create a league[1] out of the states of Central and Eastern Europe, which will guarantee them against the present reactionary regime of the Magyars or the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns, perhaps even against Bolshevik Russia, if necessary—in other words, against outside interference. This would give these new states time to solidify and devote themselves to pressing internal problems which neither Bolshevik Russia nor the apparently-dissolving Great Entente are willing or able to face at their full value.
In both, the new republic has met with a very fair measure of success.[2] Not only has a democracy been established which is beginning to answer to these ideals, but it is making progress in reforms and is a good way on the road to solidification. And in foreign policy,[3] Beneš' success in constructing the Little Entente has been the beginning of a movement which will have as its object the inclusion not only of the original states, Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, and Romania, but Poland, Bulgaria, Greece and perhaps even the Baltic countries and the Ukraine.
What has already been achieved stands solidly enough to break the forces of reaction led by Habsburg or Hohenzollern, German or Magyar, or the forces of extreme radicalism of the Bolsheviks, if the statesmen who guide these young nations are aware of what the new order signifies. The Habsburg may plead for another chance to show his "democracy" and his "leanings toward federalism" which he was never able to accomplish in the past and will be unable to achieve in the future because of the company he necessarily keeps. The Bolshevik may point out in all truth that experience has mellowed somewhat his most dramatic dreams. But those who know the masses of
- ↑ The beginnings of this idea may be traced to the Philadelphia Meeting of the Oppressed Nations of Central and Eastern Europe (1918).
- ↑ Year of Work (1919).
- ↑ See the Beneš First Exposé in Year of Work, pp. 3–38; Český Slovo for December 25, 1919; Second Exposé, January 3, 1920; Exposé of March 2, 1921. Beneš has been severely criticized in two pamphlets by C. F. Vrťatko: Un Reveil Hideux: Étude Critique sur la Politique Étrangère d' Aujourd'hui et de Demain (Prague, 1921) and C'est clair. Rémarques sur la Crise d' État. Kolín, 1921.
