Norwich bulletin., 1918-10-19

oL LHe CHecnO- O-SlOVdk' nauon was Qe- clared formally today by the Czecho- Slovak national council, recognized. by the United States and the entente allies as a belligerent de facto gov | ernment. The declaration, renouneingI | allegiance to the Hapsburg dynasty and announcing principles for a foun- dation of republic, was issued in Paris and a copy was handed to Pres | i ident Wilson by J. c. Ssar of the councils staff in Washington.
 l The document is signed by pr. ! i Thomas G. Masaryk president of the | council, as premier and minister. of ! finance, and by other officers of the l 1 provisional government It. follows; 1 Declaration of Independence of the |
 Czecho SIovak Nation by Its Pro- 1
 visionaI Government.
 At this grave moment, when the | i Hohenzollerns are offering peace in 1 order to stop the victorious advance of l the allied armies and to prevent the i dismemberment of Austria Hun gary 1 and Turkey, and when the Hapsburgs 1 are promising the Liberalization of the empire and autonomy to the dissatis- fed nationalities committed to their rule, we, the Czecho- -Slovak national council, recognized by the allied and American governments as the pro visional government of the Czecho- Slovak state and nation, in complete accord with the declaration of the Czech deputies made in Prague on Ian. 16, 1918, and realizing that fed eralization, and, still more autonomy, mean nothing under a Hapsburg i dynasty, do hereby make and declare this our declaration of independence. 1 We do this because of our belief that no people should be forced to live
 under a sovereignty they do not recoS-
 nize and because of our knowledge
 and firm conviction that our nation
 cannot freely develop in Hapsburg
 mock federation, which is only new
 form of the denationalizing oppression
 under which we have suffered for the
 past three hundred years. We con-
 slider freedom to be the first prerequisite for federalization, and believe that the free nations of central and eastern
 Europe may easily federate should l they find it necessary.
 We make this declaration on the 1 basis of our historic 2 and. national rights We have been an Independent state since the seventh century; and, J in 1926, as an independent state, con- , sisting of Bohemia, Moravia and
 Silesia, we joined with Austria and , Hungary in a live nation against , defensive union against the Turkish
 
 surrendered our rights as an inde- pendent state in this confederation. : The Hapsburgs broke their compact : with our nation by illegally trans gressing our rights and violating the constitution of our state which they had pledged themselves to uphold, and
 we therefore refuse longer to remain 8 , part of Austria Hungary in any form. We claim the right of Bohemia to l.o, 1y , of SIovakia, once part of our national
 state, later torn from our national body, and fifty years incorporated in l the Hungarian state of the Magyars l who. by their unspeakable violence and : ruthless oppression of their subject 5 races, have lost all moral and human right to rule anybody but themselves.
 "The world knows the history of our ] i struggle against the Hapsburg op- 3 prcssion, intensified and systematized : , by the Austro- Hungarian dualistic r l compromise of 1887. This dualism is x only shameless organization of brute
 force and exploitation of the majority } by the minority; it is a political con v spiracy of the Germans and Masyars : against our own as well as the other S Slav and Latin nations of the mon-
 archy. The world knows the justice of our claims, which the Hapsburgs ! themselves dared not deny. Francis $ Joseph in the most solemn manner, 1. repeatedly recognized the sovereign
 rights of our nation. The Germans Q and Magyars opposed this recognition, q and Austria Hungary, lowing before f the Pan Germans, became colony of h Germany and, as her vanguard to the
 l east, provoked the last Balkan con
 f1ict, as well as the present world war,
 which was begun by the Hapsburgs c alone without the consent of the rep resentatives of the people.
 = we cannot and will not continue r to live under the direct or indirect ruie of the violators of Belgium, g France and Serbia, the would be mur- e derers of Russia and Rumania, the g murders of tens of thousands of civil 'f ians and soldiers of our blood, and the o accomplices in numberless unspeak- IT able crimes committed in this war = against humanity by the two degen-
 crate and irresponsible dynasties. We = will not remain part of state which l. has no justification for existence and d which refusing to accept the funda- j. T mental principles of modern world - organization, remains only an arti- e ficial and immoral political structure IS hindering every movement toward S. democratic and social progress. The s Bapsburg dynasty, weighed down by a
 
 is a perpetual menace to the peace a of the world, and we deem it our duty y toward humanity and civilization to n aid in bringing about it's downfall and l. destruction
 ''We reject the sacrilegious asser
 tion that the power Of the Hapsburg
 and Hohenzollern dynasties is of Di- 6 vine origin; we refuse to recognize f the divine right of kings Our na [. tion elected the Hapsburgs to the ', throne of Bohemia of it's own free \ will, and by the same right deposes T them. We hereby declare the Haps- ,I burg dynasty unworthy of leading our - nation, and deny all of their claims . to rule in the Czecho- -Slovak land . which we here and now declare shall . henceforth be a free and independent | people and nation.
 v I've accept and shall adhere to the
 ideals of modern democracy, as they II have been the ideals of uor nation for - centuries We accept the American
 principles as laid down by President
 Wilson; the principles of liberated = mankind-of the actual equality of E nations-and of governments deriving : all their just power from the consent d of the governed. We, the nation of t Comenius, cannot but accept these - principles expressed in the American : declaration of independence, the prin- = ciples of Lincoln, and of the deelara ] fi0n of the rights of man and If tba