Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/131

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APPENDIX
117

affairs. This is necessary, the more so as we have in our army soldiers who in no case may be relied upon."

IV. An Authentic Testimony of the Austrian Premier upon the Conduct of the Czech Nation during the War.

The Austrian Premier, Count Clam-Martinitz, has employed a curious stratagem to regain the Czechs for Austria. While his predecessors did not dare to speak in public of the acts of treason committed by the Czechs during the war, the new Austrian Premier, who in certain quarters was wrongly taken for a Czech, has at last made up his mind to speak out the truth, already known to the whole world. At the same time he has attempted to reinstate the bulk of the nation in the eyes of the world, thus hoping to leave a way open for Austrophile policy to those Czecho-Slovak politicians who have not as yet compromised themselves.

It was this hope that induced him to issue two curious documents which constitute the most authentic testimony to the attitude of the Czecho-Slovak nation during this war, and which are also a proof of the desire of Austria to conciliate after twenty-nine months of war a people without which the monarchy could not exist.