strong and united Poland with access to the sea at Gdansk (Dantzig) and an
independent Czecho-Slovak State has become a necessity for Europe.

The understanding between the Poles and Czechs is of vital interest to both
peoples concerned, and to Europe as a whole. It is by no means
hypothetical, considering that geographically the Poles and Czechs are
neighbours, that they speak almost the same language, and that their
national spirit, history and traditions bear a close resemblance. The
history of Poland offers many strange parallels to that of Bohemia. It is
specially interesting to note that in the fifteenth century, as to-day, the
Poles and Czechs together resisted the German "Drang nach Osten." The Czech
with their famous leader Zizka participated in the splendid Polish victory
over the Teutonic knights at Gruenwald in 1410, while on the other hand,
there were many Poles in the Hussite regiments who so gloriously defended
the Czech religious and national liberties in the fifteenth century. Poland
and Bohemia were also united several times under a common dynasty.

After Bohemia lost her independence at the battle of the White Mountain in
1620, she became the prey of Austrian barbarity. The Habsburgs have done
their best to extirpate the Czech heretics and abolish and destroy the
Bohemian Constitution. With Bohemia's loss of independence her contact with
Poland also ceased. And Poland herself became the prey of Prussia, Russia
and Austria some 170 years later, notwithstanding the constitution of May 3
and the heroic resistance of Kosciuszko.

The regeneration of the Czechs at the end of the eighteenth century meant
the resumption of friendly relations between Czechs and Poles. The Czechs
desired to come to an agreement with the Poles because the latter are their
nearest kinsmen in race and language, and like themselves have suffered
terribly from alien oppression. There were many Polonophils amongst the