Chapter IV: Terrorism in Bohemia During the War

Austria-Hungary declared war not only on her enemies outside her frontiers, but also on her internal enemies, on her own Slav and Latin subjects. From the very first day of war terrorism reigned supreme in Bohemia, where the Austrian Government behaved as in an enemy country. Three political parties (the National Socialist, Radical and Realist Parties) were dissolved and their organs suppressed. Fully three-quarters of all Czech journals and all Slovak journals were suspended. Political leaders were arrested, imprisoned, and some of them even sentenced to death. Many leaders have been imprisoned as hostages in case an insurrection should break out. Over 20,000 Czech civilians have been interned merely for being "politically suspect," and about 5000 were hanged in an arbitrary way by military tribunals, since juries had been abolished by an imperial decree. Other Slav districts were no better off: the Polish Socialist deputy Daszynski stated in the Reichsrat that 30,000 persons were hanged in Galicia alone, and another deputy stated that the number of Slavs (Austrian subjects) who were executed by Austria exceeded 80,000. Czech troops were marched to the trains watched by German soldiers like prisoners of war. Thousands of them were massacred at the front. The property of those who surrendered was confiscated, while the families of those Czech leaders who escaped abroad were brutally persecuted. It is impossible for us to give a detailed description of all the persecutions committed by Austria on the Czecho-Slovaks, but the following is a brief summary of them:--

_(a) Czech Deputies and Leaders imprisoned and sentenced to Death_

The most important perhaps was _the case of Dr. Kramar,_ one of the most moderate of the Czech leaders. Dr. Kramar was arrested on May 21, 1915, on a charge of high treason as the leader of the Young Czechs; together with him were also arrested his colleague, deputy Dr. Rasin, Mr. Cervinka, an editor of the _Narodni Listy_, and Zamazal, an accountant. On June 3, 1916, all four of them were sentenced to death, although no substantial proofs were produced against them. Subsequently, however, the sentence was commuted to long terms of imprisonment, but after the general amnesty of July, 1917, they were released. Among the reasons for which they were imprisoned and sentenced to death were the following, as given in the official announcement, published in the Austrian press on January 4, 1917:

Dr. Kramar before the war was "the leader of Pan-Slav propaganda and of the Russophil movement in Bohemia." He was also alleged to have kept up a connection with the pro-Ally propaganda conducted by the Czecho-Slovaks and their friends abroad during the war, and the Czech military action against Austria on the side of the Entente. Dr. Kramar was further blamed for the "treasonable" behaviour of Czech regiments who voluntarily surrendered to Russia and Serbia, and for the anti-German sentiments cherished by the Czecho-Slovaks for centuries past. Obviously in striking Dr. Kramar Austria meant to strike at the Czech nation. The "proofs" for the high treasonable activity of Dr. Kramar before and during the war were the following:[1]

(1) Dr. Kramar was (before the war) in communication with Brancianov, Bobrinski, Denis, Masaryk, Pavlu and others, who now preach the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary.

(2) In his articles in the _Narodni Listy_, published during the war, Dr. Kramar advocated the liberation of small nations as proclaimed by the Entente. His organ, "the _Narodni Listy_, laid special stress on news favourable to our enemies and on the state of disruption of Austria, and indirectly invited Czechs to passive resistance."

(3) A copy of _La Nation Tcheque_ was found in Dr. Kramar's pocket at the time of his arrest.

(4) Dr. Kramar had a conversation with the Italian consul in April, 1915, which is "an important cause of suspicion."

(5) In a letter to the Governor of Bohemia, Prince Thun, Dr. Kramar admitted that, always faithful to his political principles, he refrained from everything that might appear as approval of the war.

This was the evidence brought up against Kramar, on the ground of which he was to be hanged. These are the "proofs" of his responsibility for the distribution of treasonable Russian proclamations in Bohemia, repeated manifestations of sympathy with the enemy, and the refusal of Czech deputies to take part in any declarations or manifestations of loyalty.

