# Bohemia's case for independence/The Sufferings of the Past and the Hopes for the Future. Reorganisation of Central Europe and Independent Bohemia

VIII
THE SUFFERINGS OF THE PAST AND THE HOPES FOR THE FUTURE.
REORGANISATION OF CENTRAL EUROPE AND INDEPENDENT BOHEMIA.
Reflecting on the history of the Czech people, we dearly see how tragic has been their situatian, how immense the burden that has always weighed upon them.
For twelve centuries they have faught a hopeless fight against an enemy many times their superior in strength.
The religious Reformation originated with them; they accomplished and survived this great moral crisis.
They rebelled against the dynasty which oppressed them, but were defeated, and underwent a terrible punishment. Their leaders died on the scaffold, and the nation itself was condemned for several centuries to a slow but systematic extermination. For years it appeared moribund or dead. Then a handful of men who lived only for the cause of their country—awaken it.
. . . And when it awakens, it again finds itself ​greatly changed. It suffers a new moral and religious crisis, and becomes once again Catholic.
In 1848, launched into political life, they find themselves in a tragic position. They must resign themselves to defend the existence of a State which had ever oppressed them, to fight for an absolutist dynasty which had deprived them of moral and material wealth, to defend their enemies, and, as it were, assist at their own funeral.
The last thirty years have been spent in active and successful preparation for an intellectual, moral, and material emancipation.
The position of the Czech people is specially tragic during the present war, when they had to join the army of their enemies, who made them their cannon-fodder. They were destined to be sacrificed for the benefit of their oppressors, the cynical adorers of Prussian and Magyar violence; their best forces were to be employed for the realisation of the Pan-German Central Europe, the achievement of which failed in 1848, and which, almost realised to-day, constitutes for the Czecho-Slovaks a danger of intolerable sufferings.
It is in order to escape the sufferings of the past which again threaten them, to assure their peaceful progress in the future, to enable them to range themselves as an advanced and highly civilised nation on the side of the Allies, that the Czecho-Slovaks to-day make their appeal and ask for ​complete independence from Vienna, Budapest, and Berlin. Placing all their hopes on the Allies, they set forth their political programme for the future and their ideas on the present international political situation somewhat as follows:—
In Central Europe there are two autocratic States which are a continuous danger to the peace of the world: Germany and Austria-Hungary. These two States have joined, in order to obtain for Germany hegemony in Europe, and to preserve for the Austrians and Magyars the domination of the Slav and Latin nations of Austria-Hungary and the Balkans. Austria-Hungary is indispensable to the German plan of domination; it is therefore necessary to abolish the focus of disorders, which is Austria-Hungary: the Austro-Hungarian problem is the clue to the situation. The war of 1914 had no other aim in view.
It is in the interest of all the Allied nations to comprehend the significance of this war and to act accordingly, as everything would be attained through the realisation of their legitimate claim, their rights, and their vital needs for their national existence.
It is unnecessary to repeat what has been said about the Pan-German plot, and how in consequence of these Prussian designs the great Western Powers are deeply interested in the fate of Bohemia. Bismarck once said that "the master of Bohemia will be the master of Europe." It is still more ​true to-day. If the Prussians should succeed in maintaining the existence of Austria-Hungary, and, by thus strangling Bohemia, could realise their great plan of a line from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf, they would become masters of Central Europe, masters of the Mediterranean; they would have the whole of Turkey under their control, and could menace Egypt. The great Oriental Railway runs from Constantinople to Baghdad and Cairo. Suez and Egypt, as well as India, and the security of the English route to India, would be compromised. It is mainly England and the vital roadway to her world-empire that the Pan-German design menaces.
France equally would be crushed, deprived of her richest provinces, pushed aside, and her national existence threatened.
​To check these German and Magyar plans, the Czechs demand that a barrier against the German expansion towards the East be created in the shape of an independent Bohemia. This barrier would be strengthened by the free and united Yugo-Slavs and Italians, who, by cutting off the Germans from the Adriatic, would regain the possession of their natural rights. Finally, in the North the Poles would offer a ready hand to the Czechs and help them in barring the Germans from the road to the East.
This solution of the Central European problem evidently requires a reconstruction of the territories up to now held by Austria-Hungary. The principle of this reorganisation has been agreed upon ipso facto by the intervention of Italy and Rumania. Today the necessity of a dismemberment of Austria-Hungary is generally recognised in all the Allied countries, and has been officially acknowledged in the Allies Note to President Wilson of January 10th, 1917.
