D 520 .B6 P7 Copy 1 THE POSITION OF THE BOHEMIANS (CZECHS) IN THE EUROPEAN WAR PUBLISHED BY THE Bohemian National Alliance in America 2613 S. Avers Ave.. Chicago, III. BOHEMIAN (CZECH) NATIONAL ALLIANCE IN AMERICA. Tlie Bohemian National Alliance in America is an organization composed of the ' ' Sokol ' ' gymnastic societies, of the principal Czech fraternal organiza- tions, of social clubs and labor bodies. It has branches in most of the larger cities of the United States, as well as two branches in Canada. It is entitled to speak for the 540,000 Bohemians in the United States. The Bohemian National Alliance is working actively for the freedom of Bohemia, an object which is bound up with the success of the Allies. It opposes the false neutrality tactics employed by Germans living in the United States, particularly their efforts to stop the expQrt of munitions of war. ••• : . With the Bohemian National Alliance in America are affiliated * similar organizations of Czechs living in London, Paris and Switzerland. Mr. Josef Tvrzickj'-Kramer, 2613 S. Avers Ave., Chicago, 111., is the secretary of this Alliance. THE POSITION OF THE BOHEMIANS (CZECHS) IN THE EUROPEAN WAR PUBLISHED BY THE Bohemian National Alliance in America 2613 S. Avers Ave., Chicago. III. By transfer Tli«iniite ttouse. 1^^!;? %.^ WHY THE BOHEMIANS ARE NO FRIENDS OF THE GERMANS The terrible war raging in Europe has at least taught the people in America to take a little interest in European geography. They have no difficulty now to find the Dardanelles on the map, and even the location of such ob- scure provinces as Flanders, Tyrol, Galicia or Bukowina is no longer a secret to the average newspaper reader of Canada and the United States. But as to the races inhabiting the little known countries of Eastern Europe there is still a good deal of confusion. It is safe enough to call a man born in France a Frenchman; and a man who was born in Germany is most likely German, though he might be a Pole or an Al- satian Frenchman or a Dane. But to know that a man comes from Austria does not in itself give the slightest indication as to the man's race or as to his sympathies with one or the other camp into which Europe is at present divided. For Austria, or rather Austria-Hungary, as the ally of Germany is officially known, is not a nation in the sense in which Great Britain or France or Italy or even Germany is a nation. Austria is not a nation, but rather a queer jumble of eleven nations or fragments of nations unwilling and unable to co-operate and held together only by force of arms. If the Hapsburg empire was based on a united people like the rest of the states of Eu- rope, it would not be such a negligible factor in the councils and on the battlefields of Eu- rope. For both in area and in population Aus- tria exceeds most of the better known great powers. In area it is second only to Russia, in population it takes the third place, after Rus- sia and Germany, having 49,211,727 people, ac- cording to the census of 1910. In other words Austria-Hungary is twice as, large as the British Islands and contains four million more inhabi- tants. And yet notwithstanding its size and its resources in men and money, Austria would have been overrun by the Russians long ago, if Germany had not come to its assistance. Aus- tria cannot do its share in the present war, be- cause a large majority of the inhabitants do not want Austria or Germany to win. It is difficult for an American, from which- ever side of the international boundary he may be, to realize the extent of the misrule to which the races of Austria had been subject for cen- turies. Austria is an anachronism, a medieval survival in the twentieth century. The political principle on which the dual monarchy rests is this : the minority rules. For many generations the German minority, represented by the Haps- burg emperors, tried to force the German lan- guage upon all of the Hapsburg possessions, but after all the German element was in such a small minority that in 1867 they reluctantly gave up this ambition and reached an agreement with the Magyars to divide the empire into German and Magyar spheres of influence. The part left to the tender mercies of the Germans kept the name of Austria, while the share of the Mag- yars is known as Hungary. Both races were and are in the minority in their respective territories, but they have worked together as loyal partners to keep down and eventually destroy the na- tional life of the other nine races of the empire. Today of the fifty million Austro-Hungarian sub- jects it is the German and Magyar element, num- bering twenty million, that really wants the German side to win; the other thirty million, Bohemians, Croatians and Servians, Poles, Ru- thenians, Slovaks and Slovenians, Italians and Roumanians, realize full well that German tri- umph would mean oppression ten times worse than before the war, and that the German pol- icy of ''f rightfulness," so brilliantly exhibited in Belgium and France, would, be applied to those who might still have the temerity to refuse the boon of German Kultur. The race that would suffer the most, the race that has the worst to fear in the unlikely event of German victory, is the race generally known as Bohemians, or in their own language, Czechs. The northwestern corner of Austria con- sists of the lands of the ancient Bohemian