English Translation

B 11 Yes/Gg. Betr.: Czech National Council (Národni rada česká). The Czech National Board was founded on 17.6.1900 as a non-partisan top organisation of the Czechs, after months earlier the Czech side had been called for the establishment of a uniformly oriented and in the interest of all parties acting defence organisation. The leading figures were the most prominent representatives of Czech national and political life. While in the first years of its existence the National Council was mainly confined to defensive action in the national and linguistic sense, the foreign political section gained the upper hand, especially by the accession of politically highly active members of the Czech Realist Party, Masaryk, Kramář and others. He then succeeded in winning first the Slovaks and later the Czech Social Democrats for uncompromising anti-Austrian and anti-German cooperation. By 1914, a total of ten advisory sections were established under the collective name of a national self-help. Dr. Kramář was appointed head of the foreign section. The activities of the National Council have always been regarded as confidential; leading men have described him as a secret organization. Confidentiality was not only on external political issues, but also on purely internal Czech affairs. In addition to a national court of honour, the National Council also had a secret court at its disposal, whose judgment could also be called a very serious national banishment. the National Council only under the threat of such respect in the spring of 1914, the militant political parties, which were about to fall over the Klofač party because of a convicted confident - the deputy Šviha - and to seriously harm them, to prevent them from their intention. - 2 - 3