Independent Bohemia - An Account of the Czecho-Slovak Struggle for Liberty by Vladimír Nosek
page 148 of 185 (80%)
page 148 of 185 (80%)
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our peoples who under oppressive conditions are awakening national
consciousness in their countrymen. _We must mobilise our whole nation_. All of us will be required to assist in the great tasks which are awaiting us. "I think we may confidently look into the future. The war has united us internally, and it has taught us that all party politics which for a long time past have poisoned our life, are insignificant in view of the great issues of our national future which are at stake. We have lived long enough to see our whole people united in the demand for an independent Czecho-Slovak State, although the modern times have deepened class differences. "We recollect our past to-day with a firm hope for a better future. The hearts of all are to-day filled with joyous confidence and expectation that we shall live to see the day when in our National Theatre we shall rejoice over the victory of liberty, justice and self-determination of nations. _Our golden Slav Prague will again become a royal city, and our Czech nation will again be free, strong and glorious_." After Dr. Kramar had finished, the aged Czech author Jirasek described the history of the National Theatre during the past fifty years, and concluded: "To-day as fifty years ago our nation is united without party distinction. _We form a single front, and follow a single policy. We all demand our natural and historic rights, and strengthened by the co-operation of the Yugoslavs, we firmly believe that as we succeeded in erecting our National Theatre, so shall we also obtain our rights and be able to rejoice with a song of a full and free life_." |
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