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Show CZECHS REBEL AGAINST RULE OF AUSTINS j Serious Rioting at Ostrau, Pilsen, Nachod and Other Places; Martial Law Proclaimed. TEUTONS PLAN TO DIVIDE BOHEMIA Strength of Czech Element in Parliament to Be Reduced; Re-duced; Whole Country Coun-try in Uproar. WASHINGTON. May 22. Division of Bohemia into twelve districts with advantages ad-vantages in the electoral domain given to the German minority in each so as to reduce the Czech representation in parliament par-liament is provided in a ministerial decree de-cree issued px Vienna. An official dispatch today from France says .this effort to dismember and Germanize Ger-manize the Czech state caused the recent serious rioting at Ostrau, Pilsen, Nachod and other places which resulted in the proclaiming of martial law and the Imprisonment Im-prisonment of 150 persons. , By increasing: the German represents represen-ts tion from Eohemia at the expense of the Czechs, the Austrian government, in the opinion lie re. hopes to regain at the I opening of parliament next Juno 19 the majority which it lost some months ago through the coalition of all elements in opposition, led by the Czechs; Cause of Dissolution. This adhesion of opponents caused Emperor Em-peror Charles to order parliament dissolved dis-solved early In the present year. "The law bulletin of the Austrian empire," em-pire," says the dispatch today from France, "published the ministerial decree according to which the district governments govern-ments which were claimed for so long by the Germans are established in Bohemia. Bo-hemia. "This decree Is undoubtedly a policy of repression, the first act or which tends to dismember Bohemia by granting to the German elements the guarantees which they claim. "The plan aims at creating in each district dis-trict a German minority and to grant to this minority, however small it may be, considerable advantages in the administrative admin-istrative and electoral domains. This method is meant to bring about a considerable con-siderable increase in the number of German Ger-man deputies in the diet, at the expense of I ho Czechs, who until now held a majority of the seals. Opposition Certain. "Jt is clear that this device of the pan-Germans pan-Germans is bound to arouse the most violent opposition on the part of the-, Czechs. A dispatch reprinted in all the German newspapers calls attention already al-ready to the fact that martial law has been proclaimed in several districts of Bohemia because In certain regions serious seri-ous riots have occurred. More than 150 persons were put in prison. Riots occurred oc-curred about Ostrau, Pilsen and Nachod."' BOHEMIA PLACED, UNDER MARTIAL LAW BY AUSTRIA LONDON, May 22. Martial law has been proclaimed In Bohemia and in consequence con-sequence of "popular excesses" many persons have been imprisoned, says a dispatch to the Daily Mall from Berne, quoting the Slovenski Parod. Outbreaks have occurred in Pilsen. Nachod and other towns. The vast estates es-tates of Prince Furstenburg, a close friend of the German emperor, have been plundered and the buildings on them burned. Dr. von Seydler, the Austrian premier, it is added, has summoned the Czech Deputy Stanek to discuss the situation. Deputy Stanek has declined and has warned t he premier against a policy of violence in Bohemia, fearing evidently that the indiscriminate hangings and shootings in Galicia at the beginning of the war are to be repeated in Bohemia. The Breslau newspaper Volkswatch, as quoted In a Copenhagen dispatch to the Dally Mail, says Dr. von Seydler made a visit to Prague and northern Bohemia, and in addressing striking miners asserted as-serted that the effort for general peace, which he said Emperor Charles was carrying car-rying forward incessantly, was not as hopeless as many persons thought. The premier authorized control by the workmen of food distribution in their own districts and promised that the question of reducing hours of labor would be taken up by the war ministry and representatives representa-tives of the workers. Fairbanks 's Condition Improved. INDIANAPOLIS, ind.. May :2 Physicians Physi-cians attending Charles W. Fairbanks, former vice president, who is ill at hla home here, stated tonight that there was slisht improvement in Mr. Fairbanks's condition during the afternoon and evening, eve-ning, although his condition still is causing caus-ing much anxiety. 1 |