Thus a stable equilibrium in Central Europe would be constituted. Great Britain would be definitely secure against all German attacks, France would recover the province of Alsace-Lorraine, and would have devoted allies and sworn enemies of Teutonic hegemony east of Germany. Italy would find in the Central European States a vast field for economic expansion. Her desire ​for economic emancipation from Germany will find an echo among the Slavs, who have the same desire, and who will facilitate her task of eliminating German industrial competition.
A united and independent Poland, free Russia, and a democratic, independent, Czecho-Slovak State will form an impassable barrier against Germany. In the South, Greater Serbia, composed of Serb, Croatian, and Slovene territories, and forming an independent Jugo-Slav State, will complete the encirclement of Germany.
Transylvania will be reattached to Rumania, and independent Hungary would only keep for herself the territories inhabited exclusively by the Magyars.
Thus the principle of nationality will have full expression, consistent with the strategic and political necessities involved
This solution of the Austro-Hungarian problem will once and for all make impracticable the imperialistic Pan-German plans of Berlin, and will definitely bar the road to the Drang nach Osten of the Germans—the German push towards the East.
The free Slavs, in association and communication from the Baltic to the Adriatic, continually threatened by the Germans, will have every inducement to support each other. France and Italy, equally threatened by the Germans, will ​necessarily become their natural allies. Austria, broken up, will never again be able to furnish Germany, the formidable enemy of Great Britain, with 5,000,000 men as cannon-fodder. The Magyars, separated from Austria and Germany, and deprived of the possibility of oppressing the Slav and Rumanian nationalities, will no longer pursue their policy of aiding Vienna and Berlin.
Above all, Germany, finding herself thus weakened and reduced to her proper strength, and having strong Slav nations for neighbours in the East, will be unable to recommence her projects of to-day.
But it is in Bohemia that the Allies will find the basis of their resistance against the Germans. In fact, Bohemia will constitute the very heart of the anti-German barrier. Independent Bohemia would be inhabited by some twelve millions of people filled with a determination to withstand encroachment on their liberties; for twelve centuries of struggle against the Germans prove that the spirit of the Czecho-Slovaks is indestructible. Their energy is great enough to represent a real political force, and their conduct during the present war reveals that they are ready to sacrifice all, when their existence and the rights of humanity are at stake.
An independent Czecho-Slovak State would be ​strong enough politically to stand alone and its vitality would be unquestionable. As to its economic strength the following figures will no doubt be of interest to the English public.
The Czech countries (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Slovakia) are superior to all other Austrian provinces in their wealth, and almost alone they assure the prosperity of the Empire.
They are more densely populated than the rest of Austria (128 people to one square kilometre as against 83 in the rest of Austria). Of the 6 1/2 million hectares devoted to the cultivation of grain in Austria, Bohemia had in 1914 2,610,490 hectares (over 6 million acres), i.e. 38 per cent. Austria produces about 7 1/2 million metric tons of grain annually, of which 3.9 millions, i.e. 51 per cent., are produced in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia alone, so that the Czech countries yield 15 1/2 qr. per hectare, but the rest of Austria only 9.1 qr. per hectare.
Of the 7 1/2 million metric tons of grain, Austria produces over 5 million metric tons of rye, wheat, and barley, Bohemia 2 3/4 million, i.e. 54 per cent.
Thus the Czech countries produce 376 kg. (=829 lb.) of grain per inhabitant, the rest of Austria only 193 kg. (i.e. 428 lb.). The Czech countries yield 268 kg. (i.e. 590 lb.) of rye, wheat, and barley per inhabitant, the rest of Austria 126 kg. (i.e. 277 lb.).
The superiority of the Czech countries in grain ​production over the rest of Austria is therefore obvious. The same applies to the potato crops: the Czech countries yield 43 per cent. of the total Austrian production. The cullivation of fruit in Bohemia far surpasses that in Austria, and the Czech countries contribute 95 per cent. to the total beetroot production of Austria. The whole of Hungary does not yield one-third of Bohemia's sugar production.
But the main source of the wealth of the Czech countries is commerce and industries, in which more than half of the population is employed.
