Project for a South Slavic State, Aided by the
Czechs, Threatens to Disrupt Austria-Hungary
Of the many internal troubles tending toward the disintegration of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire the one that has grown most rapidly
in the last year is the Jugoslav movement--the movement for an
independent State to be known as Jugoslavia, and to include all the
Southern Slavic provinces of Austria-Hungary, as well as Serbia and
Montenegro in the Balkans. This project assumed a new phase in May,
1918, when it received the active support of the millions of Czechs
in Bohemia, Austria's northwest border province. The Czech demand
for a free Bohemia and Jugoslavia helped to precipitate a political
crisis at Vienna, which Emperor Charles met by summarily suppressing
Parliament. All indications pointed to the existence of a united effort
of the Slavs, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians, Croatians, and
Italians to throw off the Teutonic yoke, completely dismembering the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The only session of the Reichsrat that has been held in Austria-Hungary
since the war began was opened on May 31, 1917, and closed abruptly
by imperial order on May 4, 1918. Throughout that period the Slavic
Deputies in the lower house showed increasing hostility to the war
methods and plans of the Teutonic minority which rules the empire. The
house consisted of 516 members, of whom only 233 were Germans. The
dominant nationality has for years managed to keep its control of the
Reichsrat through alliance with the Poles, who hold 80 or 90 seats,
but in the Spring of 1918 the Poles broke away from the Germans, and
suddenly the Government discovered that it was in a minority and that
its war budgets were in serious danger of being defeated. Then it
resorted to the drastic measure of adjourning Parliament under threat
of force.
Already the Czechs, Slovaks, and Jugoslavs been working together
in Parliament, generally getting the support of the Ruthenians
(Ukrainians) and the Italians. In the closing months of 1917 this
tendency was accentuated, when the Polish leaders came into closer
alliance with the Czecho-Slovaks and Jugoslavs. This was cemented
by a congress of Czech Deputies, held in Prague on Jan. 6, 1918,
which adopted unanimously the declaration given below. The document
was at first suppressed by the Austro-Hungarian censor, and the few
publications that got hold of it were not allowed to leave the country.