CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

JAN KUKLÍK CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ On 12 November 1918 they sent their protest to President Wilson, drawn up in the form of a special memorandum during the Paris Peace Conference, requesting a plebiscite. 37 At first, the Czechoslovak National Committee tried to negotiate with the representatives of the German provinces, but by no means was the Committee ready to agree to a separation from the Czech lands. When the negotiations broke down, the provinces were occupied from mid-December 1918, without substantial resistance, by the Czechoslovak army. However, this intervention would have been unthinkable without the Allied Powers’ consent, in particular France and Great Britain. Edvard Beneš persuaded the French side, and T. G. Masaryk negotiated with prominent politicians and diplomats in Great Britain after he had returned to Europe from the U.S. as the newly elected President. In addition to strategic arguments, the Czechoslovak politicians and diplomats argued that it was necessary to stabilise the economic and social situation in the country in order to face up to the threats of radicalism, including Bolshevism. This solution, which effectively sought adherence to the historical borders (so-called fait accompli ), was finally accepted, in December 1918, by Wilson’s advisor sent to Europe, Colonel Edward House. 38 Furthermore, the border issue was particularly relevant for yet another important feature of an independent state – the population. It was important that the members of other national groups also accept the new Czechoslovak state, not only the Czechs and Slovaks, because the Czechoslovakia of 1918/1919 could not be, in terms of its ethnic composition, a purely national state. It is necessary to emphasise that T. G. Masaryk, the head of the Czecho-Slovak provisional government and later the first president, had been a supporter of the fair settlement of the nationalities issue. He advocated that Czechoslovakia should adopt moderate minorities policies unaffected by the militant nationalism that was so common during the war and afterwards. In the declaration entitled the Proclamation of Independence of the Czechoslovak Nation (or the so-called Washington Declaration) adopted by the Czechoslovak interim government abroad on 16 October 1918, it is proclaimed: “We accept the American principles as laid down by President Wilson … of the actual equality of nations” and “The rights of the minority shall be safeguarded by proportional representation; national minorities shall enjoy equal rights.” 39 At the end of October 1918 in Geneva it was agreed during negotiations between E. Beneš and the delegation of the National Committee that a representative of the German population would join the Czechoslovak government as a compatriot minister without portfolio. After 28 October 1918, German politicians were to send their representative to the National Committee or later to the Provisional National Assembly. In November such negotiations were held with the representative of the German Social Democrats, Josef Seliger. While the disputes were, in the interim, resolved by using the Czechoslovak armed forces, the Czech side was willing to negotiate, in particular in consideration of foreign policy. A favourable attitude to the extraordinarily numerous minorities was a necessity to a certain extent, also with regard to the dependence on the Allied Powers. The Great Powers wished for a stable system in Central Europe, which might have been upset by the repression of new influential 37 PERMAN, D.: The Shaping of the Czechoslovak State, pp. 199-201. 38 Ibidem, pp. 90-91. 39 For its text in English, see Declaration of Independence of the Czechoslovak Nation by its Provisional Government (New York: [Printed for the Czechoslovak Arts Club by the Marchbanks Press], 1918).

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