The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 2/Bohemian National Alliance

BOHEMIAN NATIONAL ALLIANCE

 

The American recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council is a great victory for the Bohemian National Alliance. Fou ryears ago this little body was organized by a small group of men in Chicago, who formed a little society to which they gave the name of the Bohemian National Alliance of America, with the idea of striking a blow for the freedom of Bohemia. For a long time their efforts met with little encouragement, even though the organization spread rapidly into every settlement of the Czech people in this country. But when Masaryk wrote from Switzerland early in 1915, the men of the Alliance saw their task clearly and went about it with a determined mind. Their task was on the one hand to back financially the movement organized by Masaryk which was crystallized into the Czechoslovak National Council, and on the other hand to gain the public opinion of the United States and the Government of this country for Czechoslovak independence.

The work has been long and tiresome and the workers often feel, as no doubt the French poilu feels after four years in the trenches. But of the two victories which the men of the Bohemian National Alliance looked forward to, one has already been attained, the government of the United States has entered into relations with a Czechoslovak Government, after the other Allied Powers had already given it recognition. All that remains now is to lick the Germans to a standstill, and that long-for goal seems to be in sight.