Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-07-25

"Xenophon had a fine trip, If one is
to judge from the accounts of his fa-
vorite press agent, and Napoleon and
Sherman have mad famous excur-
slons. but when 1t comes to the world
encircling vision of the Tourist Blu
reau write and the doggedness OF
death. the wonderful Czechs take the
palm.
1.-THE war found them about as en-
thusiastio in their friendship for Will
liam Hohenzollern and his Potsdam
confederates as they were for the
Hapsburg House that betrayed them
centuries ago, after magnanimous-
ly Joined the Austriang in the repulse
of the hordes from Asia that then
threatened Europe.
Their going over to the enemy was
one of the reasons why Germany's
southern n~eighbor failed to pick up
rapidly amid the heavy traffic that
resulted from the mobilization OF
Europe.
Bohemia formed the foremost sa-
lient thrust northward from Austria
Hungary toward the heart of Ger
many and hence was subjected for
centuries to the utmost Decentralization
measures But the stout-hearted
Czechs, who lost their independence
the same year the Plymouth Pilgrims
landed, did moi lose their spirit of in
dependence and 1914 was the date
they had long awaited.
While regiments of them went to
the foe. Other thousands were shot
down by their Austrian companions In
arms and all their organizations were
heavily differed by the Germans or
Magyars, whose methods and aims
they hated. Thousands of them es-
capped to Russia, where they were sent
to the cold of Siberia or the malaria
of the Tashkent region as prisoners OF
war.
MANY Of them entered the Russian
army under Kerensky but with the
signing of the Brest-Litovsk treaty.
they lost faith in their Russian COM
| panions in arms and with a spirit OF
loyalty to the of freedom that
no other group surpassed, they set out
from Russia to cross Siberia. the
Pacific, America, the Atlantic and
France, DO hurl themselves once more
against their ~oppressors and tradition
al foes.
when I met in mid-Apri1 Of last
| year, their rs trains were strung out
from the Ukraine to Lake Baikal. all
moving toward the port of Vladivos-
took.
'Lenin and Trotsky, fearing these
stalwart defenders of law and order,
| adopted the policy of Good radiance
| although not even their worst enc
niles have ever accused the Czechs OF
| being bad rubbish. For a time the
Czechs advanced. carload after car
| load rolling generously acros the
many wide bridges from the Volga to
the Ussuri.
"At this time the Red Guard OF ST.
IBERIA, which contained many German
and Austrian prisoners of war, was
~ ~ro x41ftar PAp m affanlr q IN Sam orr
off, who with his band of ruffiians and
mercenaries was driving west along
tho Chinese Eastern Railway from
Hardin toward the Junction of the
Amur River Railway and the main
line of the Trans-Siberian at Karuim=
skaya.
THE Czech General Staff on which
I was riding. was halted at Omsk,
where both Czechs and Red Guards
had recruiting stations. The trains of
the two factions stood side by side IN
the railway yards. On May Day, 1918,
the Siberian Red Guard, OF inter-
national Proletariat Army. as It was
called In Omsk, entrained for the
Tchita district and soo puffed out for
the east, which at that time was the
end of the Czech rainbow.
ITO have allowed determined
Czechs to roll into the melee which
the arrival OF these R6u 6udru trdliiS
in Semenoff's vicinity was sure TO
cause, was to endanger the success
of the ~mercenaries of the Reds in
combat with the mercenaries of Sem
enoff. Hence the Czech trains along
a six mile track were stopped by or
ders from Moscow.
Most of the Czech arms had beer
seized by the Reds, who explained
that in France they. would be issued
new rifles and that Russia had need
of all the guns they could obtain. But
| the Czechs had had additional arms
concealed in their train-homes and
were more ready than was than sus-
| pected to accomplish the miracle of 9
conquered Siberia.
THE Bolsheviki walked into thu
| tran which they had themselves pre-.
pared, for had they lived up to theii
! promises, the Cxechs would have al
| been In v~ladivostock by July. Wher
the Reds attempted 10 disarm tn
! Czecho-Slowak Expedition. the Bohe-
mians refused to be as meek as the
anti olsheviks usually were then and
the result was a continent saved fol
democracy while the world was hunt
ing through it's atlas to ind fout who
these fighting men with the strange