"The policy of the Czechs cannot but aim at the absolute independence of the whole Czecho-Slovak nation, and all our action at home and abroad must tend towards persuading the world that only thus can a stable peace in Europe be achieved."
It was about this time also when Seidler made desperate attempts to induce the Slav leaders to participate in a special commission for the revision of the Austrian Constitution. Dr. Stránský, speaking in the name of the Czechs, openly refused the proposal, declaring that the Czech problem could not be solved by Austria, but only by the Peace Conference, that is after the victory of the Entente. A joint committee of representatives of the Young Czech, National Socialist, Progressive Independence and Moravian Progressive Parties issued a proclamation protesting against any participation of Czechs in Austrian politics, and declaring that since the Czech question is an international one and can therefore be decided only at the Peace Conference, the duty of the Czech deputies is not to assist in the revision of the Austrian Constitution, but to insist upon the creation of an "independent Czecho-Slovak State with all the attributes of sovereignty."
Simultaneously also the Czech Agrarian deputy, Zahradník, made the following remarkable declaration in the Reichsrat on September 26:
"In view of the prevailing policy directed against the Czech people, can any one wonder that they have lost all confidence in Vienna and that they refuse to let this parliament decide their fate? It is necessary to secure for all peoples, great or small, the right to decide their own destinies. This applies also to the ten million Czecho-Slovaks who, moreover, cannot rightly be considered merely as a 'small' nation: the Czechs, too, do not desire anything more than peace, but it must not be forgotten that our men did not shed their blood merely for imperialism or for Pan-Germanism. We do not want anything but an honourable peace which would bring equality to all peoples, a peace assuring liberty and equality to all, and not a peace which would leave our fetters unbroken. We regret that the Pope omitted to mention the Czechs in his peace offer although he mentioned the Poles. But we shall obtain our right without alien support. The Czechs will never swerve from their demand for an independent Slovak State with all the attributes of sovereignty. The Czechs are convinced that the question of Bohemia is too great to be solved in Vienna. It must be decided at the Peace Conference."
On November 9, deputy Staněk made it clear that the Czecho-Slovaks expect the resurrection of their independence only from the break-up of Austria:
"We cannot conceive of peace or of the transformation of Europe except when on the ruins of the Dual Monarchy new national states shall arise. The German-Magyar misrule must be destroyed."
And when on November 21 Seidler talked about the peace conditions of the "enemy," Dr. Stránský interrupted him by exclaiming, "Our enemies are here, in Vienna and in Budapest!"
[(d) During Peace Negotiations with ]Russia
When peace negotiations were opened with the Bolsheviks, the Austro-Hungarian delegations were also summoned, for the first time during the war, on December 3, 1917. During the speech from the throne the Czechs demonstratively left the hall. On the same day the Bohemian Union, the Yugoslav Club and the Ruthenes issued a protest against the government having published a distorted version of the Russian peace offer. In this protest the Slav deputies asked:
"How can the government answer for having purposely distorted such a highly important document as the Russian Note of November 28, and why did the government suppress just the paragraph out of it containing guarantees for national self-determination?"