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went out quickly. Confused reports came from Paris, all disturbing and painful; not one was agreeable. The Silesian Bohemians lived in unbroken fear and anxiety. The Poles brought up cannon and arms, they dug fortifications, they slandered and murdered the Czechoslovak legionaries. They threatened the life and the honor of the Czechoslovak people.
Large numbers of Polish agitators were brought in to incite violence and insult against the native population, and their reports that the Entente had already adjudged the whole district to Poland produced a feeling of paralysis and terror. For the Silesian Bohemians knew well that if these reports about which the Polish press did not conceal its delight, were true, they would signify disgrace, torture and annihilation to the Bohemian population.
For a second time the people of Silesia cried for help both to their own nation—the Czechoslovaks as well as to the friendly nations of the West. This was on the 29th of August 1919. The Czechoslovak Republic was deeply moved and at a national demonstration representative of all classes and parties which took place at Prague the nation unanimously proclaimed that their vow should be heard, not only by their persecuted brothers and sisters in the East not only by Poland but also in Paris in England in America and in Italy. “We will never give up Teschen. We do not lay hands upon another’s property, we only defend our own. If right and justice still reign in the world the District of Teschen must remain ours; if there is no right and no justice then the whole world should still know that Teschen IS ours.”
The legionary invalids said: “We cannot beg for our land! There is for us but one duty and that is to go and save Teschen or die for it! We fought and suffered long enough in foreign lands: if it is necessary we will go again and fight for our own. We are not cowards: we will never surrender our land to the Poles!”
The Silesian miners of Karvin sent a deputation to General Pellé, the distinguished French Commander-in-Chief of the Czechoslovak forces with the request: “Give us arms! We will defend our land! We will never leave it, never! We prefer to die fighting on our native soil amid the debris of our ruined happiness than to flee like cowards. We are miners, we are looking death in the face every minute and are not afraid of it!”
Such was the voice of the nation. These were not superfluous or useless vows and promises. The request was urgent, honorable and just and Paris had to give a plain answer. The Czechoslovaks asked for the loyalty of the Entente to their nation, they asked that promises given them should be kept, namely that the Entente would support the endeavor “to renew the independent Bohemian State in the frontiers of its former historical lands’—and Paris answered by ordering a plebiscite in the District of Teschen, according to the proposals of the Poles.
Such was the course of events with regard to Teschen in the past.
The plebiscite undeniably violates the historical right of the Czechoslovak nation.
But historical and constitutional rights are not the only points at issue. The politicial and economic independence of the young state is an argent and essential necessity for this district. It is of the utmost importance not only for the future development but for the very life itself of the state that the Czechoslovak Republic should be self supporting. The coal resources of the district are essential to the Republic without which its thriving industries would be ruined; for the Republic, deprived of Teschen coal, would be economically dependent on unfriendly neighbors.
The Polish assertion that the Czechoslovak Republic does not need this coal is an intentional and manifest untruth put forward to deceive the Entente. Experts have shown that the total coal resources of the Republic will be exhausted in the course of two or three decades while the apparently insignificant Easternmost part of Teschen—that lying between the rivers Visla and Bialka—will, with its eight billion tons of coal, be able to supply the Czechoslovak State for at least 200 years.
The Czechoslovak Republic without the District of Teschen has only 9.3 bililons tons of coal, with Teschen 25.1 billions. Poland on the other hand possesses, without Teschen, no less than 141.7 billion tons.
Apart from its economic importance the district in question has a special importance for both the internal and external relations of Czechoslovakia. It not only constitutes the most important passage to and means of communication with Slovakia, it is a natural rampart against enemies from without. It is not only the coalfield of Karvin that the Poles are aiming at, they are doing their utmost to obtain possession of the railway from Bohumín to Košice. They would thus hold the key to Hungary and would be in direct communication with the Hungarians. It is not yet forgotten how, in the years 1914 and 1915, the Russians struggled to get through the mountains to Hungary, and how they failed. Had it occurred to the Russians to attack Teschen from the North they would certainly have got through the Jablunkov Pass to the Hungarian side, and with a lesser army than that which failed in the Carpathians. On the other hand, the Austrian army, numerically inferior, held the Carpathians against the larger masses of the Russians. The whole question here is vitally serious for the Czechoslovak Republic. If the Czechoslovaks are deprived of the railway line from Bohumín to Košice, they could not hold the Jablunkov Pass. This would mean that they could be severed from Slovakia and the Republic imperilled at its very centre.
Polish attempts to acquire direct connection with Hungary at the expense of Czechoslovakia