crown. There is first the kingdom of Bohemia with 20,223 square miles and nearly seven million inhabitants. To the east lies the Margravate of Moravia with 8,583 square miles and 2,600,000 people, and still further east is the small duchy of Austrian Silesia with 1,987 square miles and three-quarters of a million people. The Aus- trian official census, which is notoriously partial to Gerni^n claimg, found 64 per c^ftt of the pop- /• << 5 y 1^ > . c^ ;^ p<^^ \ "^ » H CO L*^ ^ / <^ ^^g5»--» V ^^ I ^ 3 ^ «> ||«^ T V ^ r<\ o 2 / /^ » J^V/""^ ^■i» 1 0>ec| y f^^ > I \ !r ^ -^ ^\-^ 4 s »-H ^^yv^ f 1 is ^ \ L ^ o ^^^E R/M A^^; ulation using the Bohemian language, while the rest gave German as their conversational me- dium. In Austria every man who speaks Ger- man in his business dealings and does not in- sist on being put down as a Bohemian, is entered by the census enumerator as a German. The fact is that for more than a thousand years the Bohemian lands have been a bone of contention between the Slav and the Teuton. The Czechs, a Slav race, occupied the country in the fifth cen- tury of our era and gradually erected a power- ful kingdom. But on three sides they were sur- rounded by German lands, and the Germans tried again and again, sometimes by fire and sword, sometimes by peaceful penetration, to conquer the country and make it a part of greater Germany. The Czechs held their own until they committed a fatal blunder in the year 1526, when they elected a Hapsburg to be their king. The Hapsburgs were German princes, aliens in blood, language and manners to the people who chose them for their rulers; their policy has been such that in 1618 the people arose in revolt, were defeated two years later and lost their independence. Since that time Bohemia and the lands of the Bohemian crown have been mere provinces of the Hapsburg realm, governed from Vienna, the guiding prin- ciple of the rulers being the extermination of the Bohemian language and individuality by the killing of rebels, exiling of nonconformists, sup- pression of Bohemian books, education of Bo- hemian children in German schools and the set- tlement of Germans in the country. For a time it looked as if this policy would be- crowned with success, and a hundred years ago only peasants used the Bohemian language. The Germans thought that Bohemia was theirs. But a miracle happened, and in the first half of the nineteenth century a number of men, gratefully remem- bered by every Bohemian as the restorers of the nation, reawakened the national consciousness in the hearts of the people. When the era of absolutism passed away in Austria, the young emperor, Francis Joseph, was confronted with the problem: how to treat the Czechs of Bo- hemia, Moravia and Silesia, who demanded the right to live not merely as individuals, but as a people. The emperor decided that Austria must re- main a German state ; the Slavs must be com- pelled to become Germans. If they are so ob- stinate as to refuse the light of the German Kul- tur, they must be extirpated. The history of the last fifty years — the era of the so-called consti- tutional government — is a record of oppression, juggling with constitutional safeguards, manipu- lation of elections, centralization of power in Vienna, confiscation of Bohemian newspapers, persecution of Czech leaders, forcible German- ization of Bohemian minorities in German cities ; in fact every means has been employed to make the Bohemians feel that they are an inferior race and that sooner or later Bohemia must be- come a German-speaking country. The world has only recently come to know the incredible arrogance, the brutality, the ruthlessness of Ger- mans engaged in their mission of spreading the ''culture." It is a proof of the intense vitality of .the Bohemian pe.ople that in spite. of the steady 8 oppression applied to them with characteristic German thoroughness they have held their own. In foreign politics Bohemians were always opposed to the Triple Alliance and the close re- lations with Germany which the two dominant races, Germans and Magyars, favored. Czech representatives in the Vienna Reichsrat and in the Austro-Hungarian delegations denounced the vassal relations which Austria assumed toward Germany; they opposed appropriations for larger army and the ambitious plans for ter- ritorial expansion in the Balkans at the expense of the Balkan Slavs. When Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, Bohemian newspapers unanimously condemned the act as a breach of treaties and a menace to the peace of Europe. French and English visitors to Prague received an unusually cordial welcome from the Czech mayor and councillors ; with the Russians the most friendly relations had always been maintained. Servian and Bulgarian stu- dents flocked to the University of Prague, be- cause they saw in Bohemians their friends. At the Sokol gymnastic meet in Prague in 1912 Rus- sian, French, Servian, Bulgarian, Croatian ath- letes engaged in friendly competition with Bo- hemian Sokols (falcons). It was but natural that Bohemians should lean toward those who, like themselves, were threatened by German ag- gression. War came, caused by Austria's act, though, of course, with the full knowledge and approval of Germany. It placed the Bohemians in a ter- rible situation, for they were not for one moment deceived as to the real significance