DISUNION IN AUSTRIA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 21, 24 January 1917, Page 4

DISUNION IN AUSTRIA.

Tile trial of Dr. Kramarz aha other' leaders of the Czech or Bohemian party, arul_ their sentence .to terms, of. penal servitude, may help to emphasise the serious lack of national unity and the prevalence of sedition throughout the Dual Monarchy. Most people are by this time familiar with the Southern Slav movement', which involves all the provinces of Austria bordering on the Balkans, and it is now generally anticipated that the victory of the Allies will mean the establishment of a great Southern Slav State in the north of the Balkan peninsula, with Serbia as its nucleus, and the-'cpinplete severance of the disaffected provinces from Austro-Hungary. But while the ecope and importance of the Jugo Slav movement are now generally appreciated, lese attention has been given to the position of the Northern Slavs in Bohemia and Moravia, and the newe item to which we have referred may help us to understand the danger that Austria has to face in. this portion of her polyglot and disorderly dominions. The Czechia, as we have said, comprise the nationalities inhabiting Bohemia and Moravia. As they are wholly distinct in v race from the Teuton and the Magyar, and they have behind them a long and glorious history s≤ free and independent States, they have never reconciled themselves to their eubject position in the Dual Monarchy, and they have never ceased to hope and strive for liberty. These Northern Slarrs are not. so closely akin to the Russians as, are tlte'Southern Slavs; but. like all the' 'STa'vs, they regard Russia as.the hereditary enemy of Austria, and therefore, as the champion of their own. rights. The neglect of the sacred principle of 'nationalism which lies at the root. of all the difficulties and dangers- that have arisen in the Balkans and in Eastern Europe for the past hundred years, has had ite inevitable effect upon the Czechs; and though the late Emperor Franeie Joseph tried to conciliate them and to play they off against the Southern Slavs, whom he treated with consistent severity, never been reconciled to the servile dependence which is. tlia natural fate of alien racee under lAus-. trian or Magyar rule. When the war began, the Austrian Imperial authorities, knowing well how far the Czech population is alienated from them, took all possible precautions against sedition or the display of- any active sympathy for the enemy. But the strength of nationalism is invincible and irrepressible, and the Czechs let no opportunity slip to embarrass"-'and obstruct their hated masters. Naturally | the outside world has not been allowed to hear many details of the sensational' i occurrences which have marked the pro- ' grees of the war in Northern Austria. . But the catalogue of charges—refusal to I obey the Imperial command in regard to mobilisation and transfer of property, circulation of seditious proclamations, riots', and frequent surrenders of Czech troops to the Russians —at least sugaest the nature of the problem with which Austria has to deal. No doubt the Auetro-Maygax oligarchy, realising its peril, has tried to forestall actual revolution among the Czechs as among the Jugo Slave by robbing them of their leaders on forged or fictitious, charges. But the facts, even co far as we know them, indicate plainly the magnitude of the task that Austria has to face and they point also to the readiness of the Northern Slays to follow the lead of the Jugo -Slavs of the Southern provinces, and throw off the Austrian yoke as soon as.freedom is within their reach. The settlement of Bohemia and Moravia on nationalist lines' will be one of the first duties of the Allies when the war is over, and it will be rib less essential to the future peace of Europe titan the establishment of Greater Serbia, the new Jugo Slav state in the South.