German divisions would have been sufficient to suppress the best organised
revolutionary movement in Bohemia.

The immediate effect of the declaration of war was the unity of the whole
Czech nation. One of the leaders, Professor Masaryk, escaped abroad, and is
at the head of the Czecho-Slovak Government, recognised by the Allies as
the trustee and representative of the Czecho-Slovak nation.

Political activity was of course out of the question until the Reichsrat
reopened on May 30, 1917. Before that date there was an absolute reign of
terror in Bohemia. Some of the leading Czech newspapers were suspended soon
after the outbreak of the war. The few Slovak papers published in Hungary
were suppressed at the same time.

Those newspapers which survived were subject to strict censorship and were
compelled to publish leading articles written by government officials and
supplied to them by the police. Dr. Kramar, one of the most prominent Czech
leaders, his colleague Dr. Rasin, and five National Socialist deputies were
thrown into prison, and some of them even sentenced to death.

The effect of these persecutions was that all the Czecho-Slovaks became
unanimous in their desire to obtain full independence of Austria-Hungary.
Old party differences were forgotten and some of the Czech deputies who had
formerly been opportunist in tendency, such as Dr. Kramar and the Agrarian
ex-minister Prasek, now at last became convinced that all hopes of an
anti-German Austria were futile, that Austria was doomed, as she was a
blind tool in the hands of Germany, and that the only way to prevent the
ten million Czecho-Slovaks from being again exploited in the interests of
German imperialism was to secure their complete independence. On entering
the Reichsrat on May 30, 1917, all the Czech deputies, united in a single