(h) The Czecho-Slovak National Council in Prague
On July 13, 1918, an important event took place in Prague. The Czecho-Slovaks established an inter-party council which may well be described as part of the Provisional Government of Bohemia, whose programme is identical with that of the Czecho-Slovak Provisional Government in Paris.
The inaugural meeting of the council in Prague was opened by the president of the Agrarian Party, Mr. Švehla, who gave a report about the preparatory work and principles which led to the constitution of the council. On the proposal of M. Staněk, president of the Union of Czech Deputies, Dr. Karel Kramář, the leader of the Independent Democratic Party, was elected president of the council, M. Klofáč, leader of the National Socialists, and M. Švehla vice-presidents, and Dr. Soukup, leader of the Socialists, secretary. Dr. Kramář greeted the assembly in the name of the presidency. Afterwards deputy Klofáč delivered a speech in the name of the Socialists, and the vice-president of the Czech Union, supported by deputy Habermann, proposed that the presidency should itself select members of the council. The proposal was unanimously accepted. Deputy Staněk greeted the National Council in the name of the Czech Union as the supreme representative of the whole Czecho-Slovak nation, of all its classes and parties. Thereupon Dr. Soukup proposed a resolution which was carried unanimously and the chief passages of which read as follows:
“To the Czecho-Slovak Nation!
“On the decision of all political parties, representing the united will of our whole nation, the Czecho-Slovak National Council has been formed to-day. The immense gravity of the present times and our common concern for the future fate of the Czecho-Slovak nation have united us in a national organisation.
“The ultimate aim of the Czecho-Slovak National Council in Prague is postulated by the demand of these times: to enlist for systematic work, to organise and lead the great spiritual, moral and national resources of the nation to that end which is the most sacred and inalienable right of every nation and which cannot and will not be denied also to our nation:
“The right of self-determination in a fully independent Czecho-Slovak State with its own administration within its own borders and under its own sovereignty.
“The Czecho-Slovak National Council wish to interpret this will of the nation and to be the executive organ of all the common declarations of its delegates which culminated in the solemn oath of April 13, 1918.
“Our work will not be easy. We shall have to suffer much more opposition and we shall have to undergo another great test. But no obstacles are able to arrest our nation’s progress. In full mutual agreement with our delegates and with the whole cultural and economic Czech world, the Czecho-Slovak National Council will faithfully fulfil its difficult and responsible task, so that it may be truly said before the conscience of the nation that we did everything that was in our human power.
“We know that our whole nation stands behind the Czecho-Slovak National Council as one united rampart. Full of joy at the great political act which the constitution of the National Council represents, and full of confidence in the victory of our common cause, we address to-day to the whole Czecho-Slovak nation an urgent appeal to support our work with all its strength, to obey all orders of common discipline and to follow firmly our common national aim.”
It is significant that the presidency of this council is composed of four of the most eminent leaders of the four greatest parties in Bohemia: Dr. Kramář, Klofáč, Švehla and Soukup. All of these have been in prison during this war, as well as the following members of the council: Dr. Rašín and Červinka, friends of Kramář; Cyril Dušek, former editor of Masaryk’s organ The Times; Dr. Scheiner, president of the “Sokol” Gymnastic Association; and Machar, the eminent Czech poet. Besides these the members of the council include: the Socialist leaders Bechyně, Habermann, Krejčí, Němec, Stivín, Meissner, Tusar and Vaněk; the Clerical leaders Hruban, Šrámek and Kordáč; the author Jirásek; Agrarians Staněk (president of the Czech Union), Udržal and Zahradník, Dr. Herben, of Professor Masaryk’s party, and others. All Czech parties are represented on the council without exception, from the Socialists on the extreme Left to the Clericals on the extreme Right.
The council is the supreme organ of the Czecho-Slovak nation, and represents all its classes and parties. It is a national organ and its sole aim is to work for the welfare of Bohemia, without any regard to Austria. It stands above all party politics and is the supreme organ to which all disputes are referred that may arise affecting Czecho-Slovak national interests. Its aim is, in the words of its proclamation, “to enlist for systematic work, to organise and lead the great spiritual, moral and national resources of the Czecho-Slovak nation.” Its ultimate object is to realise “the right of self-determination in a fully independent Czecho-Slovak State with its own administration within its own borders and under its own sovereignty.” Its aims are obviously identical with those of the Czecho-Slovak Government in Paris, who alone, of course, are able to exercise the executive power as a government, especially to organise armies fighting on the side of the Entente. On the other hand, the National Council in Prague is organising the nation for the final blow which the Slavs will, no doubt at an opportune moment, strike at the Dual Monarchy.
Immediately after this important event most significant declarations were made by Czech deputies in the Reichsrat of Vienna. The Czech deputy Tusar declared that “the war must end with the creation of a Czecho-Slovak State, with the victory of democratic ideas and with the defeat of militarism and despotism. We will obtain freedom, cost what it may.” Thereupon the Czech deputies sang the Czech national anthem.
The next day deputy Stříbrný delivered a speech which we have quoted in a previous chapter.
