IX
THE RELATIONS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND BOHEMIA IN THE PAST AND IN THE FUTURE
Looking at the map of Europe and seeing Bohemia separated from England by hundreds of miles, by large states like Saxony, Prussia, Holland, and Belgium, and finally by a sea, we might doubt whether there could possibly exist any common interests or close and important ties between the great insular nation and Bohemia, situated right in the heart of Central Europe. And yet, in spite of these natural and almost insurmountable obstacles, we may affirm that these two countries have not only very strong common interests, but that even in the past, relations have existed between them, and that it is a matter for no surprise that the Czecho-Slovaks regard England instinctively as their natural ally against an enemy which threatens them on all sides.
The nature of these relations is of a different kind from those between France and Bohemia.
For a long time Bohemia was little known in England, in proof of which is often given the famous passage from "A Midsummer Night's
