(c) After the Amnesty
The political amnesty of July, 1917, intended to appease the Slavs, had just the opposite effect: it only strengthened the Slav resistance which acquired fresh strength and impetus by the return of the old leaders.
Kramář was hailed like a sovereign when he entered Prague again. He now became the recognised leader of the whole nation. The Národní Listy became the mouthpiece of all the most eminent leaders of the nation without party distinction. Its issue of October 31, 1917, contained a map of the future independent Czecho-Slovak State and a series of articles. We will quote only a few passages from an article written by deputy Rašín which read as follows:
“The war has brought our problem home not only to us but to the whole world. Nothing could have better expressed our situation than the propaganda of Mitteleuropa. Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria had to form a bridge for the imperialistic march of Germany to the Persian Gulf via Constantinople and Bagdad. The Czechs and Yugoslavs were to be crushed and become the victims of those plans. This was the ideal that the German nation considered as its war aim and as a war aim of Austria-Hungary. They could not have obtained a better reply than was given to them by the Czechs and Yugoslavs in their demand for their own independent states, which would be able to form a permanent bulwark against the Drang nach Osten as planned by the Germans and Magyars. Even if Herr Naumann ceases to promote the idea of Central Europe, in reality a new programme which would do away with the old evils and assign a new mission to Austria-Hungary is inconceivable. All the declarations of the government are only destined to conceal their real intentions. The German-Magyar hegemony is as strong as ever, and the Polish question is to be solved only according to the Pan-German programme. During this war Austria’s real face has been unmasked before the whole world by her persecutions, arbitrary decrees and the Pan-German propaganda.
“The Czechs, who in their policy always went hand in hand with the Yugoslavs, saw all this, and consequently the only thing left for them to do is to insist on their attitude, constantly to reveal Austria’s insincerity, to reject all pretty phrases without any meaning in them, and all compromises, which we know would never be kept. We also must reject a compromise peace which would lead to fresh wars.
“The policy of the Czechs cannot but aim at the absolute independence of the whole Czecho-Slovak nation, and all our action at home and abroad must tend towards persuading the world that only thus can a stable peace in Europe be achieved.”
It was about this time also when Seidler made desperate attempts to induce the Slav leaders to participate in a special commission for the revision of the Austrian Constitution. Dr. Stránský, speaking in the name of the Czechs, openly refused the proposal, declaring that the Czech problem could not be solved by Austria, but only by the Peace Conference, that is after the victory of the Entente. A joint committee of representatives of the Young Czech, National Socialist, Progressive Independence and Moravian Progressive Parties issued a proclamation protesting against any participation of Czechs in Austrian politics, and declaring that since the Czech question is an international one and can therefore be decided only at the Peace Conference, the duty of the Czech deputies is not to assist in the revision of the Austrian Constitution, but to insist upon the creation of an “independent Czecho-Slovak State with all the attributes of sovereignty.”
Simultaneously also the Czech Agrarian deputy, Zahradník, made the following remarkable declaration in the Reichsrat on September 26:
“In view of the prevailing policy directed against the Czech people, can any one wonder that they have lost all confidence in Vienna and that they refuse to let this parliament decide their fate? It is necessary to secure for all peoples, great or small, the right to decide their own destinies. This applies also to the ten million Czecho-Slovaks who, moreover, cannot rightly be considered merely as a ‘small’ nation: the Czechs, too, do not desire anything more than peace, but it must not be forgotten that our men did not shed their blood merely for imperialism or for Pan-Germanism. We do not want anything but an honourable peace which would bring equality to all peoples, a peace assuring liberty and equality to all, and not a peace which would leave our fetters unbroken. We regret that the Pope omitted to mention the Czechs in his peace offer although he mentioned the Poles. But we shall obtain our right without alien support. The Czechs will never swerve from their demand for an independent Slovak State with all the attributes of sovereignty. The Czechs are convinced that the question of Bohemia is too great to be solved in Vienna. It must be decided at the Peace Conference.”
On November 9, deputy Staněk made it clear that the Czecho-Slovaks expect the resurrection of their independence only from the break-up of Austria:
“We cannot conceive of peace or of the transformation of Europe except when on the ruins of the Dual Monarchy new national states shall arise. The German-Magyar misrule must be destroyed.”
And when on November 21 Seidler talked about the peace conditions of the “enemy,” Dr. Stránský interrupted him by exclaiming, “Our enemies are here, in Vienna and in Budapest!”