Page:Czecho-Slovaks (1917).djvu/16

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16
THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS

demned to death without a single act of high treason being proved against him, the fate which awaits or befalls other people can easily be imagined. There is not a single prominent Bohemian national leader left free to speak in Austria; they are all either in prison, like Dr. Kramarzh, or in exile, like Professor Masaryk, or have to wear the uniform of the Austrian army and remain under the iron military discipline which leaves no room for any expression of feeling or opinion. Is that because they love Austria too dearly? If Austria has stood so “magnificently” the test of the war, if all her nationalities really feel such love for their rulers, do not the rulers cherish every means by which these sentiments can receive expression, and shower favours and allow all freedom to the Press? How, in particular, has the Czech Press fared during the war? All its main organs have been suppressed, or muzzled to an extent which practically leaves them incapable of voicing in any way the true feelings of the Czech people. One need not go to Czech sources for accounts of these persecutions. It is enough to look through the files of the Viennese papers and see those short notices, each containing only a few lines, and announcing in dry terms that certain papers have ceased to appear or have been forbidden by the police. Here are a few samples:—

Arbeiter-Zeitung, September 24th, 1915: “The political provincial papers, Straz Venkova, at Chlumin, near Prague, and the Ostravsky Dennik, in Mährisch-Ostrau, have been forbidden publication.”

Zeit, September 28th, 1915: “Before the out-