The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 3/Political Events

THE CZECHOSLOVAK REVIEW OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK NATIONAL COUNCIL OF AMERICA
Jaroslav F. Smetanka, Editor Published Monthly by the Bohemian Review Co., 2324 S. Central Park Ave., Chicago, Ill.
Entered as second class matter April 30, 1917 at the Post Office of Chicago, Ill., under act of Congress of March 3, 1879.
Vol. III, No. 11.	NOVEMBER, 1919	15 cents a Copy $1.50 per Year

 

Political Events

On September 25 Edward Beneš, minister of foreign affairs, returned from Paris, after an absence of more than four years. In 1915 he fled secretly to join Masaryk abroad and to co-operate with him in a campaign for the overthrow of Austrian rule. In 1919 he returned as minister of the Czechoslovak Republic, bringing with him for the ratification of the National Assembly the German and Austrian peace treaties in which practically all the demands of the nation were realized. Naturally his reception by his grateful countrymen was magnificent; since Masaryk’s arrival in Prague last December no such scenes of enthusiasm have been witnessed by the Czechoslovak capital. Beneš is next to Masaryk the most popular man in the nation; he has not been identified with any single political party, but will sit in the National Assembly as a member of the Slovak Club which forms a part of the present governmental coalition together with Czech socialist block and Czech agrarians; and he has the confidence of practically all parties and factions.

Two days later Dr. Kramář also returned to Prague and also received a great welcome. On September 30 the two Czechoslovak delegates at the peace conference made their report in a memorable meeting of the National Assembly. Their speeches are quoted elsewhere in this issue. A debate then took place which occupied several sessions of the parliament; all the speakers lauded the work of the peace delegation and approved the views of the foreign minister as to the future lines of Czechoslovak diplomacy: fidelity to the Allies, cordial relations with the Jugoslavs, hope for a close understanding with Poland and Roumania and a square deal to former enemies, Germany, Austria and Hungary. While it was well known to all that Dr. Kramář would have preferred to furnish active assistance to those Russian leaders who were fighting the bolsheviki, the nation as a whole decided to keep aloof from all interference in Russia, especially as the Czechoslovak troops in Siberia made known clearly their desire to return home at the earliest possible moment. The nation owes too much to its sons who fought in Russia to send them against their wishes into further fighting. And no part of Beneš’ speech was more applauded than his statement that arrangements were finally made with the Allies to transport the boys in Siberia home.

The three treaties laid by Beneš before the National Assembly—the German peace treaty, the Austrian peace treaty and the special treaty with Czechoslovakia providing for the protection of national minorities—will be promptly ratified. No voice is raised in the entire Republic against the League of Nations. The one unsettled question is the fate of Teschen; and while the Czechoslovaks lost in their claim that this district belongs to the Republic by the same right, as Bohemia, Moravia or Slovakia, they feel confident that the plebiscite imposed upon them by the peace conference will result in their favor.

In connection with the return of minister Beneš a story was cabled to American papers from Vienna which furnishes evidence of the hatred which Vienna feels more than ever toward the Czechs. An American correspondent in Vienna was told by his German informants that upon the arrival of Beneš in Prague it was found that his personal baggage was stolen, and the moral of the story, as cabled to America, was that the Czechs cannot restrain their thieving proclivities even in case of a man who deserves so well of his nation as Beneš. It appears that such a report was published in one of the Prague papers, but it was at once proved to have been an invention. It is a pity that American journalists in Europe on the few occasions when they mention the Czechoslovaks take both their facts, and the lesson taught by the facts, from German enemies of the Czech nation. While some pilfering goes on in Bohemia as everywhere else in Europe and even in America, there is better order and greater safety of life and property in the Czechoslovak Republic than anywhere in Europe west of the Rhine. The best proof of it lies in the fact that the Czechoslovak authorities last March called in all the money and stamped it in the course of ten days with out any material loss or disturbance, while recently in Germany finance minister Erzberger had to abandon his plans to carry out the same reform, because he deemed it too dangerous to transport billions of marks over German railroads and because he could not trust the state employees who would handle the money.

