Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/79

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CZECHO-SLOVAKS AND THE WAR, 1914
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Czech nation has been as far as possible swept away.

Almost all literary works which referred to Slav questions, and the majority of which have been sold for years past, have been confiscated. The following authors are on the index: Havlíček, Sv. Čech, Machar, Jirásek, Holeček, Tolstoy, Miliukoff, etc. Also portraits of the heroes of Czech history (Hus, Havlíček, Rieger, Žižka, etc.) are prohibited. Reprints of photographs of the Crown of St Venceslas and many national and folk songs were found seditious, as well as commercial articles, marks and labels printed in white, blue, and red, inscriptions in Slav languages, advertisements of grammars of French and Russian, etc. The "Czecho-Slav Commercial Academy" had to change its name into "Commercial Academy"; decorative plates representing the Bohemian Lion Rampant were removed from the bridges of Prague. Names of streets and public places reminiscent of other Slav countries were changed. Articles in school-books referring to Bohemian history were confiscated. The enumeration of similar chicaneries would necessitate the writing of whole books.

The government confiscated not only the property of political delinquents and of Czechs who had fled from Austria, but also the property of Czech soldiers who have been taken prisoners

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