POLICE RULE IN BOHEMIA
In his speech to the Senate President Wilson, said: "No peace can
last, or ought to last, which does not recognise and accept the
principle that Governments derive all their just powers from the
consent at the governed. . . . No nation should seek to extend its
polity over any other nation or people, but every people should be
left free to determine its own policy, its own way of development,
unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the great
and powerful."
The realisation of these admirable sentiments presents infinite
problems in various sections of Europe, but nowhere, perhaps, more
than in Austria-Hungary. In his heterogeneous collection of
peoples, the old Emperor had to make a choice between two courses
in order to hold his thirteen distinct races together in one
Empire. He could have tried to make them politically contented
through freedom to manage their own affairs while owing allegiance
to the Empire as a whole, or he could suppress the individual
people to such an extent that he would have unity by force.
He chose the second course. With the Germans dominant in Austria
and the Magyars in Hungary, other nations have been scientifically
subjugated. As in the case of the procedure of "Preventive Arrest"
in Germany, the authorities seek to work smoothly and silently,
with the result that only an occasional echo reaches the outside
world.
The description of the relations of the various peoples and the
"Unity-Machine" employed would fill a large book. Control of
public opinion has been the first action of the rulers of the Dual
Monarchy. In peace time, not only were the suppressed nations,
such as the Czechs, Slovaks, Rumanians, Luthenians, Poles,
Slovenes, Italians, but all the citizens of Austria-Hungary, denied
the right of free speech and freedom of the Press. Some of the
regulations by which the Government held absolute sway over its
subjects are:
(1) No newspaper or other printing business could be established
until a heavy deposit was made with the police for the payment of
fines, such fines to be arbitrarily imposed by the police--in whom
is vested extraordinary power--when anything political was written
which did not please them. They are difficult to please, I may add.
(2) A complete copy of each edition must be sent to the police
before it was put on sale. "Good" editors whose inspiration was of
a nature to enable them to interpret the wishes of the Government,
sometimes received a dispensation from this formality.
(3) No club might hold a private meeting. A representative of the
police must be present. This rule was often extended even to
friendly gatherings in private homes in such places as Bohemia.
(4) No political meeting might be held without a permit, and a
representative of the police must be present. Often he sat on the
platform. It is amusing for the visitor from a free country to
attend a political meeting where the chairman, speaker and
policeman file up on the stage to occupy the three chairs reserved
for them. The policeman may be heard by those in the front rows
continually cautioning the speaker. If he thinks the speaker is
talking too freely he either intervenes through the chairman and
asks him to be moderate or dismisses the meeting.
These regulations, I again remind the reader, were in force in
peace time. It is easy to see how an extension of them effectually
checks attempts of the Czechs (Bohemians) and other peoples to
legislate themselves into a little freedom.
When I came to England early in the war from Austria-Hungary and
Germany I heard many expressions of hope that the discontented
races in the Empire of Francis Joseph would rebel, and later
expressions of surprise that they did not. Englishmen held the
opinion that such races would be decidedly averse from fighting for
the Hapsburgs. The opinion was correct, and nobody knew this
better than the Hapsburgs themselves.
Like the German Government in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, the
Austrian Government has endeavoured to mislead public opinion in
foreign countries as to the state of mind of the Czechs by false
information and to conceal the true military and political
situation from the population at home. Austria's first problem at
the outbreak of war--a problem which has been worked out to the
last detail--was rapidly to move the soldiers of the subjugated
races from their native lands. Since the Bosnians, for example,
are of the Serbian race, they were mobilised secretly in the middle
of July and sent out of Bosnia. I saw 30,000 moved through Trieste
several days before war was declared on Serbia. A German
acquaintance, with great shipping interests, enthusiastically
indiscreet at sight of them, exclaimed to the little group of which
I was one: "A wonderful system--a wonderful system! The Bosnians
could not be trusted to fight the Serbs. But we Germans can use
them if they prove troublesome to Austria," he continued excitedly.
"We can send them against the French. We will tell them that if
they do not shoot the French, we will shoot _them_." I thought
this a rather curious conversation for July 25th, 1914.
Less than fortnight later I saw two Bohemian regiments arrive at
Prasso, Transylvania, the province farthest removed from their
homes, to be garrisoned in a region, the population of which is
Rumanian, Hungarian and Saxon. I was told later that the Rumanians
who had left the garrisons at Prasso had gone to Bohemia. As I
observed these initial steps in the great smooth-running
Austro-Hungarian military machine, I was impressed with the
impossibility of revolution. With the soldier element
scientifically broken up and scattered all over the country, who
could revolt--the women and children?
The Slav soldiers of Austria-Hungary desert to Russia at every
opportunity. The fact that she now has upwards of 1,200,000
Austro-Hungarian prisoners is sufficient refutation of the
sugar-coated propaganda describing how all the peoples who make up
Austria-Hungary rushed loyally and enthusiastically to arms to the
defence of their Emperor and common country. This is perfectly
true of the politically dominant races, the Germans and the
Magyars, but the "enthusiasm" I witnessed among the subjugated
races consisted chiefly of sad-faced soldiers and weeping women.
