CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INDEPENDENT CZECHOSLOVAK STATE … E. G.V. Derby. This step can be interpreted as the de facto recognition of the Czechoslovak provisional government, although not to the same extent as done by France. 33 Yet the international aspects surrounding the creation of Czechoslovakia became more visible only in 1919–1920. As mentioned earlier, the Allied (Entente) Powers postponed the final international recognition of the newly established states until the Peace conference in Paris where other related issues were to be addressed, such as the borders, finances, military issues, and minorities. Great Britain, in particular, regarded the current status of the Czechoslovak state as “provisional”, which stems from the fact that only after the Peace conference was Great Britain willing to regard the mutual diplomatic relations as “final” and would send an envoy to Prague rather than a provisional chargé d´affaires a.i. 34 Likewise, the U.S. took no steps until the conference, apart from the above-mentioned declaration from 2 September 1918. France, which became the main guarantor of the Czechoslovak independence in the autumn of 1918, also awaited the results of the Peace conference. In this respect, Professor Stefan Talmon noted that this issue was discussed in this sense in the French National Assembly on 19 June 1919 when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs retroactively expressed its views on the French attitude to the recognition. 35 France, Great Britain, and the U.S. became the main addressees for the Czechoslovak demands to be discussed at the Peace conference. After Masaryk returned from the U.S. to Europe at the end of November 1918 (having been elected the President of the Czechoslovak Republic), he immediately met with the British politicians in London and transmitted the Czechoslovak proposals and demands for the planned Peace conference to them, including the demand to adhere to the historical borders, i.e., a rejection of the looming separatism in the German border regions of the newly created Czechoslovakia. 36 The representatives of German politics in the Czech lands responded to the creation of independent Czechoslovakia in October 1918 by attempting to put into practice their earlier wishes to separate large border regions from the Czech lands and annex them to so-called German Austria. The support that the new Austrian representation gave to this idea was the strongest international political argument and also the greatest danger for the newly created Czechoslovak state. On 29 October 1918 an assembly was established in Liberec with a national committee for the newly created German province called Deutschböhmen . The following day, the province Sudetenland was proclaimed in Opava. At the beginning of November, the provinces Deutsche Südmähren and Bohmerwaldgau were created, in German southern Moravia with the centre in Znojmo, and in south-western Bohemia respectively. The provinces envisaged the annexation of the so-called linguistic pockets in Jihlava, Olomouc, and Brno. The German politicians in the Czech lands (and the Austrian diplomacy) justified this step by stressing the right to self-determination (i.e., separation from the Czech lands and unification with Austria), and they tried to gain the support of the Allied Powers, including the U.S. and President Wilson. 33 Ibid, doc. No. 169. 34 It was mentioned by sir Ronald Graham from Foreign Office in his letter to Treasury on the appointment of chargé d’affaires C.W. Gosling to Prague, 14 December 1918, The National Archives, London, Treasury T 1/2432. 35 TALMON, S: Recognition of Governments in International Law, p. 78. 36 DEJMEK, J.: Nenaplněné naděje: politické a diplomatické vztahy Československa a Velké Británie od zrodu První republiky po konferenci v Mnichově (1918–1938) [ Unfulfilled Hopes: Political and Diplomatic Relations between Czechoslovakia and Great Britain after the Creation of the First Republic until the Munich Conference (1918–1938) ], Praha: Karolinum 2003, pp. 15-16.

11