The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 1/What the Papers Say (1)

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

 

That part of the “peace terms” answer of the Entente, relating to the liberation of the Czecho-Slovaks from foreign domination, has been generally passed over in silence by the American press. Its comment dealt mainly with the more familiar topics of Belgium and Serbia and Alsace-Lorraine and Constantinople; the great significance of the resurrection of Bohemia, both from the historical and diplomatic point of view, has not been at all appreciated. It is merely another proof of the short vision and ignorance of European geography on the part of editorial writers of the great American papers. Only in a few cities with a large percentage of Bohemian immigrants have the dailies paid attention to the demand of the Allies for independent Bohemia. The Cleveland Plain Dealer of January 14 says on the editorial page: “Now comes the entente note with a definite promise of Czech freedom. From a Bohemian standpoint this is the most important thing in all the war . . . No people has finer traditions than the Czechs, no people is more worthy of self-government. Inasmuch as the entente can hope for no help from a people which is absolutely dominated by Austria-Hungary and which is even compelled to fight on the Austro-Hungarian side, the declaration as to "Tcheco-Slovaques" is quite unselfish and consistent with the entente’s broad assertion that it is fighting a war of liberation.”

The Cedar Rapids Times also speaks with sympathy of the aspirations of the Bohemians, and hopes that America will support the intention of the Allies to free Bohemia. Occasionally foreign correspondents emphasize the European importance of the Bohemian question. Norman Hapgood in a cablegram, published in the Chicago Tribune, Jan. 28, says that next to the problem of Constantinople “only one other question of geography in Europe has a pressing and unavoidable bearing upon the main plan. That is Bohemia.” Hapgood, however, suggests that certain liberals in England disagree with the program of the Allies for Czecho-Slovak independence and hope to see the Bohemian question solved as a question of home rule.

The best answer to this suggestion is found in an article, published in the London New Statesman, December 9, a month before the Allies came out with their terms. The editor calls special attention to the article on Bohemia and says among other things: “In the earlier stages of the war the national movement of the Czechs was practically unheard of in this country, and to support it was no part of the programme of the Allies. The developments of the past few months, however, have made it a question of crucial importance on which the whole future of “Mittel-Europa” depends. And “Mittel-Europa” means more than most of us have yet realized. There is more than a measure of truth, we believe, in our contributor’s dictum that the international position of Bohemia after the war will be the test of victory.”