z:\ ambedkar\vol 08\vol8 04.indd MK SJ+DK 1 10 2013/YS 13 11 2013 209
PAKISTAN : LESSONS FROM ABROAD 209
which granted the demands of Turkey except in Western Thrace. The rest of the Treaty of Sevres was accepted by the Turks which meant the loss of her Arab provinces in Asia. Before the War of 1914, Turkey had lost all her provinces in Europe. After the War, she lost her provinces in Asia. As a result of the dismemberment of the old Turkish Empire, what now remains of it is the small state called the Republic of Turkey with an area which is a minute fraction of the old Empire.*
II
Take the case of Czechoslovakia. It is the creation of the Treaty of Trianon which followed the European War of 1914. None of the peace treaties was more drastic in its terms than the Treaty of Trianon. Says Prof. Macartney, “By it Hungary was not so much mutilated as dismembered. Even if we exclude Croatia, Slavonia, which had stood only in a federal relationship to the other lands of the Holy Crown—although one of eight hundred years’ standing— Hungary proper was reduced to less than one-third (32.6 per cent.) of her pre-war area, and a little over two-fifths
(41.6 per cent.) of her population. Territories and peoples formerly Hungarian were distributed among no less than seven states.” Of these states, there was one which did not exist before. It was a new creation. That was the state of Czechoslovakia.
The area of the Republic of Czechoslovakia was 54,244 square miles and the population was about 13,613,172. It included the territories formerly known as Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Ruthenia. It was a composite state which included in its bosom three principal nationalities, (i) Czechs occupying Bohemia and Moravia, (ii) Slovaks occupying Slovakia and (iii) Ruthenians in occupation of Ruthenia.
Czechoslovakia proved to be a very short-lived state. It lived exactly for two decades. On the 15th March 1939 it perished or rather was destroyed as an independent state. It became a protectorate of Germany. The circumstances attending its expiry were
*The area of Turkey is 294,492 square miles exclusive of 3,708 square miles of lakes and swamps. The area of Turkey in Europe is only 9,257 square miles.