It is stated by American sympathizers of the Czechs that the new
decree is intended also to weaken the Bohemian national movement by
decentralizing the forces of the nation and partly to prepare for the
possible establishment of a province of "German Bohemia," such as
has been talked of in case the national movement is so strong as to
force the Austrian Government to try to compromise on some sort of
federalization.
The Czecho-Slovak Nation, which has declared its demands for unity and
complete independence, includes the Slovaks in the northern part of the
Kingdom of Hungary and the Czechs, now divided among Bohemia, Moravia,
and Silesia, three of the seventeen crown lands of Austria.
There has been much reference in German-Austrian papers recently to the
possible establishment of a German Bohemia, to include the districts
with the largest German population. Any rearrangement on this basis
would be beset with obstacles, for the Czecho-Slovaks refuse to consent
to any partition and the Germans demand not only the border districts
for their German Bohemia, but the City of Prague itself.
It was recently reported that in April the Pope, acting through the
Papal Nuncio at the request of the Vienna Government, had caused the
arrest of Dr. Yeglitch, Prince Archbishop of Laibach, on account of
his activities in behalf of the Jugoslav movement. Dr. Yeglitch was
the head of the Slovene Catholic party in Parliament, and his arrest
produced an outburst of indignation in Croatia and Slovenia. A Vatican
dispatch later declared the report of the Pope's connection with the
matter to be entirely without foundation.