the Czechs would regard them as their racial brothers and friends; they
would not become their faithful subjects, but their true allies and, if
need be, vanguards in Europe."

Moreover, modern Czech politicians always clearly saw what the Germans were
aiming at. Dr. Kramar, for instance, foresaw the present situation with
remarkable perspicacity. In the _Revue de Paris_ for February, 1899, he
wrote on "The Future of Austria," declaring that her subject nationalities
should be on guard lest she should become a vassal of Germany and a bridge
for German expansion into Asia:

"The Austrian Germans wish to see Austria subordinated to German
policy, and with the help of a subordinated Austria, the sphere of
German political and economic activity would extend from Hamburg to
Asia Minor."

Similarly also he warned Great Britain in the _National Review_ for
October, 1902, that if Pan-German plans were realised,

"Austria would become an appanage of Germany as regards international
relations, and the policy of Europe would be obliged to reckon, not
with a free and independent Austria, but, owing to Austria's
unconditional self-surrender, with a mighty, almost invincible
Germany.... The Pan-Germans are right, the Czechs are an arrow in the
side of Germany, and such they wish to and must and will remain. Their
firm and unchangeable hope is that they will succeed in making of
themselves an impenetrable breakwater. They hope for no foreign help;
they neither wish for it nor ask for it. They have only one desire,
namely, that non-German Europe may also at last show that it
understands the meaning of the Bohemian question."