Equally characteristic is also _the case of the National Socialist leader, deputy Klofac_, who was arrested in September, 1914. Owing to lack of proofs the trial was repeatedly postponed, while Klofac was left in prison. A formal charge was brought against him only when the Reichsrat was about to open in May, 1917, so as to prevent him from attending the meeting. Nevertheless he was released after the amnesty of July, 1917. Writing in the _Narodni Politika_ about his experience in prison, deputy Klofac says:

"Many educated and aged political prisoners were not allowed out to
walk in the yard for five months or more, which is contrary to all
regulations. They were also not allowed to read books given to them by
the judge, and they had to do the lowest work. One student who refused
to wash the floor was beaten and confined to a dark cell. No wonder
that many committed suicide. Dr. Vrbensky could tell how he used to get
excited by the cry of the ill-treated prisoners. Even his nerves could
not stand it. It is quite comprehensible, therefore, that Dr. Scheiner
(the president of the 'Sokol' Union) in such an atmosphere was
physically and mentally broken down in two months. Dr. Kramar and Dr.
Rasin also had an opportunity of feeling the brutality of Polatchek and
Teszinski. In the winter we suffered from frosts, for there was no
heating. Some of my friends had frozen hands. We resisted the cold by
drilling according to the Mueller system. This kept us fit and saved us
from going to the prison doctor, Dr. A. Prinz, who was a Magyar and
formerly a doctor in Karlsbad. If a prisoner went to this 'gentleman,'
he did not ask after his illness, but after his nationality, and for
the reason of his remand imprisonment. On hearing that a prisoner was
Czech and on remand for Par. 58_c_ (high treason), he only hissed: 'You
do not want any medicine. It would be wasted, for in any case you will
be hanged.'"

Besides Klofac, the following four National Socialist deputies were also imprisoned: Choc, Burival, Vojna and Netolicky. The accused were condemned on July 30, 1916, for "failing to denounce Professor Masaryk's revolutionary propaganda."

_Professor Masaryk_, who escaped abroad in 1915, was sentenced to death in Austria in December, 1916. Unable to reach him, the Austrian Government revenged themselves on his daughter, Dr. Alice Masaryk, whom they imprisoned. Only after an energetic press campaign abroad was she released. A similar fate also met the wife of another Czech leader, Dr. Benes, who escaped abroad in the autumn of 1915 and became secretary general of the Czecho-Slovak National Council.

_Dr. Scheiner_, president of the "Sokol" Gymnastic Association, was imprisoned, but was again released owing to lack of proofs. A similar fate also met the Czech Social Democratic leader _Dr. Soukup_, who was for some time kept in prison.

_(b) Monster Trials, Arbitrary Executions, Internment of Civilians, etc_.

A notorious reason for imprisonment, and even execution, was the possession of the so-called Russian Manifesto dropped by Russian aeroplanes, being a proclamation of the Tsar to the people of Bohemia promising them the restoration of their independence. Mr. Matejovsky, of the Prague City Council, and fifteen municipal clerks were sentenced to many years' imprisonment for this offence in February, 1915. In May, 1915, six persons, among them two girls, were condemned to death in Kyjov, Moravia, for the same offence. On the same charge also sixty-nine other persons from Moravia were brought to Vienna and fifteen of them sentenced to death. One of the Czech girls who were executed for this offence was a Miss Kotikova, aged twenty-one, who, according to the _Arbeiter Zeitung_ of September 8, 1917, refused to say from whom she had received the manifesto, and through her heroic attitude saved the lives of others.

Without a fair trial and without evidence, the editor of the National Socialist organ _Pokrok_ in Prostejov, Mr. Joseph Kotek, was sentenced to death on Christmas Eve of 1914. The sentence was passed at noon, confirmed at half-past four and carried out at half-past six. As no one could be found to act as hangman, Kotek was shot. The reason given for the verdict was that the accused editor of the _Pokrok_, which was suppressed as being dangerous to the State, delivered a speech at a meeting of a co-operative society in which he said that all Czechs were unanimous that they knew that Austria was losing the war and that they prayed to God that her downfall might be soon. He was further alleged to have said that it was doubtful how Europe would be divided after the war, but that in any case the Czecho-Slovak countries would be made independent as a wedge between Germany and Austria, and that if Germany won the Czechs would be germanised, like the Poles in Germany. The accused admitted that he did speak about the reorganisation of Europe, but not in the words used by the prosecution. But, as the _Arbeiter Zeitung_ said, even if he did say what the prosecution alleged, as a civilian he should never have been sentenced to death by a military tribunal. According to Czech papers, Kotek was buried among ordinary criminals outside the cemetery. The grave of the innocent martyr was not even marked with his name, and his wife was not allowed to visit it, because the military authorities forbade the sexton of the church to allow any one to see the graves of those executed for high treason.

