Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/63

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THE PAN-GERMAN PLAN
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existence, constituted a constant menace to the monarchy of the Habsburgs and the Magyar oligarchy. It was therefore as necessary for Germany as for Austria-Hungary to crush Serbia, and this was the aim of the present war.

The second obstacle were the Czecho-Slovaks, whose increasing national spirit, growing in proportion to the development of their material prosperity, was becoming a more and more perturbing element in the Dual Monarchy. Since the Czecho-Slovaks would never consent to enter into a closer union with Prussia, it was necessary for the Prussians to get rid of them.

The Serbs were therefore to be crushed and divided between Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria; The Czecho-Slovak nation was to be radically suppressed by a coup d'état which was being secretly prepared in Austria; Galicia was to be administratively detached from Austria, so as to destroy the Slav majority. The Czech countries would then be the subject of an administrative reorganisation; the delimitation of districts would have to be modified, universal suffrage abrogated, all the seven millions of Czechs completely drowned in the German flood. Everything would be Germanised: the German language would be official, the Diets in Czech countries would be abolished, and Austria (Cisleithania) would be turned into a State as centralised as Hungary, where the Slovaks

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