The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-06-24
Justice Wheeler Pays High
 Tribute To Czecho People

CnO-SlONdkld, III HIS duQTeSS at liio Welcome Banquet to returning Cze- cho-Slovak soldiers in Sokol hall. Sunday. He lauded their courage and their defiance of the threats of the Teutonic Allies together with the curt refusal they have given to car riers of the Bolshevik idea.
 Justice Wheeler's address follows;
 ''I shall not tell you anything that you do not already know of the Cze- cho-Slovaks, but shall, I hope, make you to feel how strong is our ad- miration for, how sincere our faith in. and how undying our gratitude to Czecho-SIovaks, and all Slavs, for what~they've done in this war; and with what hope and friendliness we stretch out our hand to the new Re public, CzechoSlavakia.
 "I do not forget What Ameri- can can forget! Bohemia, home of the Czech and all the Slav country now a part of Czecho-Slovakia were. when the war began, each day of that war, clear to the end, and are now, broadly, and anti-German and anti every form of reactonery Gov ernment.
 Centuries of oppression had bowed and bent the Czecho-Slovaks but they did not break. They treasured their history and their traditions and they chung fast to their language and their literature, and as in olden days was preserved the symbol of mems faith so they preserved their ideals un- tarnished and imperishable. sf'=>
 Not IIliterate.
 This people was not i1lerate. They loved knowledge for knowledge sake. They respected religion and they Thair cn1diPra whan they came to fight had brains with which to think, information to set the brains in action, steadiness of judgment and courage such as filled the Crusaders as they rushed against the Saraeen. Forward, forward, Heaven Is under the shadow of our sword
 Tt was hard for America to under stand how Czecho-Slovaksf felt toward Austria Hungary, or how those living in America and born Czechs or Slo- walks felt. It was literally true as Judge Burlington telegraphed our Government in December 1917. The Bohemians, S1ovaks, and other Slavs, resident in America, although born in Austria-Hungary, are racially and constitutionally bitterly opposed to that Government and loyal to Amer ica to the core.'
 "On the Russian front, on the Italian front, these Slav soldiers of Austria-Hungary now one by one, now in companies, now in regiment, and even in division, deserted and surrendered to Russia and later to Italy.
 Thus was formed the No sur render Czecho-Slovaks,' the Death or Victory Battalion.
 "A price upon the head of each. a moose about his neck, death of ignominy and torture a thousand times worse than death. Capture, No. Sir said their brave officer, we do not face that fate. We never sur render What a joy it must be to you to know that the money you and your fellows in America earned large ly supported your army in Russia, and helped support the Czecho-Slo- yak Army in Italy and France You have an especial right to join in this celebration, for you and every other SIovak group in America contributed to this glorious result, and are joint sharers in the great Victory.
 Brought New Fame.
 That part of the Czecho-Slovak force which escaped from Siberia by way of Archangel and England and became a division of the French Army on the Western front, with the soldiers you sent from America, brought new and deathless fame to the Slovak soldier.
 '"The Slovak and Czech soldiers from Bridgeport and Connecticut and America who were not citizens fought side by side with those who were. and dared and did whatever soldiers of intrepid valor and dauntless faith could do. And we are here in honor of some of these soldiers, our own men, to look into their eyes, to re- joice in their courage and safety and to give them our thanks and to show them the honor which is their due and which springs unbidden from our grateful hearts.
 "The greater part of that wonder full body of cho-S1ovak soldiers in Siberia could not reach France by way fo Archange1. They resolved to leave Russia when Russia was seized by the forces of disorder and an- archy. Lenin and Trotzky gave them permission. German influence caused this to be withdrawn. The Bolshe- vists disarmed some. of this force, but the rest, the No Surrender battalion refused to yield. They would march clear across Siberia, find their way to America, and thence to the Western front where they could fight Austria and Germany. Against insuperable difficulties. they pushed on. Iris a story of heroism unsurpassed in the annals of the human race. Wherever they secured control order and de- cency prevailed.
 "One day. 13.o00 of them marched into Vladivostok. gaunt. spare, heads erect, of courage, and in the air about them, faith indomitable. Ad- miral Knight, commander of the American fleet in the Pacific wrote home, that if the American troops on the Western ffont were half as good as these 13 900 soldiers, no troops on the Western front would ever hold them, and thank God, from Cantigny and Ballieau Wood to San Mihiel and the Argonne Forest no troops ever did hold our soldiers. Alas, the Allies did not have the ships at Vladivostok to carry the soldiers to America The Czecho-Slovak army had to stay in -fo