Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/122

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BOHEMIA'S CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE

we have always entertained much love and respect.

Not only our feelings, our honour even was at stake.

Surrounded on all sides by our enemies, invaded by the Prussian army, strangled, persecuted, and wished, we responded to the call of our hearts. Knowing the Habsburgs, we know what awaits us if, after the war, Europe leaves us in the hands of our enemies. We rebelled as only one can rebel to-day, knowing that the fate reserved for us by the Prussians, the Austro-Magyars, and the Habsburgs will be that of our ancestors after the Battle of the White Mountain. True, the note of the Allied Powers of 10th January 1917, in answer to President Wilson's message, stating the objects of the Quadruple Entente in this war, speaks first of the Czecho-Slovaks, and gives a guarantee of their liberation. But without waiting for this, we have already ranged ourselves on the side of the Allies—the nation of John Hus, the nation of Comenius, Kollar, Palacký, could not act otherwise.

Thus we do not come to France and England to implore Europe to save us from being crushed under the Pan-German yoke. Whatever we have done, we have accomplished as our duty. We came to show by our deeds, our conduct, our past history, what our traditions have been, what