ding it over submissive slaves. With their eyes thus
opened, the Bulgarians are in a position to appreciate the Allies'
profession of faith with its program of freedom for the smallest peoples
and fair-dealing even toward the foe. Imperialistic dreams must of
course be banished forever. But solicitude for race-brethren outside
Bulgaria's present frontiers is a sentiment which the Allies recognize
as wholly legitimate and which they are pledged to satisfy either by
permitting annexation to the homeland or, where this is impossible owing
to superior claims of intervening races, by assuring the unredeemed
Bulgars full cultural liberty. The Allies' hope is a Balkan
confederation in which its varied races may pull together in common
interest and mutual respect instead of rending one another in vain
dreams of barren empire achieved through blood and iron. Is it too much
to hope that so level-headed a people as the Bulgarians will come to
realize that in such a Balkan settlement their lasting interests will be
far safer than in a Balkans precariously dominated by a Bulgarian
minority holding down a majority of sullen and vengeful race enemies?

Copyright, Century, December, 1918.

* * * * *

The most picturesque army raised during the great war was that formed by
large numbers of Czecho-Slovaks, formerly prisoners of war in Russia and
deserters from the Austrian armies. This force fought its way through
Russia and Siberia, opposed by the Bolsheviks who had promised them safe
conduct to France. A description of these famous fighters is contained
in the following pages.

THE FIGHTING CZECHO-SLOVAKS

MAYNARD OWEN WILLIAMS

[Sidenote: The romantic Czecho-Slovak army.]

The Czecho-Slovak Expeditionary Force is one of the most romantic armies
of the ages and an important step toward world democracy and idealism. I
learned to know the Czechs in a journey across Siberia on one of their
trains. They furnished me a bed when beds were scarce, transportation
when transportation was scarcer, and shoes when shoes were necessary. I
have never seen a real Czech that I could not endorse.

[Sidenote: Two methods of travel in Russia.]

[Sidenote: A journey on a Czecho-Slovak train.]

Last March there were two ways to travel in Russia. If one was an
American--relief worker, correspondent, Y.M.C.A. man--one could get a
private car. Many Americans rode that way for a trifling cost and
without inc