Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/115

The nation celebrated on March 7 the seventieth birthday of its first president. After a year and three months Masaryk is as popular as in December, 1918, when he returned to Prague to assume his high office. That fact may be pointed to as the supreme test of his statesmanship. Of the big men on the Allied side he alone may be said to be greater today, than when the fighting ceased. Since the armistice there has been a new deal in France and Italy; in England Lloyd George who swept the country in the elections of December 1918 is constantly loosing by-elections, and the popularity of President Wilson has decreased in a startling manner since his first trip to Europe. Paderewski who was decidedly the more picturesque and probably the more popular of the two Slav statesmen a year ago has now disappeared from the political stage. Masaryk alone is stronger with his people than ever; every Czech and Slovak, nay more, every German in the Czechoslovak Republic, looks up to him as the biggest asset of the Republic, and while the German minority naturally merely respect and trust the president, the Czechoslovaks love him as they would love a wise father. No criticism is ever heard of his actions; he may veto laws passed by the National Assembly, and the deputies hasten to re-write the law to meet his objections. The new constitution provides that no president may be elected for more than two terms; but it also states explicitly that this limitation does not apply to the first president. Everybody takes it for granted that Thomas G. Masaryk will remain at the head of the state, as long as he lives or as long as he can be induced to bear this high responsibility. Czechoslovakia on March 7 resounded from one end to another with the sincere cry: Long live our President.

With the exchange of ratifications between the Allies and Germany the peace status came to prevail between Germany and Czechoslovakia. The two countries have exchanged diplomatic and consular representatives and proceeded to put into effect certain clauses of the Versailles treaty. The principal change was the occupation of the small district of Hlučín in Prussian Silesia by the Czechoslovak authorities. This district includes 39 villages with about 50,000 people; most of the inhabitants are Czechoslovaks who call themselves Moravians. They were attached to the Bohemian crown until 1742, when Frederick of Prussia robbed Maria Theresa of the greater part of Silesia. In spite of germanizing influences to which these Slav peasants have been exposed for two hundred years, they have maintained their language and will now be rejoined to the main body of their kinsmen. The occupation took place on February 4; German soldiers and officials evacuated the district the night before.

The fate of Teschen will soon be decided. In compliance with the decision of the peace conference, providing for plebiscite after the German treaty goes into effect, an inter-allied commission took control of the Teschen district on February 2. The chairman of the commission is De Manneville, and French and Italian soldiers have entered the old duchy to execute the orders of the commission. It will take about three months, before the plebiscite is carried out, and in the meantime the entire district, both that section heretofore under Czech administration and the one under Polish administration, constitute neutral territory over which the Allied commission exercises