of the war. 9 It was waged to make Germany supreme, not merely on the Continent of Europe, but in the whole world, and the first result of German vic- tory would be the suppression of what little free- dom had been allowed to the Austrian Slavs up to that time. By fighting for Austria Bohemian soldiers were fighting against their own people ; by shooting Russians and Servians, upon whom the Czechs had always looked as brothers, they were killing their own liberators. The men of Bohemia had to put on the hated uniform and shoulder guns, for resistance to mobilization would have been madness, but they added little strength to the fighting ability of the Austrian army. The last thing they heard as they were leaving Bohemia was the exhortation of their wives : Don't shoot the Servians. From the very first days of the war stories got through of Bo- hemian regiments being decimated for insubor- dination, refusal to fight, premature surrender- ing. The 28th regiment, composed of Prague boys, surrendered to a single battallion of Rus- sians, and the 11th regiment, from Pisek in Bo- hemia, went over to the Russians in a body with the exception of two companies. A special or- der of the day was read to the Carpathian army calling on the soldiers to prove that there were still Bohemians left loyal to their emperor. But why should Bohemians be loyal to the man who calls himself a German prince, who broke his solemn promise to be crowned king of Bohemia and restore the liberties of the country, and whose Germanizing regime was growing more oppressive, as he was growing older? Every Bohemian honors the soldiers who would not 10 fight for the cause which meant the destruction of the Bohemian nation. At home in the meantime Czechs were made to feel that they were a disloyal race. Their newspapers were suppressed if they dared to give the slightest indication of the real feel- ings of the people. The chief political leaders were put in prison; great numbers of men who recklessly expressed their hope that the Allies would win were executed; even children were sent to jail for the crime of talking as they heard their parents talk at home. A reign of terror prevails in Bohemia under the new governor, Count Coudenhove ; spies are everywhere, and military courts require little evidence, before they condemn to death or penitentiary. The whole population is affected by the scarcity of food, for the Vienna government permitted Ger- many last winter to buy up grain in Bohemia, and if the Czechs eat now what was formerly fed only to the pigs and cattle, they get little sym- pathy or assistance from their rulers. Bohemians living beyond the limits of the German-Austrian territories are of one mind in that they all fervently pray for the triumph of the Allies. A number of Bohemians prom- inent in the political life of their people escaped to Switzerland and they endeavor to inform the w^orld of the real attitude of the Bohemians. _ A review is published in Paris, called *'La Nation Tcheque," giving authentic and exclusive news of the internal situation in Austria-Hungary and presenting forcefully the claim of Bohemia to independence. Bohemians living in France, England and Russia at the outbreak of the war 11 clamored for admission as volunteers into the armies of the Allies; several hundred of them have already lost their lives in the fights north of Arras. Bohemians residing in the United States and numbering more than half a million, have organized themselves into the Bohemian National Alliance in America with the purpose of supporting their countrymen in Europe in their labor for Bohemian independence, and also with the purpose of combating German influ- ences in the United States. That they are unani- mously against Austria may be seen from this single fact: The Austrian government has pro- hibited the admission into Austria of sixty-three newspapers published in the United States in the Bohemian language. The list is practically a complete census of Bohemian publications in America ; if there is one or two left out, it is an oversight on the part of the Austrian officials. Tragic is the situation of the Bohemian race, compelled to fight for their enemies against their brothers. And a tragi-comedy it is, when a Bohemian living abroad, in France, England or Canada, is treated as an enemy, because he had the misfortune of being born a subject of the Austrian emperor. The French have been enemies of the Germans only since 1870. The English have only in the last few years begun to feel uneasy at the aggressiveness, commercial jealousy and military preparations of the Ger- mans. In Russia almost up to the beginning of the war Germans were influential in the highest places. Should the Germans win, which God forbid, Great Britain, France and Russia would suffer terrible humiliation, immense losses of 12 territory and wealth, but these free nations are too strong to be suppressed and exterminated. Whereas to the unfortunate Bohemian race, standing in the way of German expansion to the East, would be applied the German war methods and it would not be long before the Czechs would disappear from the face of the earth and the Bohemian language would be counted as one of the dead languages. Bohemians have everything to lose in the event of German vic- tory, everything to gain in the event of the tri- umph of the Allies. Can there be any doubt as to where the Bohemians stand in the present war? 13 '-"-% *-^ *C «^^«as^ ^'^ I3C "^ *#:*. 