_Dr. Preiss_, the manager of the Czech bank, Zivnostenska Banka, which has its branches in Galicia, Rumania, Serbia and elsewhere, and four of his colleagues were imprisoned, because the Czechs would not subscribe to Austrian war loans and Dr. Preiss had done nothing to induce them to do so.

As regards the horrors of the internment camps, in which over 20,000 innocent Czechs, men, women and children, were confined, we will only quote the revelations of the Czech National Socialist deputy Stribrny, who declared in the Reichsrat on June 14, 1917:

"This war was begun by the Austrian Government without the consent of
the Austrian Parliament, against the will of the Czech people.

"In Bohemia, the most brutal cruelties have been perpetrated by the
Austrian authorities against the Czech population. An anonymous
denunciation suffices to bring about the arrest and imprisonment of any
Czech man, woman or child. Thousands of Czech citizens have simply been
seized and placed in internment camps on the ground that their
political opinions are dangerous to the existence of Austria.

"Such prisoners were led away from their homes handcuffed and in
chains. They included women, girls and old grey-haired men. They were
conveyed from their homes to internment camps in filthy cattle trucks
and were cruelly ill-treated with a strange persistence. On one
occasion forty-three Czechs, who were being conveyed to a camp of
internment, were killed on the way by a detachment of Honveds
(Hungarian militia) which was escorting them to their place of
imprisonment.

"The conditions under which the Czechs were interned at the Talerhof
Camp, near Graz, were absolutely outrageous. They were beaten and
tortured on their way there. Immediately after their arrival many were
tied to stakes and kept thus day and night in absolutely indescribable
sanitary conditions. Many were done to death by their guards. When the
thermometer showed 20 degrees of frost, old men, women and girls were
left to sleep in the open air, and mortality increased amongst them to
a frightful extent. Two thousand unhappy victims of Austria's brutal
tyranny lie buried in the cemetery attached to the Talerhof Camp of
internment. Of these, 1200 died of epidemics."

Other information concerning the same camp of Talerhof fully corroborates this statement. In a letter to his friends, a Czech interned at Talerhof wrote as follows:

"Many of my friends died from bayonet wounds; out of 12,000 at least,
2000 have so perished. The majority of us did not know why we were
interned. Many were hanged without a trial on mere denunciation. Human
life had no value for them. The soldiers had orders to strike us with
bayonets for the slightest movement....

"We were covered with insects. One day an order was given that
everybody should undress to be rubbed with paraffin. Some ladies who
objected were undressed by force before our eyes, since men and women
slept together, and the soldiers rubbed them with paraffin.

"A Ruthene who protested against the ill-treatment of women, who were
forced to do the lowest work, was bayonetted. He was lying for five
days between two barracks more dead than alive. His face and body were
all green and covered with lice and his hands were bound. Then the
Austrian officers and soldiers ill-treated him till he died."

In consequence of the general political amnesty, over 100,000 political prisoners in Austria were released. Thousands of them emerged from prison or internment camps reduced to mere skeletons by the systematic lack of food.

According to reports published in the Austrian press, one of the Ukrainian prisoners, named Karpinka, was left in solitary confinement without any fire in winter, so that his feet were frost-bitten and had to be amputated.

A Czech named Jary, who was condemned to twelve years' hard labour, came out with consumption contracted through the rigour of his imprisonment. Many others were reduced to such weakness through starvation that they had to be carried out of the prison.

(c) _Persecution of the Press_

Among the Czech journals suppressed in Bohemia at the beginning of the war, the following deserve to be especially mentioned:

_Ceske Slovo_, organ of the National Socialist Party; the editors have been imprisoned. _Cas_ ("Times"), organ of Professor Masaryk (Realist Party); the editors Dusek and Hajek were imprisoned. _Samostatnost_, organ of the State Right (Radical) Party; the editors were imprisoned or sent to the front.

The _Narodni Listy_ (Kramar's organ) was twice suspended, and in May, 1918, suppressed altogether because it "fostered sympathies for the Entente."

