"In view of these events we must ask ourselves: Are there any moral guarantees in this empire? We do not see them and therefore we declare that we _reject all community with the political system of this empire. We want a single front of three Slav States extending from Gdansk (Dantzig) via Prague to the Adriatic._ We protest against any partial solution of the Czecho-Slovak question. The Czecho-Slovak State which must also include the Slovaks of Hungary is our minimum programme. We again emphasise our solidarity with our Yugoslav brethren, whether they live in Belgrade, Sarajevo, Mostar or Lubljana, and we ask for the removal of those statesmen who wish to subjugate the remainder of the Bosnian population. _A free Yugoslavia, an independent Greater Poland and the Czecho-Slovak State_ are already in process of formation, closely allied to each other, not only by the knowledge of common economic interests, but also on the ground of the moral prerogatives of international right. "Peace is in sight. We wanted to be admitted to peace negotiations with representatives of other nations. The Germans refused and replied: 'If you insist you will be hanged.' Of course the Germans never kept their word except when they promised to hang some one! But the Entente replied by deeds recognising the Czecho-Slovak army as an Allied and belligerent army. Thereupon _the Austrian Government asked us, Czech leaders in Austria, to protest against it. But of course we refused._ I said so openly to the Premier, and if you like, I will tell it to the Austrian Emperor himself. _You would not admit us to the peace negotiations with Russia, and now you will have to negotiate with Czech leaders after all_, whether you like it or not. _These leaders will be representatives of the same Czecho-Slovak brigades which Count Hertling called rascals_ ('_Gesindel_'). _You will have to negotiate with them, and not with us_, and therefore we will not speak with you. Our question will not be solved in Vienna. If you accept President Wilson's terms, if the German people, and not the German bureaucrats, accept them, then you can have peace at once and save humanity from further bloodshed. There is no other way out, and _we therefore advise you honestly and frankly to surrender to the Allies unconditionally_, because in the end nothing else will be left to you. "In agreement with the whole Yugoslav nation, in agreement with Polish representatives, voicing the will of the Polish people, the Czecho-Slovaks declare before the whole world: 'Forward in our struggle for liberty and for a new life in our own liberated, restored state!'" PRESIDENT WILSON'S REPLY TO THE AUSTRIAN PEACE OFFER