The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-24

trian administration From their ranks, through desertion or capture, thousands of fighting men found their way lnto the Russian and Italian armies, where they turned and fought tffe power tna. had conscripted them. By their spirit and efficiency as soldiers they galneo recognized by the allies of, Czecho-Slo- yak units, and before the war ended more than 100000 Czecho- -Slovak troops, under their own commanders, were empattleo for the allied cause in France, Italy, Eu- ropean Russia and Siberia.
 In Russia the Czecho-Slovaks nave S0,0O0 men under arms, some recruited from the demobilized Russian army others deserters from the Austrian forces or former Austrian prisoners of Russia released by the Kerensky or bolshevik governments The Czecho- Slovak force in Italy is 2o,000 strong. composed wholly of individuals or units from the Austrian army taken prisoner by the Italians. In France the organization numbers u,000, including 5000 men from the Czech army in Russia and 5000 volunteers from the United States.
 Czecho-Slovaks are ruling their lioer- ated countrymen from their capital in Prague today because they fostered through generations the flickering flame of freedom which Austria and Hungary attempted to snuff out in 1921. They maintained succession of secret politi- cal organizations, eliminating in that which set afoot active opposition to Aus tria in the early days of the war, and, through propaganda conducted among emigrants in Russia, laid the foundation for the independent Czeeho- Slovak force which has held for mora than a year the Volga front, preventing the Germans and bolsheviki from drawing on the food supplies of Siberia.
 FIRST TO BE RECOGNIZED
 Of the new nations formed or in pro- cess of formation through the upheaval of war, the Czecho- o-Slovak was the first to win allied recognition, and the only one so far fully recognized by America. Existing only on paper as long as the Hapsburg dynasty remained in power, the republic became an actuality with the dissolution of the Austro- Hungarian em- pire. Its President, Professor Thomas tt. Masaryh, formerly of the University Of Prague, and late stationed in Washing ton, through pr. Karl Kranarz, the vice. president, for years political prisoner charged with treason against Austria, ana his associates in Prague, Is administer ing the affairs of 100000 people occu- pying 4S,000 square miles of territory tap proximately the size of New York state.t
 Extending from Saxony and Bavaria on the west to Ungvar and the Cafpdeh- ian mountains on the east, distance or 32O miles, Czecho-Slovakia cuts swath 120 miles wiae into the former Austfe- Hungarian domain. Its western nall, comprising the one time Austrian prov inces of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, follows the borders of Saxony and frussla on the north and skirts Bavaria on the south until the Austrian border is reached when it swings 30 miles north of Vienna to the March river. The eastern hail' formely the Hungarian province of Sle- vakia follows the Danube from Press burg to the River Ipola, 20 miles north of Budapest, where it turns northeast ward to the Carpathians From ung- var, the eastern limit, the line follows the old Galacian border west to the Prus- sian line 30 miles, west of Cracow. The new state effectually cuts Hungary OH from it's former province, Galacia, which is now claimed by Poland
 The Republic boasts the University or Prague, long a center of eastern Euro pean culture. With independence, It's representatives in this country declare another university, for which large funds already have been subscribed, wiii be erected at Brunn and countrywide public school system will be established.