Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/139

Deputies from Slovakia considered the reunion of the district of Hlučín in Prussian Silesia to Czechoslovakia a suitable occasion for the following declaration, published on February 7, 1920:

Members of the Club of Slovak deputies, as representatives of all Slovak political parties, upon the joyful occasion of the re-incorporation of Hlučín into the Czechoslovak State declare solemnly once more the unshakable fidelity of all elements of the Slovak people to Czechoslovak national union and to indivisible state union of Slovakia with the other lands of the Czechoslovak Republic.

Every statement aimed to create the impression abroad that there exist in Slovakia efforts hostile to Czechoslovak state union we hereby declare to be malicious lies. Responsible and irresponsible organs of neighboring states, especially Magyars, spread these lies so as to make them the basis of their imperialistic ambitions to continue to hold under Magyar domination non-Magyar nations of former Hungary which, employing the right of self-determination, voluntarily joined their racial kinsmen in new state formations.

Certain individuals who have always been indifferent to human and national rights of the Slovak nation of which they were born now give themselves out for Slovak representatives beyond the boundaries of our state; they are merely tools of organized propaganda of hostile states.

We declare that no Slovak political party or group authorized any person to work abroad in its name for the separation of Slovakia from the Czechoslovak Republic or its union with another state. The only rightful interpreters of the will of the Slovak nation are the representatives of the Slovak political parties which in spite of differences in their platforms, all agree that nothing shall weaken, not to say break, the state union of Czechs and Slovaks.

We point to state union of Czechs and Slovaks in the Great Moravian empire a thousand years ago, violently torn by the Magyar invasion; we point to the fact that the Slovak nation, which was nationally and socially oppressed and persecuted by the Magyars in a most cruel manner, and robbed of all national rights, as early as 1848 made it plain first through a political declaration, then through armed insurrection, that it wanted to be free from the Magyar yoke and exist separately from the Magyars.

History of the last century records continual struggles of Slovaks against Magyars for liberation from Magyar slavery. That also appears in the record of the world war, when Slovaks alongside with their Czech brothers joined in thousands Czechoslovak legions in Russia, France and Italy, in order to destroy the rule of Germans in Austria and of Magyars in Hungary, and in order to form within the Czechoslovak state one indissoluble national and state unit. Slovaks in the days of the revolution declared in many imposing assemblies that they would not live any longer in the Hungarian state, but that they wanted the closest national and state union with the brother nation of Czechs. The same thing was done by Slovaks in America who in the war supported our legionaries and volunteers with great money gifts. The state union of Czechs and Slovaks was bought and consecrated by the blood of Czech and Slovak legionaries shed in common on all the great battlefields; it was solemnly declared and accepted by the entire Czechoslovak nation after the fall of Austria-Hungary, and it was confirmed by the common fight of Czechoslovak armies during the invasion of Magyar troops into Slovakia. The state union of Czechs and Slovaks is the common treasure of the Czechoslovak nation which no one may touch; Czechs and Slovaks together will maintain it against anyone in common, just as they won it in common.

The Club of Slovak Deputies in the National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic: Fedor Houdek, minister, president of the Club.

Dr. Josef Buday, Dr. Ferdiš Juriga, Dr. Alois Kolísek, Dr. Ján Kovalík, Stefan Onderčo, Josef Sivák, Florián Tománek, members of the People’s Party.

Dr. Vávro Šrobár, minister, Dr. Milan Hodža, minister, Ján Duchaj, vice-president of the Club, Ján Botto, Dr. Pavel Blaho, Josef Branecký, Dr. Ján Brežný, Ján Burian, Vladimir Čobrda, Andrej Devečka, Matuš Dula, vice-president of the Club, Dr. Ivan Hálek, Dr. Ján Halla, Dr. Júr Janoska, Dr. Milan Ivanka, Ján Janček, Ján Kliešek, Karol Medvecký, Dr. Ludevit Medvecký, Ján Mitrovčák, Pavel Országh, Emerich Parák, Viliam Pauliny, Rudolf Pilát, Josef Rotnágl, Dr. Ján Ružiak, Dr. Juraj Slavik, Kornel Stodola, Ant. Štefánek, Dr. J. Vanovič, Dr. Jaroslav Vlček, members of the Slovak National and Farmers’ Party.

J. Chlek, vicepresident of the Club, Ferdinand Benda, Dr. Ivan Dérer, Andrej Hvizdár, Andrej Kubal, Emanuel Lehocký, Dr. Ivan Markovič, Jan Maršalko, Josef Oktávec, Ján Pocis, members of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic party in Slovakia.

Igor Hrušovský, Josef Záruba-Pfeffermann, members of the Czechoslovak Socialist Party.

Dr. Edward Beneš, ministr.