The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 2/Press comment on Czechoslovak recognition

PRESS COMMENT ON CZECHOSLOVAK RECOGNITION.

 

There is an event which means even more now and hereafter than the current military advance. That is the recognition of the Czechoslovak government by the United States, as a cobelligerent agains the German and Austro-Hungarian empires.

The allied armies may be checked, or (God prevent it) they may be pushed back somewhat, as the fortunes of war may determine. But the recognitoin of the new nation will not be set aside. It is now a historic and settled fact, one of the fundamental facts of the war which will dictate the nature of victory and the nature of peace.

—Washington Post.

 

This is perhaps the first time in modern history that a nation has been formed by a migratory people, and certainly the first time that it has been created and maintained in the heat of war and without a definite location. At present the Czechoslovaks are scattered all the way from Moscow to Vladivostok. Most of the people of this race are still under the dominion of Austria-Hungary. The head of the government, president of the National Council and comamnder-in-chief of the army, is now in Washington. The army itself is holding a part of Siberia, with allied assistance. Never was there such an anomalous situation. And yet it is the logical outcome of events.

—Washington Star.

 

The United States takes its place beside Great Britain, France and Italy in recognizing the Czechoslovak people as a cobelligerent. It is a policy of wisdom, it is right; we might add that it is a generous policy did we not feel that it is first of all an act of justice. The Czechoslovaks stand with us against the common enemy of mankind. They have shown their bravery in Siberia, in Italy, and in France. In recognizing them as cobelligerents, the allied nations make official acknowledgement of an accomplished fact and discharge a just obligation.

New York Times.

 

We shall have to put the new power securely on the map. We can aid it in many ways. We have a large population of Czechs and Slovenes, who under the international law were up to now subjects of Austria-Hungary. We did not treat them as such. But now they have become citizens of an Allied nation, free to render military service to it or to enter our own armies under a compact such as we have recently concluded with Great Britain and Canada.

Moreover we can make loans to the new provisional government and can equip and supply its troops without clashing with international law technicalities.

Slovakia is at present a nation without territory. Its limits have not been dfined by the surveyor. But it exists in the hearts and minds of a people who have willed their liberation and have earned it by splendidly demonstrating their capacity for self-government. The indomitable spirit of nationality which the Czechoslovaks in Russia have exhibited is one of the marvels of the war. Fighting for their own future and the future of liberty and democracy in Europe, they have saved Russia from the German oppressor. Their almost miraculous intervention in the nick of time blocked German penetration into Russian Asia and gave Siberia a chance to escape from the clutches of Bolshevism. They have enabled the real Russia to rally against the Teuton invasion. If an Eastern front is re-established, it will be largely their work. Gratitude and policy therefore combine to sanction our recognition of the Czechoslovak nation.—New York Tribune.