The Spectator at war: A struggle in Bohemia

From ‘John Hus’, The Spectator, 3 July 1915:

Here and there we have indications that this titanic struggle has not led the Czechs to renounce their hatred of all that is German. The misfortune of Bohemia has ever been her geographical position. As an outpost of the Slav races only the mountain ranges with which she is surrounded have saved her from being overrun by the conquering Teutons. But her strong, natural frontiers would have been ineffective against “peaceful penetration” had it not been for the intense race-consciousness of the country. For a thousand years the Teuton has struggled in different ways to dominate the land, to capture her Church, her schools, her freedom, and her soul; and for a thousand years the Czech has continued the unequal resistance. Though the old Bohemian kingdom has disappeared, Bohemian nationalism still survives.