The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 3/Ingratitude

INGRATITUDE.

Fm. Ackerman, lately The Times correspondent in Siberia, says that the Czechoslovaks want to go home. They were revolutionists fighting for the freedom of their own country, and the events which led to their war against the Bolsheviki were only an episode in the great war of which the Czechoslovak revolution was another episode. They were not sent to Siberia by the Allies, they were there by accident; but by their presence and their hard fighting they undoubtedly kept the Bolsheviki and the German influence within bounds, and destroyed German activity of the Urals.

Now the great war is over and the Czechoslovak revolution has ended in glorious triumph. Nevertheless, these men are still dying every day for their country. Not that the Czechoslovak Republic has any direct interest in the events in Siberia; but the boundaries of that republic are yet to be determined by the Peace Conference. Its Government has asked the Allies to let the army come home to a country where it is badly needed before it wastes away on the Siberian front; but it dares not ask very persistently for fear that the annoyance of the Powers who are letting the Czechoslovaks do their work in Russia may express itself in curtailment of the territories of the new State. Czechs and Slovaks are being killed on the Siberian front because their Government is afraid to offend the Allies.

The five great Powers who could not trust one another sufficiently to send their own troops to Russia in any adequate numbers, but whose work there has been done, so far as it has been done at all, by these Czechoslovaks who were there by chance, might at least manifest their gratitude by letting the Czechs go home. They have done their work and we have already told them we shall send none of our own men to their relief. It is grossly unfair to ask the Czechoslovaks to stay in Siberia after the Allies have abandoned Russia to her fate.

N. Y . Times, Feb. 27.

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