"Slovaks: ignorant but articulate": British Foreign Office Mem

[menright]

The first episode of "The First World War" DVD series based on the book by Hew Strachan contains a reference to a British Foreign Office Document that apparently lists the perceived cultural pros and cons of a variety of peoples in and proximate to the Balkans. It observes, according to the narration and some visual reference to a tabulation, the Slovaks to be 'ignorant but articulate', the Italians to be 'anti-Austrian' and so on.

Would anyone in the Forum be able to advise where this document might be found in its complete form?

A search of the NA website has so far proved unsuccessful.

Thanks,

Michael

[Guest]

You could try contacting him Here or try contact the producers of the DVD?

Mike

[Gibbo]

Strachan wrote a book called The First World War: A New History to accompany the series. Perhaps its foot or end notes will give a reference to the file?

[menright]

Mike, Martin,

Thanks for your responses.

I have the book and as far as I can see, the material does not receive mention.

I have sent an email to the address Martin provided.

Thanks,

Michael

[Steven Broomfield]

Sorry, but I remember the couplet in one of the later editions of The Wipers Times (which was under a different name by then, I believe):

"Would you as a decent cove ack

Knowledge yourself a Czecho-Slovak?"