The Germans of Vienna have not changed, in spite of the fact that they are reduced almost to destitution and have to sell the emperor’s tapestries to buy food. The treaty imposed upon Austria and signed with great cheerfulness by chancellor Renner provides for the protection of national minorities and among other things guarantees to the Czech minority in Vienna the right to have their children educated in Czech schools, supported by public funds. But when Czech spokesmen in Vienna appealed to the Austrian authorities for schools, they were turned down, and private schools opened by them were damaged by mob violence. Even in the Czechoslovak Republic in certain districts in northern Bohemia, the opening of Czech schools occasioned scenes of violence by the local German majorities; they take it as a grievous wrong and a violation of all their rights that enough schools should be taken away from them to provide instruction in their own language for Czech children which under the old regime had to attend German schools. The Czechoslovak government is ready to give the Germans even more than the peace conference insisted upon; but the Germans are indignant, whenever any of their unfair privileges are taken away from them.

The agitation of Slovak extremists is not meeting with success. In Slovakia the sentiment has come out unmistakably against them ,and whatever lurking sympathies they might have got were lost by their intrigues with the Poles. Dr. Beneš answered an interpellation in the National Assembly on this subject by stating some interesting facts: Two priests, Andrew Hlinka and Francis Jedlicka, crossed the Slovak boundary secretly into Poland, came to Warsaw, were welcomed by Polish officials, negotiated for support of their separatist movement, received Polish credentials on which they came to Rome by way of the Balkans, and in Rome received from Polish diplomatic representatives Polish passports to enable them to get to Paris. There they tried to reach Allied representatives with their story of complaints against the Czechs, but without any success. Dr. Beneš took up the matter with Mr. Paderewski who expressed his regrets at the unwarranted action of the Polish officials in granting Polish passports to Czechoslovak citizens and promised to have the officials severely punished. According to Beneš there is not the slightest possibility that the agitation of these malcontents will have any effect. Since this explanation was given in the National Assembly, a cable dispatch stated that Hlinka who had returned to Czechoslovakia was arrested on the charge of high treason.

The question of religion has something to do with this episode. When the Slovaks were liberated and united with the Czechs a year ago, a large proportion of the important governmental posts were entrusted to Protestants, although Protestants number only about one fourth of the Slovak people. The reason was that the Lutheran Church among the Slovaks was less completely Magyarized than the Catholic Church. Minister of Public Health, Vávro Šrobár, who is also minister with special powers for Slovakia, belongs to the Protestant camp and so do many of his chief assistants, although several Catholic dignitaries serve the government as district chiefs and sit in the National Assembly. Among Czech minor officials who displaced to a large extent Magyar functionaries in Slovakia there were a few men hostile to the Catholic Church, and their lack of tact stirred up the animosity of the people and the priests.

The cabinet itself is aware of the delicate nature of the religious question and refrains from radical steps that would disturb good relations between church and state. The separation of the two has been decided upon, in principle and a commission is sitting on which the government and all shades of religious opinion are represented. It hopes to reach an agreement on the plan of separation. In the meantime the urgent question was the compulsory instruction in religion in all elementary and secondary schools, and a compromise was put into effect by the minister of education, according to which religion has been omitted from the course of study in the higher grades of the secondary schools, and in the lower grades children whose parents are unconnected with any church do not have to attend religious instruction. Within the Catholic Church itself a movement has appeared, supported by many priests, which aims at the introduction of changes into the administration of the church tending to greater democracy, at the substitution of the language of the people for Latin in liturgy and at permission to priests to marry. Many parish priests did not wait for this permission, but married at once, and in October fifty one of them were excommunicated by the new archbishop of Prague, Dr. Francis Kordač.

The place of Jiří Stříbrný who resigned his post of minister of railways was filled by the appointment of Emil Franke, chairman of the Czechoslovak Socialist Club of the Assembly. A more difficult problem was to find a finance minister in place of Cyril Horáček who resigned, because the burdens of the office were too great for him. After a long search for the best man available among the coalition parties the president appointed Kuneš Sonntag, a republican (agrarian) deputy from Moravia who will have the assistance of an expert undersecretary. Among other appointments of interest to America is the selection of the well-known author John Havlasa for minister to China; Havlasa lived for several years in America. Jan Masaryk, the only living son of President Masaryk, was appointed first secretary of the Czechoslovak legation in Washington, and is expected to arrive soon with minister Štěpánek.

Courtesy of the Czechoslovak Information Bureau.

Fifth Anniversary of the Organization of Czechoslovak Legions in Russia, Prague, Sept. 28 , 1919.
American Flagg was donated to invalids from Siberia at San Diego, Calif.