struggles we have come through, and what are our actual desires. We wish to show Europe by undeniable proofs, that Austro-Magyars were incapable of acting differently, that a contrary line of conduct was for them unthinkable. We wish to make it understood, that all the cruelties of the present war will certainly be repeated, that the Austrians and Magyars, the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns will unite on the first occasion finally to crush and enslave us. Why should they not, having persisted in the attempt for 1200 years? How could they suddenly become just, equitable, moderate, and mild, when for centuries they have been violent. criminal, and barbarous oppressors? If Europe is to-day astonished and revolted at the disheartening sight which the coalition of the Central Empires gives us, we Czechs are in no way surprised. In truth, we feel some sorrow to find that Western Europe knows Vienna and Budapest so little, and that the sentimental legends about the old Emperor of Schönbrunn and the illusions about the chivalrous policy of the Magyars have been believed by the simple-minded public.
We would have it understood that the only means of breaking the power of the Central Empires is completely to destroy the Austro-Magyar kernel, on which they base their policy. Europe must finally understand the history of this Empire and
