helpless instruments, and the subjection of the smaller nations which
form that peculiar zone between the west and east of Europe. _Poland,
Bohemia, Serbo-Croatia (the South Slavs) are the natural adversaries of
Germany_, of her _Drang nach Osten_; to liberate and strengthen these
smaller nations is the only real check upon Prussia. Free Poland,
Bohemia and Serbo-Croatia would be so-called buffer states, their
organisation would facilitate and promote the formation of a Magyar
state, of Greater Rumania, of Bulgaria, Greece and the rest of the
smaller nations. If this horrible war, with its countless victims, has
any meaning, it can only be found in the liberation of the small
nations who are menaced by Germany's eagerness for conquest and her
thirst for the dominion of Asia. The Oriental question is to be solved
on the Rhine, Moldau and Vistula, not only on the Danube, Vardar and
Maritza."

Soon afterwards Professor Masaryk issued a proclamation signed by
representatives of all Czecho-Slovaks abroad, the full text of which reads
as follows:

"We come before the political public at a moment when the retreat of
the victorious Russian army is exploited against Russia and her Allies.
We take the side of the struggling Slav nations and their Allies
without regard to which party will be victorious, simply because the
Allies' cause is just. The decision as to which party in this fatal
struggle is defending the right, is a question of principle and
political morality which to-day cannot be evaded by any honest and
clear-thinking politician nor by any self-conscious nation. But we are
prompted to step forward also by our vivid sense of Slav solidarity: we
express our ardent sympathies to our brother Serbs and Russians, as
well as to our brother Poles, so heavily struck by the war. We believe