"Our nation longs with all the democracies of the world for a general and lasting peace. But our nation is fully aware that _no peace can be permanent except a peace which will abolish old injustice_, brutal force and the predominance of arms, as well as the predominance of states and nations over other nations, which will assure a free development to all nations, great or small, and which will liberate especially those nations which are still suffering under foreign domination. That is why it is necessary that this right of free national development and of self-determination of nations, great or small, to whatever state they may belong, should become the foundation of future international rights, a guarantee of peace, and of a friendly co-operation of nations, as well as a great ideal which will liberate humanity from the terrible horrors of a world war. "_We deputies of the Czech nation declare that a peace which would not bring our nation full liberty could not be and would not mean a peace to us_, but would only be the beginning of a new, desperate and continuous struggle for our political independence, in which our nation would strain to the utmost its material and moral forces. And in that uncompromising struggle it would never relax until its aim had been achieved. _Our nation asks for independence_ on the ground of its historic rights, and is imbued with the fervent desire to contribute towards the new development of humanity on the basis of liberty and fraternity in a free competition with other free nations, which our nation hopes to accomplish in a sovereign, equal, democratic and socially just state of its own, built upon the equality of all its citizens within the historic boundaries of the Bohemian lands and of Slovakia, guaranteeing full and equal national rights to all minorities. "Guided by these principles, we solemnly protest against the rejection of the right of self-determination at the peace negotiations, and _demand that, in the sense of this right, all nations, including, therefore, also the Czecho-Slovaks, be guaranteed participation and full freedom of defending their rights at the Peace Conference_." _(f) The Oath of the Czecho-Slovak Nation_ It will be remembered that Count Czernin delivered a speech to the Vienna Municipal Council on April 2, 1918, which caused his downfall. In this pronouncement he also attacked Czech leaders and blamed them for the failure of his peace efforts. This interesting passage of his speech reads as follows: