The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1914. THE DOOM OF AUSTRIA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 153, 29 June 1914, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1914. THE DOOM OF AUSTRIA.

For tt» cause thai lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in tlie distance, Aud the good that toe con da.

Once more Europe lias been staggered by one of those recurrent crimes by which the great potentates of the earth are reminded from time to time on how ■frail a tenure they hold thenr thrones and thvir lives, ifhe mtrrder of the Arehdlake 'Franz Ferdinand of Austria 1 and his wife has already sent a thrill of 'horror through the civilised 1 world; for quite apart from- tire horrible character of the crime there is a strong element of personal pathos in this tragedy. Through the successive deaths of the sons of fiic Emperor Francis Joseph. .'c ATchduloe, as his oldest nephew, seemed destined s,omc day to wear the crown of the Dual Monarchy. 'An able and accomplished -man. he. has been for years pafit preparing himself loir hhc 'high office he -was to fill by taking an active part in public and diplomatic affaire. He was associated closely with the Kaiser, and he was regarded as the mainstay of the alliance. On the other hand. 'he. was generally credited with having inspired and direeti'l Austria's "forward"' policy in the Balkans which, during the last ten years, has done so much to endanger the po:Loc ot" Europe, lllv -j:ts thus played a leaiing ' part on the Continental diplomatic stage, for some time pinc't; and though he was . undoubtedly unpopular with the .Liberal or progressive section of the Kinpirc because of 'hie conservatism in religion, as well as in politics, he was regarded as a forcflful and capable man, well able to maintain the prestige and dignity of his country when seabed on the throne. Now, in the prime ol" his life, when, humanly e-pe-aking. only a short period of time could have separated iiim from , the realisation of his ambitions, his ' career has bivn thus suddenly cut short; ami cvo-n these at his nrwn- poople who •had little sympathy with his rather reactionary ter.deneies. cannot fail to be deeply impTVKried by the tragic circumstances of 'his end aud the bitterness [ of that ircwiy of Fate which 60 often sets at nought the hopes and purposes of men even on the very eve of their fruition. ]t is impossible, under the circumstances, to avoid some reference to the ' aged Emperor Francis Joseph, who now I once more finds bis plans frustrated, nnd , his empire threatened with dissolution by an adverse destiny. He has lived nearly S4 years, he has reigned for ' nearly Cfi years, and throughout his ', long career he has been constantly dogged by bitter and apparently causeless and inevitable misfortunes: The tragic fate of his brother Maximilian, 1 the ill-starred Emperor of Mexico, the •'mesalliance," and tiie flight, and tho : ultimate disappearance of his heir- ' apparent, the Archduke John: the mysterious end of his younger son Rudolph. ', whether by murder or suicide: the ass-.ts- . si-nation of bis wife, the Empress Eliza--1 beth by an insane Anarchist had left iiim bereft of almost every one of his near relations; and now the murder of the Archduke Fran/ Ferdinand has robbed him once more of his chosen heir, and left his Empire exposed again to the danger of disintegration. It is true that, the Archduke, according to popular rumour, was not sympathetically inclined toward the ngc<l Kmpcror. For Francis Joseph had learned in the hard school of experience that the absolutist view* of kingship and polity maintained by his nephew are obsolete and futile, and it was an open secret that he disapproved of the aggressive methods that Count Achi-enthal and the Archduke employed in recent years in dealing with Turkey and the Balkan States. Bui to the Emperor the succession of the Arch- , duke must have meant almost the only moaais of escape from that possible dis solution of the Dual Monarchy which has so long haunted the dreams of European statesmen. For Franz Ferdinand was a matured man of the world; and the next heir, the Archduke Karl Franz, another of the Emperor's nephews, is too young and too inexperienced to have given yet any promise of ability adequate to the task of filling the throne that, in the nature of things, Francis Joseph must soon vacate. it'mm the pc.TS.onal point of view, once more the tragic ciiaracler of this disastrous episode is intensified by the fact that the AnehdiuJce's wife, the Princes Sophie. Counfcssß of Hoiieijberg. shaTes his fate, A capable and ambitions woman. e>h-a has been credited- with working assiduously to evade the restriction imposed upon h-er children by her morganatic, marriage, which debars •them from bho throw. But whatever her as.pir.itions may 'have bc<m, she iwp regarded oh the trusted confidant of tlie ' Archduke an.l iris coadjutor in. a ll h-is j political and diplomatic schemes. And ' there in a special signiftcajicn in I)he eirc-ujiwtances .-.£ this tragedy that should not. -Ire ignored in attempting to estimate its near-Tig rind ... pofttiW: eorusuqiinncc:,. The A.-ehduke and his .life were murdered .by a Servian, iii the ca-pilal of 'Bosnia; and the mere mention of these names should Tcminii .us ol' AustriaV -forward" - policy in i he KalkaiK and -her forcible a-iriK-ntatinri of liie tu., iiordor provinces t: \ y-curr-- ag... An , v matter nf practical politics Austria* oi £c«ft).;a and - Kerzug-ormj. wan so-—dotsbt- a. clnjer . jso-m. 3m

in tho first place Austria was bound by treaty to restore the provinces •to Turkey, as she had agreed merely to a-dminfeter them temporarily aa'ter the Russo-Turkiah ivar <yf 1S78; and in the second place the natives of the -provinces ' fiercely resented their subjugation by an alien Power. The people of Bosnia and 'Herzegovina, arc chiefly Serb in origin; and they claimed the right to combine -with Servia nationally and politically But Austria has always feared the aggrandisement oi Servia, and just as she prevented ilontenegro from forming ■with Servia a great Serb State that would liave tilled the centre of the Balkans and blocked Austria's road southward to .Salonika and the sea, go she annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina for the special purpose of detaching them from Servia and checking its political growth. For the moment this high-hauded and unprincipled policy seemed to have succeeded. But the Serb races are. intensely patriotic and fiercely vindictive; and horrible as this tragedy undoubtedly is, it seems almost as if Nemesis' had decreed -that the man who, above all others, -was responsible for the annexation of Bosnia should fall by the hands of a Servian in the capital of the country which, in the eyes of its people, he had tyrannically enslaved.