On May 22 the Austro-Hungarian Government issued a decree dividing
Bohemia into twelve districts, under a system giving new administrative
and electoral advantages to the Germanic population. The German
minority in the Imperial Parliament had been about to be completely
isolated by a union of the Czechs, Slovaks, Jugoslavs, Ruthenians, and
Poles. The electoral redistribution sought to avoid this by reducing
the Czech strength in the Reichsrat at Vienna as well as in the
Bohemian Diet. An official French bulletin dated May 22 said:
The law bulletin of the Austrian Empire publishes a decree
according to which the district Governments which were so long
demanded by the Germans are established in Bohemia. The twelve
district Captains who are nominated will represent the Statthalter
of Prague in each district and will have the same powers.
The boundaries of the districts are fixed, so far as possible,
according to the national grouping. In the words of the decree,
"the aim is to take the first steps toward the re-establishment
of order in Bohemia." This decree foreruns undoubtedly a policy
of repression, the first act of which tends to dismember Bohemia
by granting to the German elements the guarantees or, better, the
privileges which they demand.
Up to the present, Bohemia comprised thirteen districts, only
two of which had a majority of German population, according
to statistics from Vienna. In four of the districts there are
hardly any Germans. The new plan aims at creating in each of
the twelve new districts a German minority and to grant to this
minority, however small it may be, considerable advantages in the
administrative and electoral domains.
This method is meant to bring about as a first result a
considerable increase in the number of German deputies in the
Diet to the prejudice of the Czechs, who until now have held the
majority of the seats. It is clear that this device of the Pan
Germans is bound to arouse the most violent opposition on the part
of the Czechs.
A dispatch printed in all the Wagram papers calls attention to the
fact that martial law has been proclaimed in several districts of
Bohemia because in certain regions serious riots have occurred.
More than 150 persons have been put in prison. The estate of
Prince Furstenberg was ransacked. Riots occurred at Marsch,
Ostrau, Pilsen, and Nachod. The Czech press expresses itself very
violently. The Vetcher writes:
"The Government is trying in vain to present its reform under
bright colors, but it is evident at first sight, in fact,
that nothing but the dismembering of Bohemia is under way.
The Ministerial decree is preparing the parceling out of our
fatherland and the foundation of a German province made of our own
flesh."
The Narodni Listi, which was suppressed by the censorship as
guilty of "criminal dealings," has written:
"It is in vain that threats are hurled at us to divert us from the
line of conduct which we have decided to follow according to our
proclamation. It is in vain that the sessions of Parliament are
adjourned. Our indignation will not be less in June (the Austrian
Chamber is to resume its sittings on June 19) and our opponents
will have the opportunity of realizing it. The chart which,
according to von Seidler, is to be granted to us will not change
our resolution: 'We shall fight on without any consideration, with
compromise, for the defense of the Czech State.'
"This evidently shows the attitude of all the nationalities
crushed by the Germans and the Magyars in the Dual Monarchy. The
movement was not entirely unexpected, but it is possible that the
fact of threatening them with a pitiless repression has advanced
it and made it more formidable.
"Emperor Charles is away from Vienna, and on his return he will
find political conditions which the food situation will make even
more distressing. Once more the frightfulness of German methods,
so dear to the Germans, will bear its fruit by arousing rebellion
of the people oppressed."