The _Lidove Noviny_, organ of Dr. Stransky (Moravian People's Party), was also several times suspended during the war.

All Socialist journals were suppressed except _Pravo Lidu_ and _Rovnost_.

According to the _Wiener Zeitung_, seventy-eight Czech journals were suspended during the months of April, May and June, 1916, alone. All Slovak newspapers were also suppressed.

As regards censorship, we need only mention that even speeches delivered in the Austrian Parliament were censored in the press. The sense of the speeches delivered by Allied statesmen was invariably distorted and declarations in favour of Czecho-Slovak independence were suppressed. Foreign newspapers were not allowed to be quoted; and the journals were forced to publish unsigned articles supplied to them by the police....

The Union of Czech Journalists declared on April 25, 1917

"We protest against the practice prevailing in Prague as against means
quite contradictory to the moral principles of modern journalism, as in
Prague the newspapers are forced to publish articles supplied by the
Official Press Bureau, as though written by the editor, without being
allowed to mark them as inspired. Thus the journals are not in reality
edited by the editors themselves, but by the Press institution of the
state."

The same union again protested on November 16, 1917

"After the victorious Russian Revolution which brought about also the
opening of the Reichsrat, the fetters binding the Czech press were a
little relaxed, but only for a short time, and to-day we see the same
conditions prevailing in which we lived for the first three years of
war. Every free reflection in the Czech journals is confiscated. They
are even prohibited to publish articles which appeared in the German
and Austrian press. Furthermore, they are again compelled to publish
articles written by officials without marking them as such. They cannot
even inform their readers correctly about parliamentary debates, _as
speeches and interpellations delivered in parliament are suppressed_.
We ask the Union of Czech Deputies to protest again against this
violation of parliamentary immunity, and to obtain a guarantee that in
future the Czech papers will not be compelled to print articles not
written by the editorial staff and that the Czech press shall enjoy at
least the same freedom as the press in Berlin, Vienna and Budapest."

_(d) Reichsrat Interpellations_

To complete the picture of Austrian terrorism, we will quote some of the interpellations addressed to the Austrian Government by Czech deputies in the summer of 1917.

The Czech deputies_ Prokes, Jaros and Charvat_ (Socialists) have demanded an explanation from the Minister for Home Defence respecting 300 Czech teachers from Moravia who were interned in 1915, being suspected of disloyalty, although there was no charge made against them either by the civil or by the military authorities. They were first interned in Lower Austria and then in Hungary, and had to do the hardest work. Though the educational authorities reclaimed them they were not set free even to attend to the burials of their relatives. The only exception made was when one teacher was allowed to be married in Vienna, and even then he was followed by the guard with fixed bayonets. In Hungary the conditions were still worse, and many of these teachers died and many of them are still in hospitals.

A long interpellation was addressed to the government by the Czech deputies_ Binovec, Filipinsky and Stejskal_ (Socialists) regarding the outrageous and inhuman treatment of the Czech political prisoners. They mentioned a vast number of appalling instances of deliberate torturing and starving of the prisoners. All rights of the prisoners were suspended and they depended entirely on the will of the commander: many of these political prisoners were imprisoned together with ordinary murderers; they were not allowed to read books or to write letters; their families were not permitted to visit them or even to send them provisions from home, so they starved in prison. Such cruel treatment did not affect only political prisoners but even people on remand, and it was nothing extraordinary for them to be imprisoned for years on remand only. The deputies asked whether the authorities wanted these prisoners to die from starvation.

The most interesting document is the interpellation of deputies _Stanek, Tobolka and Co_. on the persecutions against the Czech nation during the war. The interpellation has been published as a book of 200 pages which has been prohibited by Austria to be sent abroad, but a copy of which we have nevertheless been able to secure. The following are short extracts from the volume:

