English Translation

10 - 29 - Slavic Red Cross was sentenced to two years in prison by my brother, Drahotin Štefánek, on 28 February l9l3, in a similar way to the lawyer Hlavatý, also to a two-year penitentiary, and Jozeg Dúbrava sat for a long time in custody. What is significant is that in this affair there were 30 Slovak soldiers of the Pressburg garrison, Štefánek and Hlavatý paid their punishment in the barracks of Komorn, and also an intervention by Dr. Kramář at the highest points was of no use to them, as the consequence of these events was that the High Command was the Slovak army of the Artillery Regir. 14 divided into other regiments. The outbreak of the Wslt war surprised us not a little. Although everyone knew the tense relationship between our monarchy and Serbia, despite the murder of Sarajevo, no one believed that Serbia would lift up the glove thrown at him. The forces of power seemed to us to be too disproportionately different, but every more educated Slovak saw that the intervention of Russia and France in the dispute would not spare England and Italy, and that for the Slavs, especially Czechs and Slovaks, Serbs and Croats, Romanians, etc., the hour of fate would strike Me parsoon and my Budapest Slovak acquaintances, the appearance of the Magyars and the Germans came as an act of madness ..and I was delighted in the soul that the hour for liberation would come for us. So thought during the mobilization of every tribe-scattered Czech. Later, when the news of Job came from the Russian and the French war scene, when military terror began, when Serbs had to go back, our soul fluctuated and almost seized us with great fear. With each day thousands of young Slovaks came to the front, and with sorrow the whole of Slovakia saw the departure of the great tragedy. It is not to be doubted that the vast majority of Siowaks sympathized with the Russians and the South Slavs, but we were so depressed, unorganized and weak that there was no thought of resistance. Individuals, however, did not know how to control themselves and let their feelings be recognized. Espionage, denunciation, false statements increased. - 30 -