“And so it was that the word was secretly passed through whole regiments of our men to desert to the Russians.  The opportunity came when we faced Brusiloff’s army.  The Russians knew and were ready to receive us.  We walked over in companies, with banners flying and bands playing and men falling before the shots that rang out behind us.  We hoped to turn and fight against our oppressors.  And for a while some of us did.  But one by one those of us who had entered the Russian ranks were removed and sent to prison camps, whence we were scattered among the homes and factories of Russia.  My own band of companies was soon thoroughly broken up and dispersed from Turkestan and the Caucasus to Tobolsk and Irkutsk.  As German influences strengthened at the Russian court we were sent to worse and worse positions, malarial and barren territories.  But we prospered in spite of all that was done to oppress us.

[Sidenote:  Waiting the time to strike for liberty.]

“For a while I managed a cotton factory in Turkestan and later I went to open some mines further in the country.  But all the while we kept in touch with one another and day by day we waited for the time when we could strike for liberty and Bohemia.  Professor Masaryk was to give the signal for the blow for liberty.

[Sidenote:  The Russian Revolution.]

[Sidenote:  Czechs ask to go to France.]

“Then came the Russian Revolution.  With the Czar, the German influences at Court were overthrown.  We left our farm work and our shop benches.  We poured out of the dark mines and united in Czech battalions to fight in the armies of Kerensky.  At Zborov, we pierced six enemy lines but were forced to retreat because the other fighters failed to advance as fast as we.  Then came the long wait for the time when Russia should find herself, as she is still trying to do.  The Slav is not a coward once his mind is trained.  There is hope for his ultimate recovery.  The power of Czardom was enforced ignorance, and this made possible the infamous treaty of Brest-Litovsk.  But we saw that there was no hope for a mere handful of us to hold the Russian front, and to attempt this would be to antagonize the Russian people.  So we applied for permission to leave Russia and go to France.

[Sidenote:  The journey to Vladivostok.]

“Everyone said that it could not be done.  It meant going almost round the world.  But we were determined and soon we had gained the support of the French Government and the permission of the Bolshevik leaders, who were glad enough to get us out of the country.  They feared we would start a counter-revolution.  But here we are in Siberia and the hardest part of our journey is over.  Two weeks more should find us in Vladivostok and from there we can go very quickly to France, where thousands of our fellows are already fighting for the cause of liberty.”

[Sidenote:  The men are classified by occupation.]