sentences pronounced as early as the first days of August 1914.
Contrary to the expectations of the government, these executions did not succeed in intimidating the Czechs. Towards August 10th, demonstrations recommenced at Prague. All the Czech soldiers, without exception, thought it their sacred duty to make known to their compatriots their hostile sentiments towards Austria, and they openly vowed to each other not to fire on the Russians or Serbs and to surrender at the first opportunity.
From the month of August till the winter of 1914 we daily witnessed these demonstrations of the Czech soldiers, demonstrations which, according to the military authorities, constituted the crime of high treason. In September 1914 the attitude of the 8th regiment of the Czech Landwehr, recruited from the outskirts of Prague and sent to the front against the Russians, provoked sanguinary riots. Soldiers singing national songs refused to enter the station, ill-treated their German officers, grievously wounded their commander, and at last massed themselves inside the station and refused to entrain. The German 75th Regiment was then called out to force them into the carriages.
As a result of these incidents the War Minister forbade under the most severe penalties the Czech
