It is stated by American sympathizers of the Czechs that the new decree is intended also to weaken the Bohemian national movement by decentralizing the forces of the nation and partly to prepare for the possible establishment of a province of "German Bohemia," such as has been talked of in case the national movement is so strong as to force the Austrian Government to try to compromise on some sort of federalization.
The Czecho-Slovak Nation, which has declared its demands for unity and complete independence, includes the Slovaks in the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Czechs, now divided among Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, three of the seventeen crown lands of Austria.
There has been much reference in German-Austrian papers recently to the possible establishment of a German Bohemia, to include the districts with the largest German population. Any rearrangement on this basis would be beset with obstacles, for the Czecho-Slovaks refuse to consent to any partition and the Germans demand not only the border districts for their German Bohemia, but the City of Prague itself.
It was recently reported that in April the Pope, acting through the Papal Nuncio at the request of the Vienna Government, had caused the arrest of Dr. Yeglitch, Prince Archbishop of Laibach, on account of his activities in behalf of the Jugoslav movement. Dr. Yeglitch was the head of the Slovene Catholic party in Parliament, and his arrest produced an outburst of indignation in Croatia and Slovenia. A Vatican dispatch later declared the report of the Pope's connection with the matter to be entirely without foundation.
BOHEMIANS IN ITALY'S ARMY
Troops from Bohemia began joining the Italian Army in April to fight against Austria. The first detachments of this Czecho-Slovak army, which is being formed in many centres out of the one-time subjects of Emperor Karl, have taken up their positions in various parts of the Italian line. They wear the Italian uniform, with certain distinctive signs. The effect upon their fellow-Slavs who are still fighting under the Austrian colors is a subject of considerable interest on both sides. The new position of affairs is being assiduously explained to them by airplane propaganda, and committees of their own race are accredited to and working with the Italian high command. G. Ward Price, a British correspondent, telegraphed from Italian headquarters on May 1:
One night recently some of the Czechs fighting with the Italians were in the front line at a place where the Austrian battalion holding the trenches opposite consisted largely of their fellow-countrymen. After some preliminary conversation by megaphone one of the allied Czechs crawled out to the other lines and urged his compatriots to come over to our side, where they would be treated not as prisoners or deserters but as friends. The Austrian Czechs replied that they would willingly do so, but that the line behind their own was held by Hungarians, who would almost certainly see them moving out of the trench and open fire on them with machine guns.
The allied Czech brought this message in to his friends, whereupon the Italian guns were asked to put down a barrage between the Austrian front trenches and their support line, driving the Hungarians to cover and isolating them from the Czechs, of whom some were thus able to cross over in safety to our side.
RACIAL DIVISIONS IN HUNGARY
Hungary in no less degree than Bohemia presents a problem of racial antipathies which has been a cause of serious unrest for centuries; aggravated by the present worldwide aspiration for independent nationalism it has thrown the country into turmoil and given a strong impetus to a revolutionary movement by the non-Magyar inhabitants. In a recent issue of The New Europe, D. Draghicescu, in discussing the situation in Hungary, gives the following facts regarding its racial divisions: