Page:The Bohemian Review, vol1, 1917.djvu/101

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THE BOHEMIAN REVIEW
3

storm of hatred, and Prof. Kemety stated that by demanding the union of Czecho-Slovaks the Bohemians declared war upon Hungary.

Václav Klofáč
Václav Klofáč

VÁCLAV KLOFÁČ
leader of the Czech national socialist deputies.

Klofáč was arrested shortly after the outbreak of the war and has been kept in prison ever since, alhtough no court passed judgment on him and no charges against him were ever published. He was not released from custody even when the Austrian Parliament met on May 30. As the strongest protest against his unlawful imprisonment the Bohemian deputies chose Klofáč for their president. The picture shown here was taken in Chicago in 1913, when Klofáč was travelling in the United States. It was taken by Mally & Co.

Other Slavs of Austria made similar demands. The Jugoslavs declared their program to be the formation of a united Jugoslav state, the Poles urged their national program of an independent Poland with access to the Baltic, while the Little Russians also demanded their own state. Roumanians and Italians could say nothing, but every one knows, even Emperor Charles, that they hope to be joined to their free brothers of Roumania and Italy. Such is the present state of affairs in Austria. It really amounts to a revolution, even if a bloodless one. No other kind is possible. In Bohemia 90 per cent of men between the ages of 17 and 55 are in the army. Bohemian workingmen, like Belgians, have been deported in thousands to work in other Austrian lands, and the women, the children and the old men, without arms, cannot make an armed rebellion. If notwithstanding all this there have been great riots in Bohemian and Moravian cit ies, it is the final proof of the firm will of the Czechs to break away from Austria forever.

Is there anyone in Austria capable of making separate peace with the Allies? The present government is the so-called bureau-chiefs cabinet, because Charles was unable to form a real ministry acceptable to parliament. If the Allies should make