The uprising of the Polish representatives in the Austrian parliament last Tuesday is of signal importance not only to the Polish people, but to the Czechs as well. It is an event which fills our hearts with joy. It will remove many prejudices and blot out many wrongs which the Poles have committed against the Slavonic nations of Austria. Mark our words that it is the last nail in the coffin for the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

The Poles were one of the main pillars of the Hapsburg dynasty. Polish representatives were always ready to serve the government for privileges in the province of Galicia and for the privilege of oppressing the Ruthenians of eastern Galicia without governmental interference. That fact is so well known and proved that not even a race-conscious Pole will attempt to disprove it.

Up to the present, we Czechs have had mighty few reasons to hold any 2particular attachment for the Poles. Their unnatural hatred of Russia.... should have been directed against German autocracy, the real cause of their misery.....Their querulousness and aggressiveness towards nations which they dominate by their majority, e.g., Lithuanians, Kashubs, Ruthenians, and others; their opportunistic politics in the Austrian parliament, always the chief obstacle to any concerted Slavonic action in the parliament--those were the things that forced a chill, if not a decided enmity, between the Poles and the rest of the Slavonic nations. Moreover, the Poles embarked upon an unfortunate political course at the portentous moment of the outbreak of the war.

The Slavonic nations took the side of the Allies, discriminating instinctively between right and wrong. There were two exceptions, the Bulgarians and the Poles.....

Several times we had intended to point out the sad fact that the Poles were the only Slavonic people in this war to give aid to the Austrians but no volunteers to the Allies, while some Bulgarians even fought with the Russians against Austria....

The Poles might have continued their short-sighted politics had not the war brought some changes....The recent uprisings are an open declaration of hostility on the part of the Poles; they mean a definite severance of relations with Austria and opportunist politics. They announce the entrance of the Poles into the great family of Slavonic nations. We welcome them with outstretched arms, forgetting the past....The Poles, together with the other Slavonic nations, will follow the glorious path blazed by the Russian revolution.