CZECH LEADER'S DEATH SENTENCE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2847, 11 August 1916, Page 6

CZECH LEADER'S DEATH SENTENCE

A GItEAT pAN-SLAVIST

Tlio Austrian Press recently announced that Dr. Kramarz, the well-known Czech leader, together with thrco others, had been convicted by a Vienna divisional military court of high treason and sentenced to death by hanging. This news will bo received with, consternation, though without actual surprise, by tho Czech colonies throughout the world. Dr. lvramarz was one of the most influential men not merely in Bohemia, but in. ' tho Austrian Empire as a whole. As the head of tho l'oung Czechs, who succeeded Dr. Nieger, of the Old Czechs, as the political leader of liis nation, ho wielded a great influence both in the Reichsrath and in the highest Government quarters, where ho was - greatly feared and hated. Ho was most prominent udvocato of .Noo-Slavism which demanded for the Czech nation a Russian "orientation" and an alliance with tho Poles and. Southern Slavs. Ho stood in close relations with Russian statesmen pursuing the same policy, aad presided over the Pan-Slav Congress at Sofia, in 1!)10. It was this frank sympathy with Russia that v made Dr. Kramarz go hateful to the Austrian?, and in March last year he was arrested on a charge of communicating with the . enemy and supplying him with military and other information, as well as of can-ring on a treasonable propaganda among the Czechs. He was long kept in prison, and then was brought before the miiltary court, together with his friend Dr. Rashin, another member of the Reiohsrath; 31. Cervinka, editor of the Czech paper "Narodin Listi," and M. Samasol, a Moravian Czech. The proceedings took place in camera, so that no one knows what the proofs against 'tho four accused were.—"Manchester Guardian."