The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1921-04-13
CZECHO-SLOVAKIA: BORN
ABOARD FREIGHT
TRAINS

Amid the disorders Of Central Eu.
rope one new nation affords a con.
spicuous exception to the chaos, strife
and revolutions prevalent on all sides
Of her. That nation is Czecho-Slo-
vakia.
The inception of this new national
ity from racial unit of ancient and
distinguished lineage is a modern 70
nance comparable to the crusades Of
the middle ages.
Early in 1918 the intrepid Czech
warriors started out from the kiev
district of western Russia in railway
cars. some of which were decorated
with the slogan, From War to Var
Around the World"
At that time 1t looked as though
the summer of 1918 would find them
in Champagne or the Argonne, Joined
with the thousands of their compa-
triots who were already fighting in
the allied armies to down the Hun.
But strange combination of circum-
stances delayed them in Siberia
through the short summer of long days
and the long winter of little sunshine.
A communication follows from
Maynard Owen Williams. first Amer.
lean correspondent with the spectacu-
lar anabasis of the Czecho-Slovaks
across Siberia:
"Xenophon had a fine trip, If one
is TO judge from the accounts of his
favorite press agent. and Napoleon
and Sherman have made famous ex-
cursons, but when it comes to the
world encircling vision of the tourist
bureau writer. and the doggedness of
death. the wonderful Czechs take the
Calm.
thusiastic in their friendship for Will
liam Hohenzollern and his Potsdam
confederateS as they were for the
Hapsburg house that betrayed them
centuries ago, after they magnanimous-
ly Joined the Austrians 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 neighbor failed to pick up
rapidly amid the heavy traffic that re-
suited from the mobilization of
Europe.
Whole regiments of them went over
to the foe. Other thousands were
shot down by their Austrian compan-
ions in arms, and all their organiza-
h.., x-Hx hx-
Germans or Magyars. whose methods
and aims they hated. Thousands of
them escaped to Russia. where they
were sent to the cold of Siberia or the
malaria of the TasAkeut 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 spirit of
loyalty to the cause of freedom that
no other group surpassed. they set out
from Russia to cross Siberia. the Pa
cific. America. the Atlantic and France,
to hur! themselves once more against
their oppressors and traditional foes.
when | met them their IS trains
We're strung out from the Ukraine to
Lake Eaikal. all moving toward the
port of Vladiyostok.
THE BolSheviki walked into the
trap which they had themselves pre-
pared. for had they lived up to their
promises. the Czechs would have all
been in Vladivostok by July. When
the Reds attempted to disarm the
Czecho-Slovak expedition. the b.
hemians refused to be as meek as
the anti-Bolsheviks usually were then,
and the result was a continent saved
for democracy while the world was
hunting through its atlas to find out
who these fighting men with the
strange name really were, and what
they were doing so far from home"