The President: "I cannot admit such an expression about this state and I call the deputy to order."
Dr. Stránský: "Excellency, I really do not deserve such a rebuke. It would be sad if we could not speak freely and with proper emphasis against a state form which has been imposed upon us.
"Let Dr. Seidler remember that we regard Austria, whose integrity according to him must not be questioned, as a centuries-old crime on the liberties of humanity. Let him remember that it is not only our political intention, not only our instinct of self-preservation, but our highest duty and--do not hesitate to say so--our national religion and our greatest moral mission to damage Austria wherever and whenever possible, and that our loyalty to our own nation, to our native country, to our history, to our future and to the Bohemian Crown, prompts us to betray Austria which is backed up by Germany. We are therefore determined faithfully to betray her whenever and wherever we can. I tell you further, gentlemen, that this state, this Austria which Seidler talks about, is not a state at all. It is a hideous, centuries-old dream, a nightmare, a beast, and nothing else. It is a state without a name, it is a constitutional monarchy without a crown and without a constitution. For what kind of a constitution is it if it has not the necessary confirmation by oath and won the general approval of nations because it was found to be untenable? It is a state without patriots and without patriotism, it is a state which arose by the amalgamation of eight irredents--the German one included--it is a state which had no future and in which the dynasty ... (suppressed) ... in a word, it is a state which is no state at all. As a matter of fact, Austria no longer exists, it is an absurdity and an impossibility. If I spoke about Czech regiments which went to embrace their 'enemies,' I must admit that personally I know nothing about them except what I heard from my German colleagues who persist in making complaints against us. We believe every word of what they say to be true, but ... (suppressed by censor). Did you ever hear that a husband conscious of his honour and respectability told the whole world about the infidelity of his wife who left him because he ill-treated her? No, because the husband knows that it is his shame and not hers. And if Czecho-Slovak brigades are to-day fighting against Austria-Hungary it is only a proof that there is something very wrong with Austria, that Austria is more rotten than Shakespeare's Denmark. For what other state has soldiers who ran over voluntarily to the enemy? You keep on saying that England has the Irish problem. Did you ever hear of Irish brigades, did you ever hear that any French legions were fighting for the Central Powers against France, or Russian legions against Russia when we were at war with Russia? Indeed, gentlemen, not even Turkey has any legions fighting with the enemy against her. There must therefore be some deep reason for Czecho-Slovak, Polish and Yugoslav legions fighting on the side of the Entente."
We think that any comments on this explicit declaration, in which a Czech deputy representing his whole nation openly expressed hope for the dismemberment of Austria and praised the Czecho-Slovak troops fighting for the Allies, are superfluous.
CZECHO-SLOVAK CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER NON-GERMAN NATIONS OF CENTRAL EUROPE
The Czechs have always clearly seen that one of the chief reasons which enable the German-Magyar minority to rule over the Slav majority is the lack of co-operation amongst the subject peoples. Already before the war the Czechs were pioneers of Slav solidarity and reciprocity, wrongly called Pan-Slavism. Thanks to their geographic position, they have no claims conflicting with any nations except the Germans and Magyars who are their only enemies.
In these efforts for promoting Slav solidarity the Czechs met serious obstacles. In the case of some of their Slav friends it was lack of internal unity which prevented co-operation. In other cases it was the quarrels artificially fomented by Austria between her subject nations, notably between the Poles and Ruthenes and between the Yugoslavs and Italians. Finally, the Poles lacked a definite international point of view. They were justly sceptical of Slav solidarity seeing that they were oppressed by a government which claimed to represent a great Slav nation.
All these obstacles, however, have one by one disappeared as the war has gone on. All the subject peoples of Central Europe saw that they were persecuted and driven to be slaughtered by the same enemies in Berlin, Vienna and Budapest. The oppressed races found at last that they have common aspirations and interests, and the collapse of Russia to-day makes even the Poles realise where their real enemies are. The Polish people may to-day have only one orientation: against the Central Powers. It is an inspiriting sign that even some Polish "Realpoliticians" begin to realise that Austria is doomed and that it is bad politics to count upon Vienna, to say nothing of Berlin.