to draw the line so absolutely between the present and the past.
“But ‘Bohemia’ has in the course of time become a condition instead of a State. It is the land of the gipsies, the synonym for Romany. It is the land of the gay, the careless, the unconventional. Small wonder that the Czech, flushed with the pride of freedom at last, balks at its resurrection as an appellation for his reborn State. Bohemia would do very well for us, but not by any means for him.
“But the article, while it refuses consideration of any name that doesn’t signify the race rather than history, at least proposes to make the Slavic name as easy for us as possible. However willingly we would go the whole measure, Cz is a combination the Anglo-Saxon will stumble over as long as the English language remains. Now, if ever, is the time to get rid of it. We are rather surprised to find that besides being burdensome it is a wholly gratuitous imposition upon our good nature. The palatalized “c” is “ch”, as in “church” There is no “cz” combination in Bohemian. In order to be politely exact, simple spelling of any Slav name being an obvious impossibility, we have taken the most complicated spelling possible first, rendered the Czech word into Polish and then half-Anglicized that. Ch would be a very simply beginning: also the right one. As the author points out, “the English spelling of a Bohemian word in a Polish way, which to the average American is an incompreensible way, is an incomgruity which must be given up.”
“The rest is still more pleasing. Final ch in Bohemia is a soft h, as in “hold”—just a gentle intangible aspiration. Why snort it out as if it were a “k” inside a chestnut burr? Chehs, the Bohemians are to themselves; why not Chehs to the Anglo-Saxon world and Chehia their land?
“Here is a commendable effort to launch the name of a new State on the world correctly and simply. It so happens that the simplest, most natural Anglicization is the most correct. Possible the effort will not succeed; Czecho-Slovakia, barbarous though it be, has a good hold. But when one gets right down to brass tacks, what earthly need is there for the Czechs to worry over what we call them? A sibilant “Paris” doesn’t disturb the French, nor Holland the Dutch, nor “Constantinople” the denizens of Istambul. And as long as time goes on, John Huss will remain a Bohemian, and tourists will be able to run over to Bohemia with their eyes shut, though they need a map to locate Czecho-Slovakia—however one spell it.”
Masaryk’s First Presidential Message
Two days after his arrival in Prague on December 23rd, 1918, President Thomas G. Masaryk read his first message to the members of the National Assembly in the ancient royal castle of Prague. In addition to the deputies there were present also diplomatic and military representatives of the Allies.
The adress was introduced by a quotation well known to every Czech, a quotation from the great educator and the last bishop of the Bohemian Brethren, John Amos Comenius: “I firmly trust in God that after the tempests of wrath brought upon our heads by our sins have passed over, the government of thy common wealth will return to thee, oh Czech people.” Then the president said: The times through which the Czechoslovak nation is passing seem like a fairy tale. But the fairy tale is a reality. The whole world was divided into two camps; after a terrible fight victory was gained by those who defended the ideals of justice; the idealists won. Autocracy which claimed that sovereigns ruled by divine grace was defeated by democracy resting on the principles of humanitarian society. Prussian militarism was vanquished by popular armies which had first to be organized during the course of the war. The Allies, faithful to democracy, declared for the rights of all states and nations, the small as well as the great, to independence. Against the four Central Powers the whole of mankind united. And if the consensus of nations could be used as an argument for the existence of God, then the consensus of all nations of the world in this war is proof of the truth of democracy.
We Czechs and Slovaks could not stand aside; we had to decide against Austria-Hungary and Germany. For our entire history, its contents and significance, led us to union with democratic powers. And so quite correctly and fortunately we took our stand from the very beginning of the war on the side of the entente. There was no place for us in the ranks of those who attacked us, led by barbarous war-cries of violence.
Permit me, my friends, to give you a report of our activities abroad. I can mention only the most important facts, for a history of the four years work would be long and voluminous; I shall desribe only the principles by which our work was governed, rather than report all that we have done.
I myself saw clearly that I could not and must not remain in the services of Austria-Hungary. It is true that at first I hesitated to act: I felt the tremendous responsibility. I counted the cost of defeat—but our soldiers refusing to serve and surrendering to the Allies, criminal execution of our men who rejoiced at the promises of the Russian commander, the entire machinery
