"Henceforward the Czechs will refuse to hold any negotiations with Vienna, with whom any compromise is now out of the question. The Czecho-Slovaks will firmly continue the struggle for complete national independence, strengthened by the support of other Slavs, and by the knowledge that the British and other Allied governments had formally acknowledged and were working for the establishment of an independent Czecho-Slovak State." This chapter would not be complete if we did not quote the subsequent declarations of the United States of America and Japan, practically endorsing the British declaration. On September 3, Mr. Lansing issued the following statement: "The Czecho-Slovak peoples having taken up arms against the German and Austro-Hungarian empires, and having placed in the field organised armies, which are waging war against those empires under officers of their own nationality and in accordance with the rules and practices of civilised nations, and Czecho-Slovaks having in the prosecution of their independence in the present war confided the supreme political authority to the Czecho-Slovak National Council, the Government of the United States recognises that a state of belligerency exists between the Czecho-Slovaks thus organised and the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. "It also recognises _the Czecho-Slovak National Council as a_ de facto _belligerent government_, clothed with proper authority to direct the military and political affairs of the Czecho-Slovaks. "The Government of the United States further declares that it is prepared to enter formally into relations with the _de facto_ government thus recognised for the purpose of prosecuting the war against the common enemy, the empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary." A week later the Japanese Government, through the medium of its ambassador in London, communicated the following declaration to the Czecho-Slovak National Council: "The Japanese Government have noted with deep and sympathetic interest the just aspirations of the Czecho-Slovak people for a free and independent national existence. These aspirations have conspicuously been made manifest in their determined and well-organised efforts to arrest the progress of the Germanic aggression. "In these circumstances, the Japanese Government are happy to regard the Czecho-Slovak army as an Allied and belligerent army waging regular warfare against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and to recognise the rights of the Czecho-Slovak National Council to exercise the supreme control over that army. They are further prepared to enter into communication with the duly authorised representatives of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, whenever necessary, on all matters of mutual interest to the Japanese and the Czecho-Slovak forces in Siberia." VII THE CZECHS AT HOME BEGIN TO SPEAK