4, rt 3r -3- ,^ ^^^:r^^ ^ -c H: . ji^A,. "'^r?v-,;i g >^ ~3( ' -^-A . ;^;^|,.y^ ^ ^ :2:. - "^'"^^v^^^? ^ **^ C3 -«rA-«Ksa*-^^ BOHEMIANS (CZECHS) FOR AMERICA AND AGAINST AUSTRIA The Austrian Government in a recent note addressed to the Government of the United States, in effect demanded an embargo upon the shipment of ammunition and arms from the United States. This demand, which is absolutely inconsistent with international law, as well as the practice, both past and present, of the Aus- trian, as well as the German Government, has been followed up by a report to the effect that the Austro-Hungarian Government contemplates following up its note to the American Govern- ment with the scheme of mobilization of Ameri- can Austrians and Hungarians, of whom there are six millions in the United States, so as to in- terfere with the manufacture of war materials. The time has come for former subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Government to emphati- cally and unequivocally declare that they are utterly opposed to the Austrian Government in its demand for an embargo upon the shipment of arms and ammunition, and that the threat alleged to have been made as to the mobilization of former Austrian subjects, and Austrian resi- dents of the United States, is the sheerest sort of insolence and impudence. 16 The Bohemian National Alliance of Amer- ica feels that it can speak in behalf of all Amer- ican residents and citizens of Bohemian (Czech) and Slav extraction; and speaking in behalf of such residents, the Bohemian National Alli- ance declares that it is utterly and absolutely opposed to any embargo upon the shipment of arm.s and ammunition. American citizens of Bohemian extraction are convinced that any em- bargo upon the shipment of arms and ammu- nition would be a highly unneutral act and that it also would be wrong in morals; that as a matter of fact such a step would be tantamount to an act of hostility against the governments and nations engaged in war against the aggres- sion of German and Austrian Governments. The Austro-Hungarian authorities seem to forget that there is no such thing as an Aus- trian nationality. The Bohemians (Czechs), un- fortunately enough, are still under the iron heel of Austro-Hungarian absolutism, but they are not in symipathy with the aims of these govern- ments in the present war, and the American cit- izens of Bohemian extraction are only too glad to have severed all ties that have ever bound them to the Austrian Government. Indeed, the Bohemian papers of America carry now a stand- ing proclamation of the Bohemian National Alli- ance to all Bohemian residents in the United States to become as quickly as possible natural- ized citizens of the United States, and thus to rid themselves of the odium which Austro-Hun- garian citizenship in their minds carries. When the Austro-Hungarian authorities speak of the mobilization of their former citi- 17 zens living in the United States, they wilfully close their eyes to the fact that the majority of the Austro-Hungarian population is entirely out of sympathy with the desires of such govern- ment, and with German desires. The Germans in Austria and Hungarians in Hungary form a minority of the population of these lands, and they are the only ones who desire an Austro- Hungarian victory, and even they desire such victory not out of regard for Austro-Hungary, but the German residents in Austria desire it as Germans, while the Hungarians, the descen- dants of Huns, and the present allies of the German Kaiser, desire it for their own selfish ends, and in order to be further able to oppress other nationalities resident in Hungary; but even on their part there is no love for Aus- tria, and no respect for its incompetent and cor- rupt rulers. The history of Austria for the last four hun- dred years is a record of unparalleled and un- equalled oppression of all non-German and non- Magyar nationalities. The hands of the Haps- burgs even now are dripping with the blood of Bohemian martyrs condemned to death and ex- ecuted simply because they had the courage and moral backbone to refuse to fight for a govern- ment much worse in many respects than that of the worst oriental despotism ever could be. It is a fact that many Bohemian regiments in the Aus- trian army have been decimated and dissolved because the Bohemians will not fight for the cause of the Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns. The Bohemian (Czech) residents of Amer- ica, and American citizens of Bohemian extrac- 18 tion, have observed the requirements of neutral- ity, both in letter and spirit, although they ar- dently sympathize with the allies in their strug- gle for democracy and the rights of small na- tionalities, but they feel they would be derelict in their duty as men and citizens, did they not now protest against the machinations of the Teutonic allies in America, and did they not emphatically declare that when the Austro- Hungarian authorities speak of mobilization of Austrians and Hungarians in America, they cer- tainly must exclude from their calculations citi- zens of Bohemian extraction and Bohemian resi- dents of America. Indeed, they must exclude the Italians who have been unfortunate enough to be Austrian subjects and