File No. 861.00/3124
As you, Mr. Secretary, did not express any wish concerning the date
of publication, I assume that it is of no consequence and publish
the declaration to-day, forced to do so by the rapid developments in
Austria-Hungary.
The seat of the Government is in Paris.
[Enclosure]
Declaration of Independence of the
Czechoslovak Nation by its Provisional Government
At this grave moment, when the Hohenzollerns are offering peace
in order to stop the victorious advance of the Allied armies and
to prevent the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary and Turkey, and
when the Habsburgs are promising the federalization of the
Empire and autonomy to the dissatisfied nationalities committed
to their rule, we, the Czechoslovak National Council, recognized
by the Allied and American Governments as the Provisional
Government of the Czechoslovak State and Nation, in complete
accord with the declaration of the Czech Deputies made in Prague
on January 6, 1918, and realizing that federalization, and still
more, autonomy, mean nothing under a Habsburg dynasty, do hereby
make and declare this our Declaration of Independence.
We do this because of our belief that no people should be forced
to live under a sovereignty they do not recognize, and because
of our knowledge and firm conviction that our nation cannot
freely develop in a Habsburg mock-federation, which is only a
new form of the denationalizing oppression under which we have
suffered for the past three hundred years. We consider freedom
to be the first prerequisite for federalization, and believe
that the free nations of central and eastern Europe may easily
federate should they find it necessary.
We make this declaration on the basis of our historic and natural
right. We have been an independent state since the seventh
century; and, in 1526, as an independent state, consisting of
Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, we joined with Austria and
Hungary in a defensive [Page 849]
union against the Turkish danger. We have never voluntarily
surrendered our rights as an independent state in this
confederation. The Habsburgs broke their compact with our nation
by illegally transgressing our rights and violating the
Constitution of our state which they had pledged themselves to
uphold, and we therefore refuse longer to remain a part of
Austria-Hungary in any form.
We claim the right of Bohemia to be re-united with her Slovak
brethren of Slovakia, once part of our national state, later
torn from our national body, and fifty years ago incorporated in
the Hungarian state of the Magyars, who, by their unspeakable
violence and ruthless oppression of their subject races have
lost all moral and human right to rule anybody but
themselves.
The world knows the history of our struggle against the Habsburg
oppression, intensified and systematized by the Austro-Hungarian
dualistic compromise of 1867. This dualism is only a shameless
organization of brute force and exploitation of the majority by
the minority; it is a political conspiracy of the Germans and
Magyars, against our own as well as the other Slav and the Latin
nations of the Monarchy. The world knows the justice of our
claims, which the Habsburgs themselves dared not deny.
Francis Joseph, in the most solemn
manner, repeatedly recognized the sovereign rights of our
nation. The Germans and Magyars opposed this recognition, and
Austria-Hungary, bowing before the Pan-Germans, became a, colony
of Germany, and as her vanguard to the east, provoked the last
Balkan conflict, as well as the present World War, which was
begun by the Habsburgs alone without the consent of the
representatives of the people.
We cannot and will not continue to live under the rule—direct or
indirect—of the violators of Belgium, France, and Serbia, the
would-be murderers of Russia and Rumania the murderers of tens
of thousands of civilians and soldiers of our blood, and the
accomplices, in numberless unspeakable crimes committed in this
war against humanity by the two degenerate and irresponsible
dynasties. We will not remain a part of a state which has no
justification for existence, and which, refusing to accept the
fundamental principles of’ modern world-organization, remains
only an artificial and immoral political structure, hindering
every movement toward democratic and social progress. The
Habsburg dynasty, weighed down by a huge inheritance of error
and crime, is a perpetual menace to the peace of the world, and
we deem it our duty toward humanity and civilization to aid in
bringing about its downfall and destruction.
We reject the sacrilegious assertion that the power of the
Habsburg and Hohenzollern dynasties is of divine origin; we
refuse to recognize the divine right of kings. Our nation
elected the Habsburgs [Page 850]
to the throne of Bohemia of its own free will and by the same
right deposes them. We hereby declare the Habsburg dynasty
unworthy of leading our nation, and deny all of their claims to
rule in the Czechoslovak land, which we here and now declare
shall henceforth be a free and independent people and
nation.
We accept and shall adhere to the ideals of modern democracy, as
they have been the ideals of our nation for centuries. We accept
the American principles as laid down by President Wilson: the principles of
liberated mankind,—of the actual equality of nations,—and of
governments deriving all their just powers from the consent of
the governed. We, the nation of Comenius, cannot but accept
these principles expressed in the American Declaration of
Independence, the principles of Lincoln,
and of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
For these principles our nation shed its blood in the memorable
Hussite Wars five hundred years ago, for these same principles,
beside her allies in Russia, Italy, and France, our nation is
shedding its blood today.
We shall outline only the main principles of the Constitution of
the Czechoslovak Nation; the final decision as to the
Constitution itself falls to the legally chosen representatives
of the liberated and united people.
The Czechoslovak State shall be a republic. In constant endeavor
for progress it will guarantee complete freedom of conscience,
religion and science, literature and art, speech, the press and
the right of assembly and petition. The church shall be
separated from the state. Our democracy shall rest on universal
suffrage; women shall be placed on an equal footing with men,
politically, socially, and culturally. The rights of the
minority shall be safeguarded by proportional representation;
national minorities shall enjoy equal rights. The Government
shall be parliamentary in form and shall recognize the
principles of initiative and referendum. The standing army will
be replaced by militia.
The Czechoslovak Nation will carry out far-reaching social and
economic reforms; the large estates will be redeemed for home
colonization, patents of nobility will be abolished. Our nation
will assume its part of the Austro-Hungarian pre-war debt;—the
debts for this war we leave to those who incurred them.
In its foreign policy the Czechoslovak Nation will accept its
full share of responsibility in the reorganization of eastern
Europe. It accepts fully the democratic and social principle of
nationalism and subscribes to the doctrine that all covenants
and treaties shall be entered into openly and frankly without
secret diplomacy.
Our Constitution shall provide an efficient, rational, and just
government, which will exclude all special privileges and
prohibit class legislation.
[Page 851]
Democracy has defeated theocratic autocracy. Militarism is
overcome,—democracy is victorious;—on the basis of democracy
mankind will be reorganized. The forces of darkness have served
the victory of light,—the longed-for age of humanity is
dawning.
We believe in democracy,—we believe in liberty,—and liberty
evermore.
Given in Paris, on the 18th day of October 1918.
Professor Thomas G. Masaryk
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
General Dr. Milan R. Štefánik
Minister of National Defense
Dr. Edward
Beneš
Minister of Foreign Affairs and of
Interior