states, based upon democratic principles, whether belligerent or
neutral, now accept with us the right of nations to free
self-determination as a guarantee of a general and lasting peace.

"The new Russia also accepted the principle of self-determination of
nations during its attempts for a general settlement and as a
fundamental condition of peace. The nations were freely to determine
their fate and decide whether they want to live in an independent state
of their own or whether they choose to form one state in common with
other nations.

"On the other hand, the Austro-Hungarian delegate declared, in the name
of the Quadruple Alliance, that the question of the self-determination
of those nations which have not hitherto enjoyed political independence
should be solved in a constitutional manner within the existing state.
This point of view of the Austro-Hungarian representative is not our
point of view, because we know, from our own numberless bitter
experiences, that it means nothing but the negation of the principle of
self-determination. We indignantly express our regret that our nation
was deprived of its political independence and of the right of
self-determination, and that by means of artificial electoral statutes
we were left to the mercy of the German minority and of the government
of the centralised German bureaucracy.

"Our brother Slovaks became the victims of Magyar brutality and of
unspeakable violence in a state which, notwithstanding all its apparent
constitutional liberties, remains the darkest corner of Europe, and in
which the non-Magyars who form the majority of the population are
ruthlessly oppressed by the ruling minority, extirpated, and
denationalised from childhood, unrepresented in parliament and the