"You gentlemen on the German benches, you dared, however, to touch the
honour of our soldiers--you called them cowards. And in this respect we
are not going to keep silent. We shall always protest against such
injustice! We shall never permit these heroes to be abused by being
called 'cowards.' If there is a single gentleman among you he ought for
a moment to reflect on the soul of a Czech soldier--a soldier who has
been compelled by force to fight in a war which the German Imperial
Chancellor has openly called 'a war of Germans against the Slavs'; a
soldier who was compelled under the threat of immediate execution to
take up arms against the interests of the Slavs, against the interests
of his brothers, against the interests of his own country--Bohemia.
Well then, was it cowardice on the part of this soldier when he,
exposed to the fire of Austrian and German guns and machine guns from
behind, went over to the other side? Was he a coward when, while free
to remain in his captivity as a prisoner of war safely waiting until
the end of the war, he volunteered to fight again and was ready to risk
his life and health once more? Is that Czech soldier a coward who went
once more into the trenches, although aware that if he were captured he
would not be treated as an ordinary prisoner of war but as a deserter,
and hanged accordingly? Is that man a coward who sacrifices his family
which he has left behind and his soil and property inherited from his
ancestors? Is that man a coward who sacrifices himself, his father and
mother, his wife and children for the sake of his nation and country?

"Is that Czech soldier not a hero who to-day is voluntarily fighting
from the Ural Mountains to Vladivostok, on the Piave and in France?

"If there is a single gentleman, a real gentleman among you, let him
stand up and answer these questions.