Both the Yugoslav and the Polish press greeted this declaration with undisguised joy and sympathy.
The Glos Naroda welcomed the Czech declaration, and added: "Those who to-day are asking for an independent national existence do not claim anything but the minimum of their rights. Nothing less could satisfy them (i.e. the Czechs and Yugo-slavs), seeing that even smaller and less historic nations claim the same." The Nowa Reforma also said that the Czechs were quite right to ask for full independence. "They are entitled to it by their position in which they can lose nothing more than they have lost already, but gain a great deal. Among the Entente Powers there is nobody who would have an open or disguised interest in opposing even the boldest claims of the Czecho-Slovak nation."
The declaration of deputy Staněk was completed by a statement of deputy Kalina who made it quite clear that the Czechs refuse responsibility for the war, and that their sympathies are with the Entente. Kalina, a prominent leader of the State Right Party, said:
"As deputies elected by the Czech nation, we absolutely reject every responsibility for this war.
"After three years, the government has summoned the Reichsrat, which the Czechs never recognised, and against which, as well as against the so-called constitution, they again make a formal protest. The great Russian Revolution forced the government to a plausible restoration of constitutional life.
"The Czech nation hails with unbounded joy and enthusiasm the liberation of Eastern Europe. The main principles of that memorable Revolution are closely related to our own traditions, i.e. to the principle of liberty, equality and fraternity of all nations. Bohemia is a free country. Never in her history did she accept laws from aliens, not even from her powerful neighbours in Europe. Liberty of individuals, liberty of nations is again our motto which the nation of Hussites is bringing before the world. In these historic moments, when from the blood-deluged battlefields a new Europe is arising, and the idea of the sovereignty of nations and nationalities is triumphantly marching throughout the Continent, the Czech nation solemnly declares before the world its firm will for liberty and independence on the ground of the ancient historic rights of the Bohemian Crown. In demanding independence, the Czech nation asks, in the sense of the new democracy, for the extension of the right of self-determination to the whole Czecho-Slovak nation."
[(b) Courageous Speeches delivered by Czech Deputies in the Reichsrat]
During the subsequent session of the Reichsrat, various Czech deputies, representing all the Czech parties, made declarations, some of which we will quote in order to show the remarkable unanimity of the Czechs in their opposition to Austria and in their demand for independence. It was chiefly this unanimity of all Czech parties and classes in Bohemia and the absolute harmony between their action and the Czecho-Slovak action abroad which formed the real strength of the movement.
Dr. Stránský, leader of the Moravian People's Party, delivered a long speech in the Reichsrat on June 12, 1917, from which we quote the following significant passages:
"The Germans say that germanisation is not carried out except where it is in the interests of the state. We do not think that the interests of the state should go first. If the interests of a state are not identical with the liberties and interests of a nation, then such a state has for that nation no right to exist.