The most significant demonstration of the Czech national sentiment took place at Prague on January 6, 1918, at a meeting of all the Czech deputies of the Reichsrat and of the diets of Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia, with which we deal in another chapter, and at which a resolution was unanimously carried demanding full independence and representation at the peace conference. Finally, on July 13, 1918, a National Council or Committee was formed in Prague on which all the parties are represented and which may rightly be described as part of the Provisional Government of Bohemia. The whole Czech nation to-day is unanimously awaiting the victory of the Entente, from which it expects its long-cherished independence. The Czecho-Slovaks are only waiting for a favorable opportunity to strike the death-blow at the Dual Monarchy. IV TERRORISM IN BOHEMIA DURING THE WAR Austria-Hungary declared war not only on her enemies outside her frontiers, but also on her internal enemies, on her own Slav and Latin subjects. From the very first day of war terrorism reigned supreme in Bohemia, where the Austrian Government behaved as in an enemy country. Three political parties (the National Socialist, Radical and Realist Parties) were dissolved and their organs suppressed. Fully three-quarters of all Czech journals and all Slovak journals were suspended. Political leaders were arrested, imprisoned, and some of them even sentenced to death. Many leaders have been imprisoned as hostages in case an insurrection should break out. Over 20,000 Czech civilians have been interned merely for being "politically suspect," and about 5000 were hanged in an arbitrary way by military tribunals, since juries had been abolished by an imperial decree. Other Slav districts were no better off: the Polish Socialist deputy Daszynski stated in the Reichsrat that 30,000 persons were hanged in Galicia alone, and another deputy stated that the number of Slavs (Austrian subjects) who were executed by Austria exceeded 80,000. Czech troops were marched to the trains watched by German soldiers like prisoners of war. Thousands of them were massacred at the front. The property of those who surrendered was confiscated, while the families of those Czech leaders who escaped abroad were brutally persecuted. It is impossible for us to give a detailed description of all the persecutions committed by Austria on the Czecho-Slovaks, but the following is a brief summary of them:-- _(a) Czech Deputies and Leaders imprisoned and sentenced to Death_