The most significant speech, however, was that of Dr. Stránský in the Austrian Reichsrat on July 23, which surpasses any of those we have quoted hitherto in its frank anti-Austrian spirit and expression:
“We want to expose and show up before the whole world the intolerable state of foreign domination over us. You cannot prevent us, not only before a helpless curtailed parliament, not only before an illusory high court, but before the whole world, raising our voice against the Premier who is a typical representative of that Austria whose mere existence is a constant and automatic prolongation of the war. One of the obstacles to peace is the oppression of nationalities in Austria and their domination by the Germans. In this war the Germans, even if they do not openly admit it, have come to the conclusion that the German hegemony in Central Europe, and especially in Austria, is standing on its last legs. Since they see that their predominance can no longer be maintained, they endeavour to translate all that they have acquired into reality, so as to secure the spoils for themselves. Thus the Germans conceived the idea of establishing a province ‘Deutschböhmen’ which must be prepared by the establishment of district governments. From this a very interesting conclusion may be drawn—that the Germans themselves lost faith in the further existence of Austria, otherwise they would not be in a hurry to save their province Deutschböhmen in the present Austria. Because they rather wish for no Austria than for an Austria where they would not be able to rule, they are already counting upon the break-up of Austria: since the Germans do not want to accept the solution of a free Danubian confederation of nations, they prepare already their union with the Hohenzollerns.
“But then we must ask the Germans to take nothing with them that does not belong to them. It is more than questionable whether Deutschböhmen really is German.
“There is another reason which speaks against the creation of a Deutschböhmen. I am convinced that if a plebiscite were carried out among German people in Northern Bohemia, they would declare against separation from Bohemia. Why? Because the Germans are too clever not to know that Bohemia forms not only a historical and geographical unity, but that this unity has besides a historical basis, also a practical foundation. The relation between the Czech part of Bohemia and Northern Bohemia is to a large degree the relation of the consumer and the producer. Where do you want to export your articles if not to your Czech hinterland? How could the German manufacturers otherwise exist? When after the war a Czecho-Slovak State is erected, the Germans of Bohemia will much rather remain in Bohemia and live on good terms with the Czech peasant than be identified with Germany, boycotted, opposed and hated by the whole world, especially if we guarantee, not only by promises, but by deeds and laws, full autonomy to the German population within the Bohemian State.
“The real question which puzzles us to-day is: How can Austria exist at all? That is the question. And I again repeat solemnly Palacký’s word that Austria may exist only so long as her nations wish for it, and that she will cease to exist as soon as her nations do not want her to exist. The Slav nations of Austria declared clearly and emphatically their wishes and desires in their proclamations. If instead of working for the conversion of the ruling factor in favour of these wishes Dr. Seidler shows us Gessler’s hat of Austria with a German head and backbone, then let him remember that we shall hate this Austria for all eternity (loud cheers and applause) and we shall fight her, and God willing, we shall in the end smash her to pieces so completely that nothing will remain of her.”
The President: “I cannot admit such an expression about this state and I call the deputy to order.”
Dr. Stránský: “Excellency, I really do not deserve such a rebuke. It would be sad if we could not speak freely and with proper emphasis against a state form which has been imposed upon us.
“Let Dr. Seidler remember that we regard Austria, whose integrity according to him must not be questioned, as a centuries-old crime on the liberties of humanity. Let him remember that it is not only our political intention, not only our instinct of self-preservation, but our highest duty and—do not hesitate to say so—our national religion and our greatest moral mission to damage Austria wherever and whenever possible, and that our loyalty to our own nation, to our native country, to our history, to our future and to the Bohemian Crown, prompts us to betray Austria which is backed up by Germany. We are therefore determined faithfully to betray her whenever and wherever we can. I tell you further, gentlemen, that this state, this Austria which Seidler talks about, is not a state at all. It is a hideous, centuries-old dream, a nightmare, a beast, and nothing else. It is a state without a name, it is a constitutional monarchy without a crown and without a constitution. For what kind of a constitution is it if it has not the necessary confirmation by oath and won the general approval of nations because it was found to be untenable? It is a state without patriots and without patriotism, it is a state which arose by the amalgamation of eight irredents—the German one included—it is a state which had no future and in which the dynasty... (suppressed)... in a word, it is a state which is no state at all. As a matter of fact, Austria no longer exists, it is an absurdity and an impossibility. If I spoke about Czech regiments which went to embrace their ‘enemies,’ I must admit that personally I know nothing about them except what I heard from my German colleagues who persist in making complaints against us. We believe every word of what they say to be true, but... (suppressed by censor). Did you ever hear that a husband conscious of his honour and respectability told the whole world about the infidelity of his wife who left him because he ill-treated her? No, because the husband knows that it is his shame and not hers. And if Czecho-Slovak brigades are to-day fighting against Austria-Hungary it is only a proof that there is something very wrong with Austria, that Austria is more rotten than Shakespeare’s Denmark. For what other state has soldiers who ran over voluntarily to the enemy? You keep on saying that England has the Irish problem. Did you ever hear of Irish brigades, did you ever hear that any French legions were fighting for the Central Powers against France, or Russian legions against Russia when we were at war with Russia? Indeed, gentlemen, not even Turkey has any legions fighting with the enemy against her. There must therefore be some deep reason for Czecho-Slovak, Polish and Yugoslav legions fighting on the side of the Entente.”
We think that any comments on this explicit declaration, in which a Czech deputy representing his whole nation openly expressed hope for the dismemberment of Austria and praised the Czecho-Slovak troops fighting for the Allies, are superfluous.