leader, Mr. Klofač, who has now been in prison untried for nearly three years, is about to be brought before a Court: that there have been numerous fresh arrests, including a group of the leading bankers in Prague, and that fresh trials are pending against various Slav journalists. But the fact that they have been deprived of their leaders has not reduced the Czechs and Jugoslavs to silence, and only serves to emphasise still further the bold and far-reaching nature of their claims. Even so moderate a man as the ex-Minister, Dr. Fiedler—a Young Czech leader, despite his German name—has publicly associated himself with the unanimous demand of his nation for “the restoration and democratisation of Bohemia,” union with the Slovaks, and “the abolition of foreign domination.” Nor is it an accident that the Czech Clerical, Mr. Stanek, should have been selected as the spokesman of these claims in Parliament. The remarkable Czech manifestos, whose text we publish this week (see pp. 238–242), show that the whole Czech nation is united in its aspirations: and this is further confirmed by the attitude adopted by the Czech Socialist leader, Mr. Soukup, in the official party organ. He and his colleagues have publicly protested against the refusal of passports for Stockholm to any of their number, and have denounced as agents of the Government the two individuals who are masquerading there in their name. In putting forward the programme of Czecho-Slovak Union and the transformation of Austro-Hungary into a federation of free national states, the Czechs have thrown the gauntlet alike to Germans and Magyars. The former have already declared themselves irreconcilably opposed to such a programme, while the Magyar constitutional authority, Professor Kmety, voices the feelings of the latter in denouncing the Czech pronouncement as an unfriendly act to Hungary.
No details are as yet available regarding the attitude of the Southern Slav deputies: but it is already known that the Slovene Clerical, Mr. Korošec, has put forward in their name a demand for the union of all Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes in a self-governing democratic state, * free from all domination by a foreign race.” The Ruthenes of Galicia are in the same way outlining their desire for an independent Ukraine, and congratulating their brethren in Russia upon the dawn of liberty. The attitude of the Poles deserves special treatment: it is
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