The New Europe/Volume 2/The Future of Bohemia
The Future of Bohemia
The reference to the liberation of the “Czecho-Slovaks” in the Allied Note to America may have caused some surprise among insular circles in this country; but France, who has, ever since the days when a Bohemian king fell at Crecy, shown keen interest in and sympathy with the Czech national cause, was already prepared for some such declaration. The Temps of 2 January contains a notable leading article on “Bohemia and the Entente,” which ought to have received some notice on this side of the Channel. After remarking that it is a mistake to pass over the sufferings of Bohemia in silence, the Temps writes: “Little is said of Bohemia, because everyone is agreed upon her rights and her hopes; because in each of the Allied countries it is considered that victory will restore independence to that vigorous nation which, under the German heel, has given such fine proofs of vitality, alike in the economic and the intellectual sphere. There are so many disputed points which cry out for comment, that those which are a matter of course are neglected. This is a mistake, for Germany neglects nothing.”
The writer goes on to discuss the repressive régime established in Bohemia during the war and the tendency of the new Austrian Premier, Count Clam-Martinitz, to tempt the Czechs into submission to the House of Habsburg by promising a milder régime, and holding out a vague prospect of concessions à la polonaise. It is not enough to urge the Czechs to stand firm on the difficult and isolated path which they have chosen. “It is also necessary that in their sore trial we should bring them the succour of a definite statement (le concours d’une parole claire); we must tell them before the world (tout haut) what we think to ourselves (tout bas), and since we are resolved to make Bohemia free, we must not leave our resolution half unsaid (la forme d’un sous-entendu). In a word, we must have the courage of our friendships and of our ideas, and to this people which is suffering and whom they are trying to dupe by exploiting its sufferings, we must cry from afar: ‘Wait for us! We are coming; don’t weaken!’” It was no mere accident that this article should have received such prominence in so representative a French organ on the very eve of the publication of the Allied Note, which expressly recognises the liberation of the Czecho-Slovak nation as one of our war aims.
This work was published before January 1, 1929 and is anonymous or pseudonymous due to unknown authorship. It is in the public domain in the United States as well as countries and areas where the copyright terms of anonymous or pseudonymous works are 95 years or less since publication.
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