"You gentlemen on the German benches, you dared, however, to touch the honour of our soldiers--you called them cowards. And in this respect we are not going to keep silent. We shall always protest against such injustice! We shall never permit these heroes to be abused by being called 'cowards.' If there is a single gentleman among you he ought for a moment to reflect on the soul of a Czech soldier--a soldier who has been compelled by force to fight in a war which the German Imperial Chancellor has openly called 'a war of Germans against the Slavs'; a soldier who was compelled under the threat of immediate execution to take up arms against the interests of the Slavs, against the interests of his brothers, against the interests of his own country--Bohemia. Well then, was it cowardice on the part of this soldier when he, exposed to the fire of Austrian and German guns and machine guns from behind, went over to the other side? Was he a coward when, while free to remain in his captivity as a prisoner of war safely waiting until the end of the war, he volunteered to fight again and was ready to risk his life and health once more? Is that Czech soldier a coward who went once more into the trenches, although aware that if he were captured he would not be treated as an ordinary prisoner of war but as a deserter, and hanged accordingly? Is that man a coward who sacrifices his family which he has left behind and his soil and property inherited from his ancestors? Is that man a coward who sacrifices himself, his father and mother, his wife and children for the sake of his nation and country? "Is that Czech soldier not a hero who to-day is voluntarily fighting from the Ural Mountains to Vladivostok, on the Piave and in France? "If there is a single gentleman, a real gentleman among you, let him stand up and answer these questions. "And if there is not such a gentleman among you, remember the words of our bitter enemy the late Minister for Home Defence, Baron Georgi, who related to this House in a secret sitting all that our regiments have accomplished. He could not as a soldier suppress a sigh and say, 'We regret all those treacheries of Czech soldiers, still more because from their deeds committed on the side of our enemy we can realise what a splendid military material we have lost.' And if this is not sufficient, I will remind you of the opinion of those who are in your eyes the best judges--the Prussian officers. In an Austrian officers' canteen where Czech soldiers had been abused the whole evening by being called cowards, the Prussian officers present were asked to give their opinion on this point. They answered, 'We shall only be able to judge as to whether the Czechs are cowards or not when they begin to fight against us.'