Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/133

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APPENDIX
119

soldiers have been fighting bravely in the ranks of our valiant army and have given their blood for their country, thus showing that the whole nation is not involved in this hostility to the Monarchy."

The tendency of this extraordinary manifesto, issued, it seems, with the Emperor's approval, is obvious: the Czechs have only to repent to obtain remission of their treason and the forgiveness of the new Emperor. In offering peace to the Allies on December 10th, 1916, the Emperor again showed his willingness to restore the status quo of the Czechs, conditionally on their becoming loyal to Austria.

V. The Official Text of the Austrian Government's Verdict in the Affair of Deputy Kramář, sentenced to Death.

The second document of the same kind as the resolution of Clam-Martinitz is still more significant, and recalls the arbitrary, fantastic, and iniquitous judgments of the Middle Ages. Count Clam-Martinitz realised that it was necessary to terminate the Kramář trial, which, instead of being a means of blackmailing the Czechs, had the effect of discrediting the monarchy before the whole world.