Independent Bohemia - An Account of the Czecho-Slovak Struggle for Liberty by Vladimír Nosek
page 142 of 185 (76%)
page 142 of 185 (76%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
since the collapse of Russia, these are the only real forces upon which
the Allies can depend." On the day following the congress its leaders were officially received by the Italian Premier, Signer Orlando, who conveyed to them the warm greetings of the government: "We have seen with keen satisfaction this assembly here in Rome, where for centuries the representative spirits of all peoples and races have always found refuge, and where hard facts seem to assume a prophetic form and ideal meaning. "These neighbouring nationalities are, in their turn, subjected to Austria, and it has only been the traditional astuteness of this state which has unchained the ethnic passions of the oppressed races, inciting one against the other in order more easily to rule them. Hence, it seems natural and necessary to follow the opposite policy from that which has so greatly helped the enemy, _and to establish a solidarity sprung from common suffering_. There is no substantial reason for a quarrel, if we sincerely examine the conditions of mutual existence, remember the mutual sacrifices and agree in our determination to grant just guarantees to those racial minorities which necessity may assign to one or the other of the different state groups. "Italy should be able to understand better than any other country the aspirations of the nationalities, since the history of Italy, now completed, is simply your history now awaiting completion.... No other people, before forming itself into a free and independent state, had to undergo so long an apprenticeship, so methodical an oppression, such varied forms of violence. Like generous Poland, Italy was shattered, |
|