The Behaviour of the Austrian Government towards the Czech Nation during the War

"YOUR EXCELLENCY,--At a time when it proved impossible to continue to
rule in an absolute way in this empire and when after more than three
years the Reichsrat is sitting again, we address to you the following
interpellation in order to call your attention to the persecutions
which during the past three years have been perpetrated on our nation,
and to demand emphatically that these persecutions shall be
discontinued. They were not done unintentionally or accidentally, but,
as will be shown from the following survey, this violence was committed
deliberately and systematically by the Austrian Government on our
nation, which took the abominable view that the present war is the most
suitable period for realising the plans and aims of German centralism
in the Habsburg Monarchy by curing the Czechs forever of all
hallucinations about equality among nations, and about the glorious
past of Bohemia and her relationship with other Slav nations. A general
attack was made upon the Czech nation during the critical situation
created by the war: our participation in civil service was curtailed,
German was made the official language of the state, the press was
muzzled, schools persecuted, the Sokol idea declared to be high
treason, men distinguished for service in the state arrested,
imprisoned, persecuted and sentenced to death, everything reminding the
population of the famous past of Bohemia removed, the ancient Czech
aspirations for political independence or even aims for a mere
reorganisation of the Habsburg Monarchy on a federal basis were not
allowed and were suppressed, even the name of the ancient kingdom of
Bohemia, which was the foundation stone to the Habsburg Monarchy in
1526, was to disappear for ever.

"The persecutions against our nation were very cruel indeed.

"In the first place, _Dr. Kramar_ was attacked as the veritable leader
of the Czech nation. In return for his valuable services for this state
and for his nation, in return for his endeavours to educate the Czech
nation towards realism in politics, he was recompensed by being
arrested, imprisoned and sentenced to death, although a member of the
delegations and therefore enjoying immunity. He was not brought up
before the ordinary tribunal, but before a judge who was absolutely
ignorant of Czech or foreign politics, so that his condemnation might
be assured.

"The same fate also met his political friends, deputy Dr. Rasin and the
editor of _Narodni Listy_, V. Cervinka.

"Incredible proceedings were taken against the deputy Klofac. Although
being a member of the delegations and therefore enjoying immunity, he
was arrested on September 7, 1914, and has been imprisoned ever since.
A charge was hurriedly prepared against him on May 24, 1917, that is
when the Reichsrat was to be opened. Both Dr. Kramar and Klofac were
prosecuted by the Vienna court-martial under the direction of Colonel
Gliwitzki and Dr. Preminger in such a way that no ordinary judge would
dare to act.

"The way in which the military tribunals treated the ordinary
uneducated people is apparent from the following examples:

"The tailor Smejkal in Vienna was sentenced to six months' hard labour
for saying, 'The government does not want to give us Czech schools in
Vienna.'

"For saying, 'I do not know whether the Emperor Francis Joseph was ever
crowned King of Bohemia or not,' a boy gardener named Tesar was
sentenced to six months' hard labour, which sentence was altered to
sixteen months by the High Court of Justice (the poor boy died in
prison).

"The shoemaker's assistant Hamouz, of Vienna, sixty-seven years of age,
ill and mentally stunted, served in his youth with the 28th Regiment.
He defended this regiment, therefore, by saying, 'It is a good
regiment.' He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

"Private Cepera from Moravia was sentenced to three years' hard labour
for saying, 'The German Kaiser is responsible for the war.'

"For saying that 'those of the 28th Regiment are our "boys,"' gunner
Purs, of Benatky, was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. He was
sent in chains to the military prison in Moellersdorf.

"The wilfulness of military tribunals, culminating in many cases in
apparent hatred against everything that is Czech, is shown by the
following, out of many examples:

"The editor of _Ceske Slovo_, E. Spatny, of Prague, was arrested on
September 26, 1914, and interned in Prague, without being told the
reason. In March, 1915, he was transferred to the internment camp at
Goellersdorf, in Lower Austria. The Czechs interned there arranged on
July 5 a Hus anniversary at which the editor E. Spatny and Dr. Vrbensky
spoke about the life and importance of Hus. Being accused by a certain
fellow-prisoner, Davidovsky, that they had been speaking against the
Germans and that 'the speakers expected deliverance by a certain state
but were disappointed,' they were transferred to the military prison in
Vienna, and charged with high treason according to Par. 58_c_. The
latter was discharged for want of proofs, but the editor Spatny was
sentenced to fourteen years' hard labour.

"The Sarajevo prisoners were not allowed to be visited by their
relatives in contravention of the orders of the official statutes D 6.
Out of five of those prisoners, three have already died, the fourth is
dying, and the last one, a student Cubulic, was allowed a visit after
two years when it became certain that the Reichsrat would meet.