The Bohemians have given most trouble. One German officer who was
sent to Austria to help bolster up her army told me that he didn't
worry over the desertion of Bohemians singly and in small groups.
He expected that. But he did take serious exception to the
increasingly popular custom of whole battalions with their officers
and equipment passing over to the Russian lines intact.
The story of the Bohemian regiment trapped in the Army of Leopold
of Bavaria is generally known in Austria. When the staff learned
that this regiment planned to cross to the Russians on a certain
night, three Bavarian regiments, well equipped with machine-guns,
were set to trap it. Contrary to usual procedure, the Bohemians
were induced by the men impersonating the Russians to lay down
their arms as an evidence of good faith before crossing. The whole
regiment was then rounded up and marched to the rear, where a
public example was made of it. The officers were shot. Then every
tenth man was shot. The Government, in order to circumvent any
unfavourable impression which this act might make in Bohemia,
caused to be read each day for three days in the schools a decree
of the Emperor, condemning the treachery of this regiment, the
number of which was ordered for ever to be struck from the military
rolls of the Empire.
During the terrific fighting at Baranowitchi in the great Russian
offensive last summer, at a time when the Russians repeatedly but
unsuccessfully stormed that important railway junction, some
Prussian units found their right flank unsupported one morning at
dawn, because two Bohemian battalions had changed flags during the
night. The next Russian attack caused the Prussians to lose 48 per
cent. of their men.
This was the final straw for the Staff of Leopold's Army. An Order
was issued explaining to the troops that henceforth no more Czechs
would have the honour of doing first line duty, since their courage
was not of as high a degree as that of the others. I found that
the Prussians, despite their depleted state, actually believed this
explanation, which filled them with pride in themselves and
contempt for the Czechs.
But the German officers in charge of reorganising the
Austro-Hungarian Army were not content to let Bohemians perform
safe duties in the rear. Consequently, they diluted them until no
regiment contained more than 20 per cent.
The authorities have been no less thorough with the civilian
population. From the day of mobilisation all political life was
suspended. The three parties of the Opposition, the Radicals, the
National-Socialists, and the Progressives, were annihilated and
their newspapers suppressed. Their leaders, such men as Kramarzh,
Rasin, Klofatch, Scheiner, Mazaryk, Durich, the men who served as
guides to the nation, were imprisoned or exiled. This is surely a
violation of the principle that Governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the governed, for all these men were the
true representatives of the people. The fact that the Government
was obliged to get rid of the leaders of the nation shows what the
real situation in Bohemia is.
The Czech deputies who were considered dangerous, numbering forty,
were mobilised. They were not all sent to the front; some were
allowed temporary exemption; but the Government gave them to
understand that the slightest act of hostility towards the Monarchy
on their part would result in their being called up immediately and
sent to the front.
The fetters of the Press were drawn more tightly. Even the German
papers were not allowed into Bohemia. For some months, two or
three enterprising editors used to send a representative to Dresden
to read the German and English papers there. At present
three-quarters of the Czech papers and all the Slovak newspapers
have been suppressed. The columns of those which are still allowed
to appear in Bohemia and Moravia are congested by mandates of the
police and the military authorities, which the editors are
compelled to insert. Recently the Government censorship has been
particularly active against hooks, collections of national songs,
and post-cards. It has even gone so far as to confiscate
scientific works dealing with Slav questions, Dostoyevski's novels,
the books of Tolstoi and Millioukoff, and collections of purely
scientific Slav study and histories.
The Government, however, have had to proceed to far greater
lengths. By May, 1916, the death sentences of civilians pronounced
in Austria since the beginning of the war exceeded 4,000. Of
these, 965 were Czechs. A large proportion of the condemned were
women. The total of soldiers executed amounts to several thousands.
Is it not peculiar that among people which the Viennese propaganda
represents as loyal, hostages are taken in Bohemia, and condemned
to death, under the threat of execution if a popular movement takes
place? The people are told of this and are given to understand
that the hostages have hopes for mercy if all is quiet.
Not only have the authorities confiscated the property of all
persons convicted of political offences and of all Czechs who have
fled from Austria-Hungary, but a system has been established by
which the property of Czech soldiers who are prisoners in Russia is
confiscated. The State profits doubly by this measure, for it
further suppresses the allowances made to the families of these
soldiers. In order to terrorise its adversaries through such
measures, the Government instructs the Austrian newspapers to
publish long lists of confiscations and other penalties.
After a time, however, the Austrian Government practically
abdicated in favour of the Prussians and now undertake to carry out
the measures of Germanisation dictated by Berlin. The rights in
connection with the use of the Czech language in administration, in
the Law Courts and on the railways, rights which were won by the
desperate efforts of two generations of Czech politicians, have
been abrogated. The management of the railways has been placed in
the hands of Prussian military officials; the use of the Czech
language has been suppressed in the administration, where it had
formerly been lawful. The Czechs have been denied access to the
Magistrature and to public offices where they had occasionally
succeeded in directing the affairs in their own country.