they must exclude all Slavs, who have shared with the Bohemians the misfortune of Austrian rule. As a matter of fact, at this time, and for the very reason that the Bohemians desire this country to remain at peace with all the world, we want to warn the Austrian Government, the German Government, and their satellites in America, that by their intrigues, which may yet lead to ^ rupture between those two govern- ments and the United States, they may achieve the very opposite of their aims. As already in- dicated, neutrality has been observed by the Bo- hemians, and it will be observed in the future, but the Austrian and German governments must remember that if the laws of neutrality and the moral obligations, imposed upon residents of the United States by such laws, ever are suspended, Bohemians and Slavs and Italian residents in America will flock by the thousands to the 19 FRENCH HIGH OFFICIALS TRANSFERRING f ^lAN BANNER TO CZECH VOLUNTEERS. standards of the allies voluntarily, in order to share in the struggle against world dominion planned by the Governments of Berlin and Vi- enna, and if ever such a thing happens as war between America and Germany and Austria, which we hope may be prevented, Bohemians and former subjects of the Austrian Govern- ment will flock by the thousands to the Ameri- can standard and beneath the Star Spangled Ban- ner, and they will furnish the American Govern- ment more than a few regiments of trained men willing and anxious to die for the rights of hu- manity and for the cause of liberty, justice and independence, as the European Bohemians (Czechs) have furnished many thousands of men to France and Russia. The Bohemians have always been a demo- cratic and liberty-loving nation. We owe our allegiance to this country. We are willing and anxious to observe its laws, and to observe the spirit of its laws. We would do nothing to em- barrass the president in his policy of keeping the country out of war, but if war does come, we shall do our part in the struggle to maintain the dignity and standing of the United States before the nations of the world, and w^e shall demonstrate that no one resents more the Aus- tro-Hungarian threats and Austro-Hungarian in- trigues in the United States than do the former subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Government. In passing, we desire to say that we are not making this declaration as hyphenated Amer- icans. There are no Bohemian-Americans. There are American citizens of Bohemian (Czech) extraction, as proud of their ancestry as the descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims; but we owe no divided allegiance and we stand as a unit in our desire to see America as pros- perous and peaceful as possible, and in this re- gard we shall spare no sacrifice and no step necessary to uphold the hands of those repre- senting the people of the United States. For that reason we thought it necessary to make this declaration, and to declare as firmly as possible that w^e resent the pretensions of the Austro- Hungarian authorities to any support in America from former Austro-Hungarian citizens. BOHEMIAN NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF AMERICA, Joseph Tvrzichy, Dr. Ludvik Fisher, Secretary. President. Resolution of Protest Against the "Appeal to the American People" Full page advertisements, in the form of an ''Appeal to the American People," have been published lately in the American newspapers with the intention of embarrassing the govern- ment of this republic in its attitude of strict neu- trality, and of artificially creating public sen- timent in favor of a course of action injurious to the best interests of the country. The ''Appeal" was signed by newspapers whose publishers did not understand the real intention of the document and did not read its full text. Their signatures were obtained by false pretences. It is true, no doubt, that this action failed wholly to achieve its aim, but since the manifest — an advertisement pure and simple and paid for as such — was misinterpreted, intentionally or unintentionally, in the columns of some Central European newspapers, into an expression of the feelings of the foreign born citizens of the United States, We, the representatives of the great part of European immigrants in America, deem it our duty solemnly to declare that: 24 We emphatically deny the assumption that the export of munitions of war violates in any way the neutrality of the United States, ob- served heretofore with the most conscientious regard to international law. If the delivery of German arms to Mexico during the American occupation of Vera Cruz, when this country was in armed conflict with Mexico, was no vio- lation of neutrality, neither is the present com- merce in munitions of war a violation of neu- trality on the part of the United States. We condemn severely this hypocritical agi- tation, because it is plainly intended to secure to Germany and Austria permanently the ad- vantage of their long continued preparation for war and thus to handicap the allies whose indus- tries had not been devoted to the building up of tremendous armaments. As loyal American citizens and residents, we endorse the principle of free export of all our products, agricultural and industrial, includ- ing the munitions of war, a principle long rec- ognized by international law and followed in many instances by the very same powers at whose instigation the so-called ''Appeal" has been published. We express our complete confidence in the government of this republic for its careful and correct attitude as the one great neutral power, and we repudiate most emphatically the im- moral and hypocritical campaign conducted against countries that defend violated Belgium and fight for the right of small nations to a sep- arate existence and unhampered development. 