Their declaration naturally exasperated the Germans and the government. The organ of the Austrian Foreign Office, the Fremdenblatt, expressed regret that the Slav parties in the Reichsrat "place obstacles in the way of peace." It also regretted that "some parties in the Austrian Parliament should take up an attitude incompatible with our state's self-preservation." On the next day, M. Staněk made a declaration in the delegations in the name of Czechs and Yugoslavs, saying:
"We Czech and Yugoslav delegates declare that it is our deep conviction as well as the firm will of our respective nations that a lasting peace is possible only on the ground of the full right of self-determination. The Imperial Government deliberately and wilfully distorted the most important part of the Russian peace offer, viz. the demand for the self-determination of nations. It is still more surprising that the prime ministers in both halves of the monarchy should try to deceive the public opinion of the world by a false interpretation of the right of self-determination. The Austrian Premier, Dr. Seidler, declared that the Viennese Parliament is a forum through which the nations could obtain self-determination, while the Hungarian Premier had the impudence to describe the conditions in Hungary, which are a mockery of all civilisation, as the ideal of national liberty. We, therefore, declare in regard to any peace negotiations: Our national development can only then be secured when the right of self-determination of all nations shall be fully, clearly and unreservedly recognised with binding guarantees of its immediate realisation."
At the same time the Slavs made a proposal in the Austro-Hungarian Delegations, insisting that the peace negotiations with Russia should be conducted by a committee selected from both parliaments on the basis of nationality, and consisting of twelve Germans, ten Magyars, ten Czecho-Slovaks, seven Yugoslavs, five Poles, four Ruthenes, three Rumanians and one Italian.
Finally, on December 5, the Czech Socialist deputy Tusar declared in the Reichsrat:
"We want to be our own masters, and if it is high treason to ask for liberty and independence, then let us say at once that each of us is a traitor, but such high treason is an honour, and not a dishonour. As regards the negotiations with Russia, we declare that Count Czernin does not represent the nations of Austria and has no right to speak in our name; he is merely the plenipotentiary of the dynasty. The old Austria, based on police, bureaucracy, militarism and racial tyranny, cannot survive this war. We also want peace, but it must be a just peace. The Czecho-Slovaks will under all circumstances defend their rights."
In conjunction with this declaration we may quote two other Czech Socialists showing the opinion of the Czechs on the Russian Revolution.
On November 29, deputy Modráček declared in the Reichsrat:
"The Revolution of the Bolsheviks is a misfortune for the Russian Revolution, the Russian Republic and all the oppressed nations of Europe. So long as the German Social Democracy permits the working masses to be brought to the battlefield in the interests of Imperialism, the action of the Bolsheviks is not the work for Socialism but for German Tsarism. I do not undervalue the significance and the greatness of the Russian Revolution: it is the German Social Democrats who fail to perform their moral duty in this war and do not comprehend the Russian Revolution."
Still more outspoken is the declaration of deputy Winter, who said in the Reichsrat on February 21, 1918:
"The workers of the whole world will never forget that the Russian Revolution was the first social revolution on a large scale. And on this revolutionary movement Germany has directly and Austria-Hungary indirectly declared war. Perhaps Austria-Hungary wants to repay the Romanoffs in 1918 for the aid which they rendered to the Habsburgs in 1848.... Austria-Hungary once before engaged in the European reaction by crushing revolution in Italy. She gathered the fruits of this act in 1848, 1859, 1866, and in the present war. Formerly France and Russia participated in the Holy Alliance, but to-day the Central Powers are the only refuge of reaction in Europe."