The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1918. EXIT HAPSBURG

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 34, 4 November 1918, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1918. EXIT HAPSBURG

Austria-Hungary is breaking to pieces. No power on earth can now avert the final crash. Battered by external foes and torn asunder by internal strife, the Dual Monarchyis hurrying to its end. The last chapter of its- inglorious history is being written. It drew the sword to assassinate civilisation, and by the sword it is perishing. Its armies are hopelessly demoralised, its peoples are in a state of rebellion, its Government is 'paralysed. .Chaos and disruption prevail. The Czechoslovaks have declared their independence and formed a separate State. The Jugo-Slavs have also thrown off the oppressive yoke of the Hapsburgs, and the creation of a free Poland will cut another big slice out of the dominions of the Austrian Emperor. Hungary is also determined 'to part company with Austria, and both in Vienna and Budapest the populace is clamouring for the downfall of'the Hapsburgs. Before our very eyes an Empire is collapsing with tragic suddenness, and new States being built up on its ruins. As Sir Francis Bell stated in the Legislative Council on Friday, "History is being made to-day ; The--history of the world is being made, as it never was made before, no, not since the days of Alexander. . ... Perhaps the better comparison is with Marathon, when the civilisation of the world was saved from incursions from the East." We are certainly living in tremendous _days.] Momentous events are happening with such bewildering rapidity that it, is quite impossible for us to grasp the full meaning of each, or to form an adequate conception of the significance of the grand total. The fall of the Romanoffs and the collapse of Russia, the expulsion of Constantine from Greece, the entry of America into the war, Foch's victorious counterstroke on the West front, the defection of Bulgaria from the Germanio Alliance, Germany's confession of defeat, the Austrian debacle, and other startling developments—what a stupendous proces&ion of epochmaking events! Empires are being made and remade oh an unprecedented scale. We stand at the deathbed of one age and are witnessing

the birth of another. - Though the surrender of Austria has not yet been officially announced, her position is so utterly, irretrievably, and hopelessly desperate that it is quite certain that she cannot continue the struggle. She must give up in a few days at most—possibly 'it is only a matter of hours. In Germany her capitulation is apparently taken for granted. Vorwaerts, which is now regarded as a semi-official organ, asserts that Aus-

tria's capitulation means that Germany is at the. end of her powers of ■ resistance. All that; she can now save "must he saved in tho negotiations for peace." Germany's last prop has cracked to breaking point, and the whole Germanic Alliance is now tottering to ruin—complete and overwhelming. The Austrian Empire has practically ceased to exist, only the name remains. It goes down ignominiously—unwept and unhonoured. But out of evil good is coming. As tho result of a conspiracy to enslave the world, 'millions of oppressed people are being set free. , The creation of the Czechoslovak State means the liberation of no fewer than 12,000,000 occupying an area five times greater than that of Belgium. And this is only the beginning of the work of emancipation. The Austro-Hungarian Government was powerless to suppress the Bohemian revolt. The Emperor, realises .that other separatist movements are in progress which cannot lie successfully resisted, and he is evidently trying to find some place in the new order of things, but the Hapsburg dynasty is'in deadly peril and will probably-go down in the general crash. As long as the Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns retain the power and authority which they have so grossly misused the world can never be. safe for democracy. The overthrow of these two tyrant dynasties seems to bo at hand.

Some ,pcople have tho idea that Austria is. not so black as she is .painted. They appear to think that she has shown more chivalry in this war than Germany; that she has not been guilty of systematio "frightfulness" like her western neighbour; that a plea of extenuating circumstances might reasonably be made on her behalf. But Dr. William BarrSt (an eminent English Roman Catholic), in an article in the Nineteenth Century, exposes tho flimsiness of the foundations

upon which, such apologies for. Austria rest. Rightly (he says) we charge upon the German Raiser all that was committed by the Ottomans of brutal ferocity when they slew the Armenians by the ten thousand; for with a telegram of half-a-dozen words he could have stopped those massacres. Equally do weandict the Emperor Charles of Austria for permitting' the utter destruction which has overtaken Serbia, thanks to his own Government on one side of the Morava and to King Ferdinand on the other. He de-

serves to bo brought to judgment in 'every single case; be is the residuary legatee of nil these unspeakable, indescribable horrors; unfit to be told in human language, but endured by the victims and told by the witnesses. Dr. Barry goes on to remind the "dear English admirers of the House of Hapsburg" that it ,is impossible to distinguish between the cruelties committed beyond the' Austrian frontiers and the'cruelties committed inside them. Austria-Hungary took hostages of her own Slav subjects, and executed the hostages when the people, no longer capable of bearing their wrongs and sufferings in silence, mado efforts at protest. Thd deeds rehearsed and not deniable must be pronounced ■"strange, savage, ghastly dark, and execrable; no shame is absent from them." The dissolution of AustriaHungary should be one of the conditions of the peace settlement. The Poles, the Bohemians, and the Southern Slavs niust receive full freedom; the Serbs, the Croats, and the Slovenes must also be allowed to satisfy their desire to unite under the rule of King Peter; the Trenmust go back to Italy. It may 'be taken for granted that the Allies endorse the declaration of Mr. Lan- , SING (speaking for the United States Government) that all members of the Slav race must be set completely ' free from the Austro-Hungarian

yoke. This means the end of the Austrian Empire as at present constituted, and if impartial justice is done the end of the Hapsburg dynasty should also be decreed. Lovers of freedom in all parts of the world will share Dr. Barry's hopo that when judgment is delivered the "exitHapsburg" will bo pronounced.