"The extent to which starvation and inhuman treatment is raging in the
state prisons is best shown by the conditions prevailing in the prison
of Moellersdorf. In the years 1915-16, 61 prisoners died there out of
350 to 450 prisoners on the roll. Between January 1, 1917, and May,
1917, 101 prisoners were doomed to death. The majority belong to the
sixth category of prisoners. The thieves, criminals and impostors, if
they had served previously in the army, enjoy special treatment in
Moellersdorf prison. They wear civilian clothes, and are treated with
consideration and well fed. On the other hand, political prisoners,
especially those classed as second category, are dying from
ill-treatment and insufficient nourishment. The judge, auditor A.
Koenig, famous for his arbitrary verdicts against the Czech people, was
a solicitor's clerk in civil life, and now recommends to his wealthy
defendants his Vienna lawyer friends as splendid specialists and
advocates in political matters. Thus, for instance, he forced Dr.
Glaser upon Mr. Kotik as the counsel. Kotik was sentenced to death by
Koenig, and Glaser sent him a bill for 10,000 kronen (L400) for the
'successful defence.'

_The Persecutions of the Sokols_

"Terrible persecutions were inflicted on the Sokol Gymnastic
Association during the war. The sphere of the Sokols' activity does not
touch political affairs at all, being reserved to gymnastics and
spiritual education. Their activity was public, open to official
inquiries and supervision. But this did not save them from
persecutions. The first persecution was already committed in 1914 in
Moravia, when some branches of the Sokol Association were dissolved for
various reasons. Numerous societies were afterwards dissolved
throughout Bohemia and Moravia.

"_On November_ 23, 1915, _the Central Czech Sokol Association (Ceska
Obec Sokolska) was dissolved_ as the centre of the Czech Sokol
movement, which before the war kept up lively relations with foreign
countries and manifested brotherly feelings of sympathy towards Serbia
and Russia. It was alleged that the Central Sokol Association had had
relations with the American Sokol branches during the war through its
president, Dr. J. Scheiner, and conducted an active propaganda against
Austria. The alleged relations were founded on a communication of the
American branches to the president, Dr. Scheiner, asking him whether he
would be willing to distribute money collected in America to people in
Bohemia afflicted by the war. Dr. Scheiner was arrested and kept in
prison for two months.

"Very characteristic was the way in which the military authorities
treated the members of Sokol societies. In many cases soldiers,
especially recruits, were questioned whether they belonged to the Sokol
Association. The authorities searched for Sokol badges or membership
cards, and those who were found to have these in their possession were
severely punished. The members of the Sokol societies as long as they
were in the army were invariably subjected to ill-treatment and
persecution. They were transferred to do heavy work, and not
recommended for promotion, and in every way treated more brutally than
other soldiers. In the case of both civil and military trials, one of
the most important questions asked, was whether the accused belonged to
any Sokol society, and if the accused did belong to a society this
always went against him.

_Bohemian History_

"Every possible means was employed to wipe out the memory of important
events in Bohemian history. Not only were historical books (like
Luetzow's _Bohemia_ and others) confiscated, but even scientific
lectures on John Hus and the Hussite movement were prohibited. The
metal memorial plate with the names of Bohemian lords executed in 1621
inscribed upon it was removed from the Town Hall, and that part of the
square which showed the spot on which they were executed was ordered to
be repaved.

"In order to destroy the idea that the Czechs are of Slav origin, any
use of red, blue and white colours was prohibited. Varnishes in these
colours were not allowed to be used. The street plates of pre-war times
had to be repainted in black and yellow. Newspaper posters, match-boxes
and other articles were not allowed to be sold or exhibited, if they
were painted in the Slav tricolours.