25 Bohemian National Alliance of America, Chicago, 111., by Dr. Ludvlk Fisher, president. Bohemian Press Association, Chicago, Hi., by J. F. Stepina, president. Press Bureau of the Bohemian National Alliance, Chicago, 111., by J. Tvrzicky-Kramer, president. Bohemian- American Press Association, New York, N. Y., by J. J. Novy, president. Croatian League of America, Chicago, 111., by Don Niko Grskovic, president. Slovak Daily ''Narodny Slovensky Dennik, " Chi- cago, 111., by M. Lancik, editor. Narodnie Ncviny, Pittsburgh, Pa., official organ of the National Slovak Society of America, by Ivan Bielek, editor. Slovak New York Daily, New York, N. Y., by Ignace Gessay, editor. Slovensky Hlasnik, Pittsburgh, Pa., by E. Stan- koviansky, manager.. Slovak Daily /'Narodny Dennik, Pittsburgh, Pa., by Michael Sotak, president. Easmus B. Anderson, Madison, Wis., editcr ''Ame- "!rica" Danish Weekly, former professor Uni- versity of Wisconsin, former U. S. minister to Denmark. John R. Palandech, Chicago, 111., publisher of ''United Serbian-Balkan World." Stanislav Osada, general secretary of the ''Polish National Council," and manager of "Free Poland", Chicago, 111. Zdislav John Rakowiecki, Chicago, 111., editor of the Polish Alliance Daily "Zgoda." "Italo- Americano," New Orleans, La. by A. Vinti, editor. 26 BOHEMIAN DAILIES: Svornost, Chicago, 111., by August Geringer, publisher. Denni Hlasatel, Chicago, 111., by Vladinnr Spatny, manager. Hlas Lidu, New York, N. Y., by F. Anis, manager New Yorske Listy, New York, N. Y., by C. Frank, manager. Svet, Cleveland, 0. BOHEMIAN WEEKLIES : Slavic, Chicago, 111., by Ladislav Tupy, publisher. Osveta Americka, Omaha, Neb., by Jan G. Rosicky. Pokrok Zapadu, Omaha, Neb., by Vaclav Bures, editor. Slovan Americky, Cedar Rapids, la., by W. Letov- sky, editor. Cedar Rapidske Listy, Cedar Rapids, la., by Fr. Hradecky, publisher. Rovnost, Milwaukee, "Wis., by E. A. Krai, publisher. Domacnost, Milwaukee, Wis., by Ant. Novak, publisher. Nasinec, Hallettsville, Tex., by Ant. Stiborik, editor. The Tabor Independent, Tabor, So. Dakota, by J. A. Dvorak, editor. St. Louiske Listy, St. Louis, Mo., by L. Novak, publisher. Cechoamerican, Baltimore, Md., by Vaclav Miniberger, editor. DomacI Noviny, Clarksou, Neb., by Anton Odvar- ka, editor. Pacificke Listy, Oakland, Cal., by A. V. Omelka, manager. Westske Noviny, West, Tex., by August E. Morris, editor. 27 BOHEMIAN MONTHLIES : Vek Eozumu, New York, N. Y., by John Sevclk, editor. Eorec Americky, Chicago, 111., by K. -Yinklarek, editor. Sotek, Chicago, 111., by K. Yinklarek, editor. Vestnik Jednoty Taboritu, St. Louis, Mo., by Frank Siroky, editor. Nove Smery, Chicago, 111., by Jos. Trojan, publisher. Stanley Serpan, editor of Yestnik Zap. Ceskobratrske Jednoty, Omaha, Neb. Dr. J. E. S. Yojan, editor of Organ Bratrstva, C. S. P. S., Chicago, 111. 28 COAT OF ARMS OF BOHEMIAN CROWN. BRITISH, FRENCH AND RUSSIAN COM- MENTS ON THE ATTITUDE OF THE BOHEMIANS In the London ''Daily Express," January 12, 1915, Lieut. Col. Roustam Bek says in an article entitled "British Recognition of Czechs' Friendli- ness" : "Every Englishman who has had an oppor- tunity to study the unfortunate position of the Czechs, the unjust system by which they are gov- erned by Austria, and the centuries of brutal oppression and Germanizing policy they have had to endure, will easily understand why their sympathies are entirely and sincerely for the Allies. "Belonging to the same Slav race as Rus- sians and Servians, they expect their deliverance and the restoration of their ancient independent kingdom of Bohemia through their Slavonic brethren, as well as through the success of their British and French allies. "Austria declared war against the wish and will of its Slav subjects. Already more than a year ago the Bohemian Diet was dissolved and military rule established in Bohemia. The Aus- trian Parliament was not summoned, in order to deprive the Czech deputies of their immunity, fearing their justified protests against the war. "A London Czech committee has been ap- pointed to represent the Czech colony in Eng- land and officially recognized by the Home Office and Scotland Yard authority, in order to assist them in all matters regarding the Czechs." 