always show much understanding of their aspirations. They were scattered
over Siberia, cut off from the outer world, and often abandoned to the
ill-treatment of German and Magyar officers. It is estimated that over
thirty thousand of them perished from starvation. It was only after great
efforts, after the Russian Revolution, and especially when Professor
Masaryk himself went to Russia, that the Czecho-Slovak National Council
succeeded in organising a great part of them into an army. Finally, when
Austria desired to strike a death-blow at Italy in 1918, and began again to
employ Slav troops, she failed again, and this failure was once more to a
large extent caused by the disaffection of her Slav troops, as is proved by
the Austrian official statements. Indeed, whenever Austria relied solely on
her own troops she was always beaten, even by the "contemptible" Serbians.
The Czechs and other Slavs have greatly contributed to these defeats by
their passive resistance. It was only the intervention of German troops
which saved Austria from an utter collapse in 1915, and which prevented the
Czechs from completing their aim of entirely disorganising the military
power of Austria. Slav regiments have since then been intermixed with
German and Magyar troops. The Slavs receive their ammunition only at the
front, where they are placed in the foremost ranks with Germans or Magyars
behind them, so that they are exposed to a double fire if they attempt to
surrender. Nevertheless, up to 1916 some 350,000 Czechs out of a total of
600,000 in the Austrian army surrendered to the Allies.

4. From the very beginning of the war Czech soldiers showed their real
feelings. They were driven to fight against the Russians and Serbs who were
their brothers by race and their sincere and devoted friends. They were
driven to fight for that hated Austria which had trampled their liberties
underfoot for centuries past, and for a cause which they detested from the
bottom of their hearts. They were driven to fight in the interests of their
German and Magyar enemies against their Slav brothers and friends under