_The Suppression of Czech Literature_

"More than two hundred books published before the war were confiscated.
The tendency of this action was clear. The government wanted to destroy
the memory of the glorious past of Bohemia, of John Hus and the Hussite
movement, of the suffering of the Czech nation after the defeat of the
White Mountain, to restrict all progressive and liberal movements and
to kill the 'Sokol' idea, and further to destroy the consciousness that
Czechs and Slovaks are the same nation and belong to the great Slav
family. The apostles of this idea were proclaimed traitors, especially
Dr. Kramar, J.S. Machar and others. These persecutions cover a great
period before the war, and the following is a list of the books
suppressed (follows a list comprising eleven foolscap columns). The
government treated the Czech nation with special brutality. The
persecutions in Bohemia were opposed not only to the liberal ideas of
Czechs, but especially to their national feelings. The anxiety of the
censor for the safety of the monarchy often bordered on absurdity. The
word 'shocking' was deleted from a play, for instance, because it was
English. _Henry IV_. was not allowed to be played 'until we reach a
settlement with England,' and it was only when it was reported by the
Vienna and Berlin papers that the prohibition was withdrawn.

_Persecution of the Czech Press_

"The Czech press was persecuted in a peculiar manner. Its editors were
not allowed to receive papers from neutral countries and to express
their own opinions as regards the propaganda of the Czechs abroad.
Under threats of suppression of the journals and imprisonment of the
editors, the journals were obliged to print and publish articles
supplied to them by the police, without mentioning the source from
whence they came. The articles had to be put in in such a way that they
appeared as if they were the editors' views. The articles betrayed the
low intellectual level of the authors who lacked any knowledge of Czech
affairs. Such articles which the Czech journals were compelled to
publish were, for instance: 'In Foreign Pay,' published March 25, 1916;
'The Czechs in America against Masaryk's Agents,' published in all
Czech papers on April 8, 1916; on January 16, 1917, the article 'Our
Answer to the Quadruple Entente.'

"The Police Directorate ordered first that such articles should appear
on the same day in all papers and in the same wording, but recognising
the stupidity of such an action, they compelled only one journal to
publish them and the others had to 'quote' from them.

"Preventive censorship was established and a number of articles were
passed by the censor for publication in Czech papers only when proofs
were supplied that the articles had already appeared in some other
journal in Austria. _Independent articles or reports were not allowed
to be published_. The _Narodni Listy_ was treated with special spite by
the censorship.

"_Almost ninety important journals were suppressed by the government_,
the majority of them without any apparent reason or justification.

_The Suppression of Czech School and National Literature_

"Words, sentences or whole paragraphs in school books were found
objectionable, since they were alleged to propagate Pan-Slavism and to
encourage in the pupils hostile feelings against Austria's allies.
According to the official ideas about Austrian patriotism, purely
educational paragraphs were considered as wanting in patriotic feeling;
not only literary but also historical paragraphs were 'corrected,' and
official advice was issued as to how to write handbooks on patriotic
lines on special subjects, as for instance on natural history, physics,
geometry, etc. The foundations of all knowledge to be supplied to the
pupils in the public schools had to reflect the spirit of the world
war.

"Numerous folk-songs with absolutely no political tendency in them were
confiscated, merely because they expressed the Czech national spirit.
All songs were suppressed which mentioned the word Slav--'The Slav
Linden Tree'--the army or the Allies. Even if the publishers offered to
publish new editions without the objectionable songs they were not
allowed to do so, and were asked to put in more 'loyal songs' and to
replace melancholy songs with cheerful ones.

"In every secondary school a zealous library revision was started and
many books were removed, so that these libraries lost all their value
for the students. The Czech youth must not know the principal works
either of their own or foreign literature. Certain libraries had to be
deprived of some hundreds of books. All this happened at a time when
the discussions here and abroad were taking place about the importance
of raising the standard of knowledge of the educated classes.

"The opening of Czech minority schools has been postponed since the
beginning of 1914. Consequently the Czech School Society must keep them
up and pay the expenses in connection with them, amounting to a loss of
more than two million kronen up till now. On the other hand, many
German schools have been established in Bohemia.

"The steps which are being taken against Czech schools in Lower
Austria, especially in Vienna, are not only contrary to the standing
laws but also to the decisions of the ministry concerned.

"We conclude by asking:

"Are the above facts of systematic persecution of the Czech nation
during the war known to your Excellency?

"Is your Excellency prepared to investigate them thoroughly?

"Is your Excellency prepared to stop the persecution of the Czech
nation and the wrongs suffered by us through these proceedings?

"_In Vienna, June_ 6, 1917."

[Footnote 1: For the full text of this document see Dr. Benes' _Bohemia's Case for Independence_.]