(e) The Constituent Assembly of Prague on January 6, 1918
The most important manifestation of Czecho-Slovak national will took place in Prague on January 6, 1918, when all the Czech deputies assembled in order to give expression to their deep gratitude for the French recognition of the constitution of a Czecho-Slovak army on the side of the Entente. At the same time it was a protest against Austria-Hungary and a demand for representation at the Peace Conference.
As to the resolution unanimously adopted by this constituent assembly, there is no doubt about its meaning: in it the Czecho-Slovaks no more act with Austria but demand full liberty. This even the Austrian Premier, Dr. Seidler, had to admit, when he declared in the Reichsrat on January 22:
“This resolution, in which we in vain look for a distant echo of dynastic or state allegiance, adopts to a certain extent an international standpoint, and shows that this people is ready, at any rate on the conclusion of peace, to accept international support with a view to obtaining the recognition of foreign states. Such a standpoint is calculated to encourage our enemies and to prolong the war.
“The resolution demands the right of self-determination in order to dissolve the existing unity of the state, and to assure full independence and sovereignty. The resolution gives the impression of having been conceived in a sense absolutely hostile to the state, and must be indignantly rejected by every Austrian and resisted by every Austrian Government with all the means in its power.”
The Czech declaration of January 6, which is the most important of all declarations of the Czechs and which has been suppressed in the Austrian press, reads as follows:
“In the fourth year of this terrible war, which has already cost the nations numberless sacrifices in blood and treasure, the first peace efforts have been inaugurated. We Czech deputies recognise the declarations in the Reichsrat, and deem it our duty emphatically to declare, in the name of the Czech nation and of its oppressed and forcibly-silenced Slovak branch of Hungary, our attitude towards the reconstruction of the international situation.
“When the Czech deputies of our regenerated nation expressed themselves, during the Franco-Prussian War, on the international European problems, they solemnly declared in the memorandum of December 8, 1870, that ‘only from the recognition of the equality of all nations and from natural respect of the right of self-determination could come true equality and fraternity, a general peace and true humanity.’
“We, deputies of the Czech nation, true even to-day to these principles of our ancestors, have therefore greeted with joy the fact that all states, based upon democratic principles, whether belligerent or neutral, now accept with us the right of nations to free self-determination as a guarantee of a general and lasting peace.
“The new Russia also accepted the principle of self-determination of nations during its attempts for a general settlement and as a fundamental condition of peace. The nations were freely to determine their fate and decide whether they want to live in an independent state of their own or whether they choose to form one state in common with other nations.
“On the other hand, the Austro-Hungarian delegate declared, in the name of the Quadruple Alliance, that the question of the self-determination of those nations which have not hitherto enjoyed political independence should be solved in a constitutional manner within the existing state. This point of view of the Austro-Hungarian representative is not our point of view, because we know, from our own numberless bitter experiences, that it means nothing but the negation of the principle of self-determination. We indignantly express our regret that our nation was deprived of its political independence and of the right of self-determination, and that by means of artificial electoral statutes we were left to the mercy of the German minority and of the government of the centralised German bureaucracy.
“Our brother Slovaks became the victims of Magyar brutality and of unspeakable violence in a state which, notwithstanding all its apparent constitutional liberties, remains the darkest corner of Europe, and in which the non-Magyars who form the majority of the population are ruthlessly oppressed by the ruling minority, extirpated, and denationalised from childhood, unrepresented in parliament and the civil service, and deprived of public schools as well as of all private educational institutions.
“The constitution to which the Austro-Hungarian representative refers, nullified even the right of general suffrage by an artificial creation of an over-representation of the German minority in the Reichsrat, and its utter uselessness for the liberty of nations was clearly demonstrated during the three years of unscrupulous military absolutism during this war. Every reference to this constitution, therefore, means in reality only a repudiation of the right of self-determination for the non-German nations of Austria who are at the mercy of the Germans: and it means an especially cruel insult and injury to the non-Magyar nations in Hungary, where the constitution is nothing but a means of shameful domination by the oligarchy of a few Magyar aristocratic families, as was again proved by the recent electoral reform proposal.
“Our nation longs with all the democracies of the world for a general and lasting peace. But our nation is fully aware that no peace can be permanent except a peace which will abolish old injustice, brutal force and the predominance of arms, as well as the predominance of states and nations over other nations, which will assure a free development to all nations, great or small, and which will liberate especially those nations which are still suffering under foreign domination. That is why it is necessary that this right of free national development and of self-determination of nations, great or small, to whatever state they may belong, should become the foundation of future international rights, a guarantee of peace, and of a friendly co-operation of nations, as well as a great ideal which will liberate humanity from the terrible horrors of a world war.
“We deputies of the Czech nation declare that a peace which would not bring our nation full liberty could not be and would not mean a peace to us, but would only be the beginning of a new, desperate and continuous struggle for our political independence, in which our nation would strain to the utmost its material and moral forces. And in that uncompromising struggle it would never relax until its aim had been achieved. Our nation asks for independence on the ground of its historic rights, and is imbued with the fervent desire to contribute towards the new development of humanity on the basis of liberty and fraternity in a free competition with other free nations, which our nation hopes to accomplish in a sovereign, equal, democratic and socially just state of its own, built upon the equality of all its citizens within the historic boundaries of the Bohemian lands and of Slovakia, guaranteeing full and equal national rights to all minorities.
“Guided by these principles, we solemnly protest against the rejection of the right of self-determination at the peace negotiations, and demand that, in the sense of this right, all nations, including, therefore, also the Czecho-Slovaks, be guaranteed participation and full freedom of defending their rights at the Peace Conference.”