungary’s submission now is declared to be complete, both in a military and economic sense. The German officers commanding her armies, abetted by political and industrial agents scattered throughout the country by Germany, evidently are holding the Austrian and Hungarian populations in a union which the hardships of war, the death of the Emperor and the inspiration of outside influences such as the Russian revolution cannot break.” After summing up the program of the Allies, which consists principally in the disruption of the Hapsburg and Turkish empires, this authoritative Washington statement goes on to say in conclusion: “American officials have made it clear that in co-operating with the Allies the United States was not entering into a binding alliance to accomplish definite and detailed territorial aims, but there is every evidence that the government understands in concrete form the crucial southeastern element of the situation and realizes the enormousness of the struggle that must be won before the world is made safe for democracy.”

To create a barrier of independent Slav republics from the Baltic to the Adriatic—free Poland, free Bohemia, free Jugoslavia—out of the ruins of the present tyrannic, medieval Hapsburg empire, is the peace program of the Allies. The United States is trying to avoid the mistakes made by the Allies in the early, days of the war; the benevolent attitude toward Austria is one of those mistakes which should not be repeated by this country. It seems that as a result of the visit of the French and English missions our leaders now understand “the crucial southeastern element of the situation”, in others words the necessity of doing away with Austria-Hungary. What is needed now is that the American people as a whole should realize that war will be won and the high aims in pursuit of which the United States entered the war will be attained only, when races now subject to the sceptre of the Hapsburgs are set free.

J. F. S.