The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 1919. AN ACT OF AMANCIPATION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 214, 4 June 1919, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 1919. AN ACT OF AMANCIPATION

The Treaty presented to Austria, a summary of which appeared yesterday, is partly robbed of interest by the reservation for the time being til' several important clauses, notably that dealing with reparation. Even in its incomplete state, however, it is a, remarkable document and one which promises to exert in some respects at least as important an influence on human affairs as the Treaty which still awaits the signature of the German envoys. It is, of course, the distinguishing feature of the Austrian Treaty that it emancipates a great majority of the people who were formerly subject to Hapsburg rule. The Dual Monarchy had an area of about 240,000 square miles and a population of some 51,000,000 souls. Austria, as its limits are defined in the Treaty, has a population of about 6,000,000 and an area of between 50,000 and 60,000 square miles. Although Hungary, with a somewhat larger population and area than are left to Austria, shares with that State responsibility •for the misdeeds of the Jlapsburg regime, it is evident that the utmost reparation that can be exacted from theso partners in crime must bo hopelessly inadequate in comparison with what might in justice be demanded. It is certain that in so far as it deals with reparation and with military guarantees, the Austrian Treaty cannot be more than a petty supplement to the terms imposod on Germany. On the other hand, as a boldly-planned measure of liberation and international justice—an effective assertion of the rights of small nationsit is without precedent in history. At a superficial view it dismembers an Empire, but its actual purpose and effect are in fact purely constructive. All that it destroys is an _ unnatural tyranny. The facts which so amply justify the sweeping moasures of liberation embodied in the Treaty and make them essential in the interests of future European peace have taken their place in history, but are perhaps worth briefly recalling at this time. They were admirably summed up not long ago, by a French writer, in the following terms: —

On the evo of the war, in 1914, Austria-Hungm-y woe rapidly running towards decomposition, and we have not to look further for an immediate cause of the war itself. Here was a large country, indispensable to Germany for her policy in the' East, in which the spirit of emancipation had rapidly taken on alarming proportions. The eight million Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia had always been a fighting, indomitable group. Tho Serbian victories in the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 had stimulated the spirit of independence among the Southern Slavs, who all speak the Serbian language and are of Serbian race. Austria sent her ultimatum to Serbia in July, 1914, because she could no more resist tho separatist tendencies of her own people, and she needed to crush their hopes by crushing the little independent nation with which they wanted to unite. So many other factors have interposed since then that one easily forgets that this was the direct cause of the world war.

The Allies have acted with sound wisdom and justice in refusing to consider any half-measures in disposing of the "ramshackle Empire." Had they contented themselves with reconstituting it on some sort of federal basis, the work of emancipation would have been left fatally incomplete, and the former Dual Monarchy would have remained a breeding-centre of future wars, For the reason that the Hapsburg Empire was drawn together solely with an eye to dynastic interests and predatory ambition the case was essentially one for conferring complete and unfettered liberty upon the various subject races. In this vital aspect the Treaty seems to meet all possible demands. Time will probably show also that the Allies have taken the _ right course in dealing with the difficult problem presented by the existence, practically all over the late Hapsburg Empire, of small racial groups alien to tho larger groups surrounding them. Since the Central Empires tasted defeat tho Teutonic view has been that these racial minorities aro as much entitled to local autonomy as the main racial divisions are to national freedom. The general application of this policy would lead obviously to endless strife and faction-fight-ing which might easily give rise to conflict on a greater scale. _ The Allies have acted judiciously in refusing to adopt such a policy and in demanding instead that all the States concerned shall agree to respect the political and religious rights of minorities and to impose rm restrictions on the free use of their language, It is certainly bettor that obligations for the protection of minorities should be, as the Treaty stipulates, "matters _ of international concern over which the League of Nations has jurisdiction" than that the assertion of minority rights should be. left to dozens, or scores, of minorities, putting forward, perhaps, as many conflicting theories of what minority rights amount to. This, of course, relates to the broad aspects of political freedom and religious toleration. So far as the details of life are concerned, the Treaty is designed to give the freest rein to democratic progress. It may be noted that the popu-

laticm now assigned to Austria is smaller than she was expected to retain. According to the official census of 1810, the ni"ial divisions of the laLc Empire were, in round figures: — Germans 12,000,00(1-* Magyars 10,000,000 C'xfc'hn-Slovaks X,so(l.liWi| .lugo-Slavs 7,000,U00t Poles f>,OCO,GOOr Ruthenes 1,000,0001 Latins (Rumanians and Italians) -t.000.00fl ♦Including 13,000,000 in Hungary, ffotal of Slavs 24,500,M)0. It has been asserted, however, that the Aiistra-Hunjpirian Government habitually falsihed its statistics in order to increase, on paper, the apparent numerical strength of the dominant Germans and Magyars and diminish the in any case heavy majority of the subject races. Austria, at) all events, is reduced by tho Treaty to smaller dimensions than any of her neighbours. Sho will be a 'andlocked State, but with guaranteed access, for purposes of trade, to the Adriatic. She is bereft of naval and air forces, and no doubt will be restricted to a very small army, though specific information on this point is as yet lacking. The conditions outlined in the Treaty seem upon the whole as well calculated to establish and safeguard peace as those it obliterates wore to breed and foment war. -ft would probably be a great intake, however, to believe that the Allied terms will be received by the German-Austrians in the spirit in which they are drawn. Nominally, the Government of Austria has been democratised, but there are fairly obvious reasons for considering the change as illusory as that which has been carried out in Germany. Dr. Kael Renneb, the Austrian Chancellor, is a Socialist of _a somewhat peculiar type. In his public utterances he has refused to admit Teutonic responsibility for the war, and has been insistent in declaring that any attempt to exact reparation from Austria would result in an outbreak of Bolshevism, which neither the Alps nor tho Rhine would stop, and that Austria ought to be allowed to link up with Germany. He is, in fact, manifestly playing the. German game. With such men at the head of affairs the Allies arc very obviously called upon to deal firmly with Austria, both in the matter of reparation and in securing ail possible guarantees for the future.