The importance of Czech industries and commerce may be gauged from the relatively high contribution of the Czech countries in rates and taxes levied on industrial profits. In 1914 the Czech countries paid in taxes 44 million kronen, i.e. 62.9 per cent., the other provinces 26 millions, i.e. 37.1 per cent. The contribution per inhabitant is 4.34 kronen in the Czech countries, 1.75 kronen in the other provinces.
In 1912 15 million metric tons of brown coal, i.e. 83 per cent. of the total quantity mined in Austria, were obtained from the Czech countries. They also produce good charcoal and lignite. The production of black coal in the Czech countries is equal to that ol the richest countries in coal. In Hungary, all coal is found exclusively in Slovakia, and Slovakia is also rich in iron-ore. ​As regards iron, 60 per cent. of the total production comes from the Czech countries. The centre of the iron industry is situated in the Czech countries (Pilsen (the Skoda Factory), Vitkovice, Rokycany, Beroun, Kladno.)
Almost all the sugar factories of the monarchy are in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. Bohemia alone produces 10 1/2 million hectolitres of beer annually, which is more than 50 per cent. of the total production of Austria. The beer exported from Austria is manufactured exclusively in Bohemia (Pilsen beer). and its export amounts to 15 million kronen per annum. As to malt, which is produced exclusively by Bohemia, almost 55 million kronen worth is exported annually.
The textile industries flourish mostly in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. The export of textile goods from Bohemia amounts to 130 million kronen. The same applies to leather, chemicals, paper, electrotechnic, and wood industries.
The foreign trade also shows the extreme importance of the Czech countries.
Almost two-thirds of the Austrian exports, which in row amounted to 2192 million kronen, come from the Czech countries. Over 220 million kronen worth of products, especially of sugar, was exported to England alone. Beer, malt, and hops were exported to France, textiles and machines to Italy, and sundry manufactured products to ​Russia, Switzerland, and Rumania. Almost all these articles were made or grown in Bohemia.
On the other hand, Germany exploits Austria-Hungary, and takes without remorse articles necessary for her economic development: for instance, from the Czech countries great quantities of coal, wood manufactures, and agricultural products like eggs, butter, cheese, grains, etc., are exported to Germany.
Germany supplied France, England, Italy, and Russia with goods imported from Bohemia, which could easily be delivered without German intervention, if the direct trade routes between Bohemia and the Allied countries were not systematically blocked by Germany.
The Czechs are also the principal clients of the Austrian import trade. With the exception of the Viennese, the buyers of Paris goods are the Czechs, and articles of the latest fashion are always to be found in the shops of Prague. Two-thirds of the exports from France to Austria, as well as wine and fruits from Italy, are destined for Bohemia. Economically, therefore, the Czech countries are of considerable importance and by no means to be neglected.
But the Czecho-Slovaks call the attention of the Allied Powers to these facts for other reasons. Germany wants to bring the whole of Central Europe under her political and economic ​mony. The Czecho-Slovaks could render Europe an immense service by facilitating the trade war on Germany, for they would complete the encirclement of Germany from the east, Bohemia being situated on the line Berlin-Vienna-Budapest-Constantinople. Bohemia could even in many respects take Germany's place in the markets of the Allied nations. The creation of this barrier is necessary, for Germany has completely subdued Austria-Hungary from the economic point of view. Austrian export and import trade depends entirely on Germany, the Dual Monarchy receiving from Germany, for instance in 1910, 1154 million kronen worth of products, and supplying her with 1062 millions worth of raw materials. Germany has enslaved the other Central European territories, and would occupy all the markets in the Balkans. It is a recognised fact that since 1908 the Balkan States have successively abandoned trade with other States, and all this trade has then been captured by Germany. Germany triumphed everywhere, penetrating into Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Rumania, to say nothing of Turkey.
The situation will be rather different after the war. First of all, Germany will be blocked in the East, and all the nations on her Eastern frontier will be interested in not allowing her to ​recommence, if only economically, her expansion towards the East. For them it will be a question of life and death. On the other hand, they will have to turn to the Adriatic to enter into economic relations with Italy, as well as the other Allied States of to-day. This will be the case with Bohemia, Magyar Hungary, Rumania, and Yugo-Slavia, The Western Allies will, of course, greatly profit by this new situation, being called upon to replace Germany before the war from the economic point of view, and to collect the fruits, after the disappearance of Austria-Hungary, of the reorganisation of Central and South-Eastern Europe.