32 The editor of ''National Review," L. Y. Maxse, writes: "In the course of operation against the ob- scure, hardships were probably inflicted. It is among the fortunes of war that harmless peo- ple suffer, and apart from many rightly in- terned there are not a few only technically ''alien enemies," miscellaneous subjects of Ger- many and Austria-Hungary, who hate our en- emies more heartily than we do : for example, Austrian Czechs." Mr. James Baker, well-known author and journalist, says in the November "Outlook" : "Bohemians (Czechs) have assisted us in this war by their organization, by their refusal to fight, and by their numerous surrenders to the Russian and Serbian armies. It is a difficult question, this specializing the alien friend or foe, but surely those who are sacrificing themselves for us should not be treated as alien enemies, and Bohemians (Czechs) are our friends." Professor Ernest Denis of the Sorbonne Uni- versity, Paris, says in the "Slav-American Corre- spondence" : "Czech language was persecuted, their cul- ture scorned, their schools closed, their literature oppressed, their press censored and confiscated, their economical progress stopped. Crushed by taxes, sacrificed for the interest of Austria, they were left without defence when Momsen and the heralds of Prussianism insulted their most sacred sentiments. Bohemia will find again her- role, 33 which destines her to be the joining link be- tween the western and eastern Europe, and the apostle of liberty, justice and humanity." Mr. Ziukovsky, Russian consul at Prague, on his return to Petrograd, declared : 'The Czechs did not conceal their joy when Russia sided with Serbia, but there were terrible scenes when the men entrained. I, with my own eyes, saw soldiers forcibly placed in the cars at the point of the bayonet. The trains to the front were decorated with greenery, but the soldiers and the crowd were silent." Mr. R. J. Kelly, K. C, Dublin, writes in the November "Outlook" : '^Circumstances are presenting the Czech nation from openly assisting us. This long-op- pressed people have been too long under the heel of German oppression. They wish well to the Slav cause, for it is their cause, and pray for the speedy, complete and enduring success of the Allies." MoHs. Camille Saint-Saens, the famous French composer, writing in the ''Echo de Paris" on October 23, 1914, mentions several Czech composers who are dear to French music lovers, and remarks: "France has no better friends than the Czechs." Mr. Walter Jerrold, in the "Pall Mall Ga- zette," October 26, 1914, writes: "The Czechs, too long victims of Germaniz- ing- methods, are among the bitterest of anti- - 34 Germans, for they have long known the true inwardness of German Kultur, and the fact that as many as possible are serving in the Russian and French armies should serve to make our authorities utilize those who are in our midst. The strenuous stand of the Czechs against ab- sorption in the Germanic system of Austria, which they detest, is one of the heroic rom.ances of modern history, and all who know it, who are aware of how deeply heart and soul are these people with the Allies in the present struggle, should make themselves heard in helping those Czechs at present in England. '^ The London ''Spectator" has an editorial in its issue of July 3, 1915,, entitled John Hus, from which the following is taken : "For a thousand years the Teuton has struggled in different ways to dominate the land, to capture her (Bohemia's) church, her schools, her freedom and her soul ; and for a thousand years the Czech has continued the unequal re- sistance. Though the old Bohemian kingdom, has disappeared, Bohemian nationalism still sur- vives. We may therefore regard it as one of history's little ironies that the quincentenary of the martydom of the leader of Czech nation- alism (John Hus) in its struggle with the Ger- man enemies falls wdthin the year that witnesses the supreme eifort of Teuton Kultur to domin- ate, with the assistance of conscript Czechs, not only the Czech and Slav, but the whole of Eu- rope." 35 >' < z < (/) S . V- s^ i^ C/5 OS Ul U4 H Z O > z X O CQ U. o >- z < o u w 36 The ''Contemporary Review" for July, 1915, says in an article on ''Bohemia and the War," by M. J. Landa : "Bohemia is the unwilling conscript among the combatants, linked by press-gang methods to her traditional foe, from whom she can ex- pect nothing. A Germany, flushed with victory and the mandate it would mean to suffocate all individuality under a carpet of Kultur, raven- ous also for the world-power then within its clutch, would show even more vindictive lust than it did in the Middle Ages, to exterminate the Bohemian nation that stands in its path to the Adriatic. And, conversely, the Allies, if triumphant, will secure no peace in Central Eu- rope until the gratitude and friendship of the Bohemians are obtained by the re-establishment of their kingdom and national life." Even before England entered the war, the Czech colony in London made the following pub- lic protest against Austria on the 3rd of Au- gust, 1914: Manifesto of the Bohemians (Czechs) iii London We, Bohemians (Czechs) residing in Lon- don, assembled in Hyde Park, on the British soil of freedom, consider it to be our sacred duty to give the impartial and broadminded British public a manifestation of our true na- tional sentiments. We condemn the unjustified and cruel pol- icy of the Austro-Hungarian Government against the little Serbian nation, as an action 37 of a coward, with the dastardly object of exter- minating the people of Serbia. By refusing to allow an international com- mittee to investigate the crime of Sarajevo, and to find the real accessory of this, the quick dec- laration of war, and the bombardment of the defenceless city of Belgrade, shows clearly the most inhuman aim of Austria and Germany not to give the peaceful statesmen like Sir E. Grey and others sufficient time to intervene for peace. We all know that Austria, instigated by Berlin, was thirsting for the war with