Independent Bohemia | Page 9

out between the German and the non-German world and the
definite fate of Austria should be at stake, the conflict would surely not
end with the preservation of Austria_."
And on November 10, 1911, he admitted that his former hopes for the
destruction of the Austro-German Alliance and a rapprochement
between Austria and Russia proved to be in vain:
"... _I had an aim in life and a leading idea. The events of the
annexation crisis have proved calamitous for the policy which I

followed all my life_. I wished to do everything which lay within the
compass of my small powers, to render my own nation happy and great
in a free, powerful and generally respected Austria ... _I have always
resented the fact that when they talked about Austria people really
meant only the Germans and Magyars, as if the great majority of Slavs
upon whom rest the biggest burdens did not exist_. But now--and no
beautiful words can make me change my opinion on that point--an
entirely independent policy has become unthinkable, because the only
path which remains open to Vienna leads by way of Berlin. Berlin will
henceforward direct our policy."
4. To offer any proofs that the present war was deliberately planned and
provoked by the Governments of Berlin, Vienna and Budapest seems to
me superfluous. Who can to-day have any doubt that Austria wilfully
provoked the war in a mad desire to crush Serbia? Who can doubt that
Austria for a long time entertained imperialist ambitions with respect to
the Balkans which were supported by Berlin which wished to use
Austria as a "bridge to the East"?
No more damning document for Austria can be imagined than Prince
Lichnowsky's Memorandum. He denounces Austria's hypocritical
support of the independence of Albania. In this respect he holds similar
views to those expressed in the Austrian delegations of 1913 by
Professor Masaryk, who rightly denounced the Austrian plan of setting
up an independent Albania on the plea of "the right of nationalities"
which Austria denied her own Slavs. Professor Masaryk rightly pointed
out at that time that an outlet to the sea is a vital necessity for Serbia,
that the Albanians were divided into so many racial, linguistic and
religious groups and so uncivilised that they could not form an
independent nation, and that the whole project was part and parcel of
Austria's anti-Serbian policy and her plans for the conquest of the
Balkans. Prince Lichnowsky admits that an independent Albania "had
no prospect of surviving," and that it was merely an Austrian plan for
preventing Serbia from obtaining an access to the sea.
He apparently disagrees with the idea of "the power of a Ruling House,
the dynastic idea," but stands up for "a National State, the democratic
idea." That in itself seems to indicate that he is in favour of the
destruction of Austria and its substitution by new states, built according
to the principle of nationality. He admittedly disagrees with the views

of Vienna and Budapest, and criticises Germany's alliance with Austria,
probably knowing, as a far-sighted and well-informed politician, that
Austria-Hungary cannot possibly survive this war.
Prince Lichnowsky frankly admits that the murder of the Archduke
Francis Ferdinand was a mere pretext for Vienna, which in fact had
resolved on an expedition against Serbia soon after the second Balkan
war by which she felt herself humiliated. In scathing terms he
denounces the Triple Alliance policy and thinks it a great mistake that
Germany allied herself with the "Turkish and Magyar oppressors." And
though he says that it was Germany which "persisted that Serbia must
be massacred," he makes it quite clear that it was Vienna that led the
conspiracy against Europe, since on all questions Germany "took up the
position prescribed to her by Vienna." The policy of espousing
Austria's quarrels, the development of the Austro-German Alliance into
a pooling of interests in all spheres, was "the best way of producing
war." The Balkan policy of conquest and strangulation "was not the
German policy, but that of the Austrian Imperial House." What better
testimony is required to prove that Austria was not the blind tool, but
the willing and wilful accomplice of Germany?

III
CZECH POLITICAL PARTIES BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR
The Czech policy during the past seventy years has always had but one
ultimate aim in view: the re-establishment of the ancient kingdom of
Bohemia and the full independence of the Czecho-Slovak nation. From
the very beginning of their political activity Czech politicians resisted
the Pan-German scheme of Central Europe. They preached the
necessity of the realisation of liberty and equality for all nations, and of
a federation of the non-Germans of Central Europe as a barrier against
German expansion.
The chief reason for the failure of their efforts was the fact