"We have sought with utmost sacrifice to find a compromise between our just claims and the international situation which was unfavourable to us. The war has completely changed all our policy, removing the possibility of a compromise to which we might have been disposed, and we cannot once more roll up our flag now so proudly unfurled, and put it aside for the next occasion." As we shall show also later on, there is not the least doubt that the necessity for the independence of Bohemia was proclaimed not by a few extremists, but by all the Czech parties with the approval of the entire nation. When Kramar in 1917 again took over the leadership of the Young Czech Party, which led to the amalgamation of four nationalist parties, a change took place also in the leadership of the Czech Social Democratic Party which hitherto was in the hands of a few demagogues and defeatists, such as Smeral, who dominated the majority of the members. The return of the Socialist Party to its revolutionary traditions and its entire approval of the Bohemian state right and the national policy of Czecho-Slovak independence means a complete and absolute consolidation of the whole Czech nation. As the Social Democrats became quite loyal to the Czech cause, the National Socialist Party lost its _raison d'etre_. Owing to the great sufferings of the working class during the war, it became imbued with Socialist ideas. On April 1, 1918, the Czech National Socialist Party held its eighth annual conference in Prague, at which it adopted a resolution endorsing international Socialism and changing its name to "The Czech Socialist Party." The conference was attended also by two representatives of the Czecho-Slav Social Democratic Party, J. Stivin and deputy Nemec. The National Socialist leader, deputy Klofac, welcomed the representatives of the Social Democrats "whom we have for years past been struggling against, but with whom the trials of this war have united us." He declared that his party accepted the Socialist programme and would join the new Socialist International. On September 6, 1918, the executive committees of the two parties elected a joint council. Its object is to work for the consolidation of the Czech working classes and for the formation of a united Czech Labour Party, composed of Social Democrats as well as of the former National Socialists. A similar process of consolidation is taking place also among the other parties, so that soon there will probably be only three Czech parties, on the basis of class difference, viz. Socialists, Agrarians and Democratic Nationalists (_bourgeoisie_), all of whom will stand behind the programme of full Czecho-Slovak independence.