the Germans and on the south the Austrians, both enemies,
seeking only to get what they could for themselves out of the little
country.

In their Declaration of Independence, given in Paris, October 18, 1918,
the people have told the story of their past, as well as their purposes
for the future.

"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 union
against the Turkish danger. We have never voluntarily surrendered our
rights as an independent State in this confederation. The Hapsburgs
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 reunited with her Slovak brethren
of Slovakia, once a 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 Hapsburg
oppression. The world knows the justice of our claims, which the
Hapsburgs 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 Hapsburgs alone without
the consent of the representatives of the people.

"We cannot and will not continue to live under the direct or indirect
rule of the violators of Belgium, France, and Serbia, and 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.

"We refuse to recognize the divine right of kin