CZECHS USE GREAT IDEALS OF PAST TO BUILD UP REPUBLIC

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6802, 4 January 1929, Page 2

CZECHS USE GREAT IDEALS OF PAST TO BUILD UP REPUBLIC

RESTITUTION OF LAND CONFISCATED 300 YEARS AGO REVIVES SMALL OWNERSHIP.. PRAGUE. How the young republic of Czechoslovakia has attempted to combine in itself the great ideals of the past -with the best social aims of described in an interview by Prof. Frederick Eednar of the Hus Theological Faculty in Prague. In the years 1620-1640, the period of the Thirty Years War, more than three quarters of the land had been confiscated and given into the hands of foreign “noblemen.” It was only natural, therefore, that, after 300 years of such exploitations, the leaders of the Czechoslovakian Republic, in proclaiming their independence on October 28, .1918, should express their intention of making a wide use of the best ideals of Bohemian and Slavic history. During the Great War, the Nation had been ruined economically. The existence of numerous bankrupted states in the Balkan area constituted a serious menace to its economic stability. Drastic Land Reforms.

One of the most important of the social reforms had to do with the land problem. The confiscation of the land which had taken place 300 years before had robbed thousands of ‘Czech families of their immobile property. There wero districts where Czech-speak-ing populations were entirely dependent upon the mercy of great landed proprietors, who possessed enormous estates. The Czechoslovakian Government resolved that the maximum measure of land ownership must not go beyond a certain number of hectares. . Aii additional acreage was to be expropriated by the Government and the proprietors were to receivo an indemnity for the land thus taken. This process proved to be a restitution, of the former state of things with the land passing into the hands of the Nation. It was not regarded as a policy of confiscation, but of restitution. It has enabled thousands of families to live on and to cultivate the land that they love. Alany hundreds of smaller estates were, created. The land reform is not yet finished and will not be for many years to come. When asked about the situation with regard to communism, Professor Bednar saidj “Wo live in the neighbourhood of Russia. We are Slavs and it is very easy for our people >to learn and to understand the Russian language. Alany of our prisoners of war had learned Russian in Russia and it is quite natural that they should have been influenced by the great social revolution that took place before their very eyes. Communism Waning.

“Not a few of our people folt that a revolution, similar to the one that had been effected by the Soviets, constituted the most promising escape from their labyrinth of care. On the other hand a majority of our trusted leaders believed that Czechoslovakia could never become a country of Communism. It may now bo said that the influence of Communism in our national life is very definitely waning, though it still remains our noisiest party. The chief reason for the failure of Communism lay in the concern 07 the Government for the working classes, the indisputable progress in the social policy of the state and thG strong economical position of the Nation after a comparatively short crisis. “People who arc regularly employed and who seo an acknowledgment on the part of government authorities of their human rights and who have the right of organisation and full political equality, arc not ripe for any social policy such as the dictatorship of the proletarian classes. Our labour men do not want to be governed by any class, nor do they claim for themselves the exclusive right of government.”