THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17949, 16 November 1918, Page 9

THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS.

WHO ARE THEYP A great <leal has been heard about the Czecho-Slovaks lately in •cable messages, but how many people know who they really are? Most of us know (says a writer in the "New York Triburis") that Czechs are inhabiting the greater part of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia; that Slovaks occupy extensive districts in upper Hungary; that together with the Poles they form the group of the Western Slavs, and that there are Czechs and Slovaks living in the United States and Canada; but here the knowledge , of. the average newspaper reader regarding them respectfully stops. , That Vienna, the German capital ot the German Princes of Hapsburg, counts nearly one-half million ot Czechs; that they are very numerous in Russia, particularly in Volhyma; that their ancestors lived in parts of Bohemia as early ns the sixth century before the Christian era, i.e., before any Teutonic tribe appeared on her soil in its shining armour, and the insolent "I am It" on their Godless lips; that Prague was the seat 6f the oldest university (founded 1348) in. Germany; that, under the leadership of the predecessor of Martin Luther by a full century, John Russ (died at the stake July 6, 1415, as a martyr to'his religious convictions), the Czech nation became the champion of freedom of thought and of national liberty ni Europe; that from 1620, the date of the fateful Battle of the White Mountains to about 1820, the Czech language was crucllv persecuted and the monuments of ancient Bohemian literaturet wantonlv destroyed by the Austrian Government—well, 1 stop hero for a moment in my turn, not to tire the reader too much and make him blush because of his ignorance. _ The Germans and Magyars tried to disunite the Czechs and Slovaks, but, being of the same race and speaking practically the same language— Slov/nv is merely a more archaic form of Czech —both soon turned upon, their common tyrants, and now, through their heroic armies in Siberia, France and Italv, morally backed by the Jugoslav's, these little Slavic races are paying back to their big sister. Russia, the debt they owe to her for her powerful moral protection often granted to tbejn in hours of national dano-er. Professor Mnsaryk, the r-iCOg-.nsed leader of the Czecho-Slavic nation, is himself by birth a Slovaic When Martin Luther arose m Germany against Rome, Pope Leo A. called the budding Reformation a nnarrel anions: monks, and continued to inspect bis nlans for the re.juvon.aCsd Church of St Peter. When, at lie leeinninf of the nineteenth century, Joseph* Dobrovskv (1753-1829), Joseph Jungmann (1773-1847), Paul Joseph Safarik (1793-1861) and Franz Paincky (1798-18671 hecan -to reawaken the spirit of their nation, the wiseacres at Vienna saw in this great national movement nothing but an innocent philo-logico-literary revival. In 1867 the Slovak nation was handed over to the mercies of the Magyars, and in 1,870 Francis Joseph added to treason a breach of faith—he promised to the Czechs that ho would crown himself Kintr, of Bohemia, and thereby recognise the historical rights of the Czech nation. The old sinner forgot to redeem his imperial word. Well, on sonm beautiful summer day of the rear of the Lord 1919, Professor G-. T- Masarvk. will take possession of the imneriaf palace on the Hradschin, the famous citadel of Prague, and proclaim from its heights the freedom of the Bohemian nation.