CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

JAN KUKLÍK CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ perish through its connection with Austria, it existed within the Austrian state and Austrian Emperors ruled in the Czech Lands on account of being Czech Kings. The principal role in the formulation of the idea of independence and the union of the Czech Lands and Slovakia was played by Professor T. G. Masaryk. The Czech politician and university professor decided to take political action in exile, where he supported the creation of an independent state and persuaded the Allied Powers of his conceptions. Professor R.W. Seton-Watson, who had been interested in the Czech and particularly in the Slovak development even beforeWorldWar I, prepared a summary of Masaryk’s political goals for the Foreign Office following discussions with Masaryk in the Netherlands in September 1914. 6 Masaryk’s ideas, including a possible new arrangement of Central and Eastern Europe, were made more specific in his lecture called The Problems of Small Nations in the European Crisis , which he gave at King’s College in London. 7 However, his first “anti-Austrian” speech is linked to his stay in Switzerland; he delivered it symbolically in Zurich on 4 and 6 July 1915 and then in the Reformation Hall in Geneva on the 500 th anniversary of Master Jan Hus’s martyrdom. Masaryk was invited by associations of compatriots, and in his speech he interconnected historical, political, and religious reasons for the parting of the Czech Lands from Austria. 8 The proclamation of 14 November 1915 conceived by Masaryk required the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia free from Austria-Hungary and mentioned the union of the Czech Lands with Slovakia; it was formally adopted by the Czech Committee Abroad which was later reconstituted as the Czechoslovak National Council (CSNC) with its seat in Paris. The proclamation was signed by the Agrarian Party deputy in the Imperial Council ( Reichsrat ) Josef Durych and representatives of the Czech and Slovak compatriot associations and organisations from France, USA, Great Britain, and Russia. 9 A more detailed program of “the reconstitution of Bohemia as an independent state” 10 was later outlined in a confidential memorandum called Independent Bohemia of May 1915, which was presented to the British Foreign Secretary E. Grey. “Slovak regions in Upper Hungary” were to be united with the Czech Lands. Masaryk described Slovaks as “Czechs, although they use their own dialect as a standard language. Slovaks make efforts for independence and accept the program of integration with Bohemia”. However, a precondition for the creation of such state was the collapse of Austria-Hungary which Masaryk called an artificial state unable to tackle the problems of nationalities and, what’s more, an ally of Wilhelm’s Germany. Masaryk proposed a personal union between Serbia and the Czechoslovak state where the Serbian King would become the Czech King (but, in Masaryk’s thoughts, a Danish, 6 RYCHLÍK, J., MARZIK, T. D., BIELIK, M.: R.W. Seton-Watson a jeho vzťah k Čechom a Slovákom , díl 1. [ R.W. Seton-Watson and his Relations to Czechs and Slovaks, Part 1]. Dokumenty, Praha: Ústav T. G. Masaryka – Matica slovenská, 1995, doc. No. 61. 7 The problem of small nations in the European crisis; inaugural lecture at the University of London, King’s College by Professor Thomas G. Masaryk, The Council for the Study of International Relations, Foreign Series, No. 2 [1916]. 8 KUBŮ, E., ŠOUŠA, J.: T. G. Masaryk a jeho c.k. protivníci: Československá zahraniční akce ženevského období v zápase s rakousko-uherskou diplomacií, zpravodajskými službami a propagandou (1915–1916) [ T. G. Masaryk and his Opponents: Czechoslovak Action Abroad in Geneva Period of Struggle with Austro-Hungarian Diplomacy, Intelligence Services and Propaganda (1915–1916) ]. Praha: Karolinum 2015, pp. 78-87 and the document in appendix No. 2. 9 Ibid, p. 90 and following. 10 R.W. SETON-WATSON, Masaryk in England , Cambridge: The University Press and Macmillan Comp. New York, 1943, p. 116 and following.

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