The Press. Tuesday, May 7, 1918. Austria and Germany.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16205, 7 May 1918, Page 6

The Press. Tuesday, May 7, 1918. Austria and Germany.

' Recent cable messages show that there . is increasing friction among the various nationalities in Austria-Hungary, v- while- the economic condition of th< country is one of ever-tighteninj . ,v. stringency. The "Daily News" Genev: correspondent states that fully , a dozet crises confront the authorities, ant that, "representatives of the subju "gated nationalities expect the jn "evitable collapse momentarily." I; ■is Lndefed one of the miracles of th< > war that a country which was appar ently on the. verge of disintegratioi when it was jockeyed into the conflici by Gormany, should still be holdin.c together after nearly four years o! bloodshed, from which it has gained.nc material advantage, and is not likelj to gain anj, It is in the position oi the foolish wretches who in mediteva times were depicted as having solci their souls to the Devil and found him sucH an implacable creditor and Relent.less taskmaster. From the Emperoi downwards there is hardly anyone it Austria-Hungary to-day who does no) realise that a ghastly mistake has beer • m&de, and would be glad to get out of the war if he could. We have frequently referred to the extraordinary mixture of races in the Dual Monarchy. The Czechs of Bohemia want to form, together with tlu Slovaks of Hungary, an indepondenl .. State. The Poles, although not st badly treated by Austria-Hungary ai ■were the Poles in Germany and Rus sia by these , two countries, are now / showing greater distrust of the Gov ernmont, and jjrotest against the milt . iajry requisitions imposed upon Galicia The Roumanians are still smarting rnder the oppression of the Hungarians and the sympathy of the Ruthenes ii witli the Ukrainians, to whom they ar< ■kin. The Italians of Trieste and the Trentino axe, of course, longing foi reunion with Italy, and even thi Magyars and the Germans, as f writer in tho "Argus' 1 recently pointed out, are held together only by a comlfldn. desire to dominate over the othoi races. During the war atrocities hav< . been committed upon the southeri ; Slavs, and the Czechs as gross as th< on the Armenians by tho Turks Roumanians in Transylvania ar< most grinding tyranny, all, tho economic conditio! country, is admittedl:

vrorse than that of Germany, and no wonder there is a growing conviction that collapso may como at any moment. There is not the slightest'doubt that the Emperor Karl, in March last year, wrote a letter to his brother-in-law, Prince Sixte of Bourbon, which the latter at his request communicated to 31. Poincarc. in which distinct overtures were mado for a separate peace. In this letter the Emperor Karl promised to support, using all his personal influence with his allies, France's just claims regarding Alshce-Lorrainc, and proposing other concessions. 11. Clemenceau did not regard these over- j tures worthy of serious consideration, doubtles.s considering that the Emperor's influence with his allies, after ho had broken away from them, would be worth about as much as a German scrap of paper. The discovery of this 1 otter can hardly have been very agreeable to the German military party, who must have been further perturbed by the emphatic declaration made by the Austrian Premier on February 22nd that Austria would participate in no way in the,military action which was being carried out bv Germanv against Russia. We must not atiach too much importance, however, t-o troubles of this kind in the enemies' countries. Our business is to carry the war to a conclusion on the Western front, the confidence in our ability to do this being strengthened meanwhile by these signs of breaking stress among our opponents.