Serbia, because she is in the way of the Pan-German expansion towards the East. Further, we deplore to see how our coun- trymen are forced under penalty of death to fight against our Slavonic brethren. We have facts that there is no enthusiasm in Bohemia, only cries of despair, lamentation and tempo- rary resignation. Under such dreadful conditions we would consider it an inexcusable crime against our na- tion and all Slavonic brethren to join the hated Austrian ranks and support their unjust cause directed against the friendly nations. But, on the other hand, should this country be involved in war, then as true Bohemian pat- riots, obeying the voice of our conscience, we shall be glad, with other citizens, to do our real duty to this country, and, if required, givo our lives for the hospitable shores of the Eltish Empire. Long live the Triple Entente. BOHEMIAN COLONY ^N LONDON. 38 On the first day of war, August 5, the Lon- don Czech Legion for British Service was formed, of which Mr. E. Sully, N. P. R. S., officer of French Academy, etc., etc., was elected hon. secretary. One hundred and five Czechs sent in their names and addresses, through Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, to the War Office, of- fering to serve for the British, in any capacity and for rations only, during the war with Ger- many. In the influential Russian newspaper, "Bourse Gazette," June 8, 1915, it is said in an article on the recent political history of Aus- tria: ''The Czech leader, Kramar, opposed the Triple Alliance strenuously upon all occasions. He declared in plain terms in the Austrian dele- gations in 1913 that Bohemia can support the foreign policy of the government only when Austria will not be a tool of aggressive Ger- many. The immense majority of the Czechs were far from friendly to the Hapsburg mon- archy; on the contrary they manifested plainly their sympathies for Russia." K. J. Grof, a well-known Russian historian, has this to say about the relations of Bohemians to the rest of the Slavs : "The Slavic world is under many obliga- tions to the Czechs ; they have been the advance guard for long centuries, resisting successfully the attacks and the constant aggression of the Teutons, holding high the standard of their ra- cial individuality. They are entitled to the greatest praise for their work on behalf of Slavic brotherhood, and if any Slavs are now 89 to get the reward of their long efforts, it is the Bohemians. The time has eome to rescue them from the oppression of their ancient enemy and give them their longed-for fredom and inde- pendence.'' C. F. Wyn writes in the London Morning Post, April 3, 1915, as follows: "Of the various kingdoms swayed by the sceptre of the House of Hapsburg, that of Bo- hemia is perhaps less known in England than any other. It is, indeed, only quite recently that it has been possible for Englishmen to acquire any knowledge of Bohemia from other than German scources, and as racial warfare between the Slav and the Germanic race is the keynote of Bohemian history, information derived from hostile scources would be as useful as a bi- ography of Earl Kitchener written by a German professor. ... 'In the new Europe which is about to be born the Czechs also desire their place in the sun. They desire to restore and to maintain their national individuality and to remain Slavs, as they have always been." 40 SOME AMERICAN AND ENGLISH BOOKS ON BOHEMIA. Count Lutzow: Bohemia (Encyclopedia Britannica). Count Lutzow: History of Bohemia. Everyman's Li- hrSiTy, London 1910. Count Lutzow: Story of Prague. Medieval Town Series, J. M. Dent. London 1907. (2nd ed.) Count Lutzow: The Life and Times of Master John Hus. J. M. Dent. 1909. Count Lutzow: English translation of: The Lahy- rint of the World and the Paradise of the Heart by John Amos Komensky. J. M. Dent. 1905. Count Lutzow: A History of Bohemian Literature. London. (2nd ed. 1907.) Baker James : Pictures from Bohemia. Chapman and Hall. London- Chicago 1894. Balch Emily G. : Our Slavic Fellow Citizens. New York 1910. Gregor Frances: The Story of Bohemia. Cincinnati and New York 1896. Maurice Charles Edmund: The Story of Bohemia (Story of the Nations Series). New York and London 1896. Monroe Will S. : Bohemia and the Cechs. L. C. Page. Boston 1910. Schaif S. David: John Hus after 500 Years. Chas. Scribner's Sons. New York 1915. Schwarze W. N. : John Hus, the Martyr of Bohemia. Fleming H. Kevell. New York 1915. Vickers Robert H. : History of Bohemia. Chicago 1894. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS BOHEMIA ^ under Hapsburg I A Study of the Ideals and As hemian and Slovak Peoples 021 394 207 4 ai3^ xim^xoij^jvi \j\j cj/iivj. Affected by the European War. Edited by THOMAS CAPEK. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 1915. Contents: I. Have the Bohemians a Place in the Sun ? .... Thomas Capek II. The Slovaks of Hungary Thomas Capek III. Why Bohemia Deserves Freedom . . . .Professor Bohumil Simek IV. The Bohemian Character. .Professor H. A. Miller V. Place of Bohemia in the Creative Arts . . . .Professor Will S. Monroe VI. The Bohemians and the Slavic Regeneration. . . . . .Professor Leo Wiener Addenda. The Bohemians as Immigrants Emilv G. Balch For sale at all booksellers or order from the Bohemian National Alliance in America, J. Tvrzicky-Kramer, Secretary, 2613 S. Avers Ave., Chicago, 111.