THE END OF THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 95, 21 April 1917, Page 5

THE END OF THE WAR

IS IT IN SIGHT ? \

(By Thomas M. Wilford.)

" RUMOURED RESIGNATION

OF COUNT TISZA."

"GENEVA, 18th April.

" It is rumoured that Count Tisza (the Hungarian Premier) has resigned."—Cable news.

If this rumour is true the end of the war is in sight. Here are the reasons : Sixty years ago, the Russian Chancellor Gortsshaliov said Austria was not a State, but a Government dominated by German influence. "She is a collection," says Evans Lewin, "of warring nationalities, bound together for mutual support and protection, but likely at any time to bceome- disintegrated. ' Teh nationalities live under the rule of one Emperor, but of two Governments, each' Government sailing along careless of the other, with a total disregard for the common good of the whole Austrian Empire.l, This incongruous collection, of nationalities, which make up' what Lloyd George called "a ramshackle Empire," has feared the outside world, distrusted pan-Slavism and pan-German-ism, and funked declaring for independence. Mr. Namier says :' "Austria is only a Government, she has been,? not a home for nationalities, but an hotel or boardinghouse, and only to the Italians, Rumanians,' and Serbians of Austria was Austria a prison." GERMAN INFLUENCE. , Until 1866 German influence was paramount, but sine© then the Magyars and Southern Slavs have made their mark there. .Germans settled in Magyar and S,lav provinces of the s Empire to leaven those provinces; they went as political evangelists, as they did in Volhynia and other parts of Russia. Herr Class, the President", of the. Pan-German League, stated at Brunswick on Ist December, 1312, that "German, methods are actuated by the ; necessity of maintaining unimpaired Austrian character as a power dominated.by the German element.". These last five words show the German idea. The Nationalist party of Germany proposed to drive the Slavs out of Austria into national reserves like Kaffirs or American Indians,- for it was contended -that they, the Slavs, through their lack of polish, were an affront to Teutonic culture. v Frederick, List, of Germany, the Teutonic economic Hun, fixed the areas for the Slavs of Austria. The then young officer Moltke backed up the brutal and arrogant, suggestions of ; Frederick List, while Professor Paul de Lagarde, another backer of List, called Hungary "a bundle of impossibilities," and agreed that he (List) was right in advocating that the Slovaks, the Slovenes, and the Czechs, like the redskins of North America, should be in reserves, and not allowed to move about the country. " This'must be made possible," said List, " if Germany is to exist." The final statement of List, that the enemies of Germany in Austria should be driven by the sword into "assigned reserves" in order that territory might be gained for German expansion,'be'eame the expression of German leaders. Sir Robert Morier said prophetically, in 1896, of Germany, that he could conceive of the Germans chuckling like Attila on. the brink of the grave at the thought of living in the memory of future generations as the scourge of God. How right he was. In 1850, we find Austria advocating openly the humiliation and destruction of Prussia. The demand _of Austria for the evacuation of Hessian territory brought about the temporary _ climb down of Prussia and the signing of the Convention of Olmutz. "The PanGerman movement," says a famous writer, " was born % &t Olmutz, cradled at Sadowa, and nursed into maturity on the battlefields of Alsace and Lorraine." FOUR STOCKS IN' AUSTRIA. It must be remembered "that there are four stocks in Austria-4he Teutonic -, the Latins, the Slavonic, and the Magyars. . Only a few years ago Austria was in the throes of revolution. Race was set against race by the Germans there, and eventually the Hapsburg (Monarchy was dragooned'into'some semblance of order. Then the Seven Years' War: brought about the compromise between Austria and Hungary, though each became a bear garden, with racial and linguistic disputes of daily occurrence. Then Professor Andler made his famous speech, advocating the appointment of a German Dictator in Austria, who, with an iron fist, would degrade Austria to the rank of a German province. This Speech, which was applauded in Germany, has never been forgotten in Aus-, tria, nor has the reference by Bismarck to Austria been forgotten, when he said that Austria must remember "that in every alliance there must be a horse and a rider." Without going into further detail, it may be said that Austria has since the war, largely through^ the influence and power of Tisza, beeri an unscrupulous tool of Germany, though since the young Emperor Charles has taken the reins a move for peace has been real and persistent. Germany has had an ally and real friend in Count j Tisza, one of the most powerful person? alities this great war. Ctfunt Tisza, i the Hungarian Premier, has undoubtedly controlled the ruling powers in AustriaHungary, and defied the people.: A FEW OF TISZA'S ACTIVITIES. Let me enumerate a few of the activities of this German agent.- Do not forget that Count Tisza has throughout the war thought, planned, and acted under the influence of the Kaiser. He was the man who drafted the. ultimatum to Servia which started the war, and ob- | tamed the Kaiser's approval to it and his co-operation in the consequences. He was publicly commended by Conrad yon Hoetzendorff,.the fire-eating Chief of,the General Staff, for his action. He has prevented the calling together of Parliament. He helped, it is said, to remove the Archduke at Serajevo, for he knew the Archduke's willingness to compromise with Russia, and he was at the Austrian Legation in Belgrade witfh Cabrinovitch, the son of an Austrian police agent who threw the bomb wMch exploded at the Town Hall close to the Archduke. Whether he arranged the murder no one knows, but Potiorik was the guard for the murdered Archduke, and he it was who ordered the carriage to.be-slowed down while Prinzip murdered the Archduke and his wife, im.mediately after which crime Potiorik" rifled the Archduke's corpses for papers. Potiorik was then confined inra mad house by Tisza for six months, so that if he spoke 'later he might be d!escribed as one who suffered from delusions. THE EMPEROR'S AIM. Charles aims at being his own Bismark, but until Tisza is removed he is powerless. Despite Tisza, however, he has instigated peace overtures, and through Washington has assured the Popo of his pacificism. He has recognised the Czechs at the expense of the Germans, and thus given great offence to the bloody Kaiser. He has dismissed two Premiers, and Burjan, the Foreign Minister for the AustriaHungary Monarchy, has disappeared. He has actually called the Reicherath or Parliament of Austria together for the first time since the outbreak of war. His "tiff" with Bloody William has astonished the world, while hJB recognition of the Croats, ths Slovak*, and the Cs.eohs has astonished hju fjcieptto

and angered the Magyars. The Paris Matin says that it sees the beginning of the clearing out of the Teutonic influence in Vienna. Until Charles came into conflict with Tisza nothing checked his progress for reform and peace. He found Tisza too strong for him at first. Hungary under Tisza called for Independence, and ho (Tisza) cared little whether it was under a Hohenzollern or a Hapsburg—at least, so the London, papers read him. In the meantime, Charles is strong^ for the overthrow of Tisza. and' a chance to make a. separate peace without considering Germany. He (the Emperor) has invested with the Order of the Golden Fleece two open enemies of Tisza, viz., Count ■ Andrassyi and Count Apponyi. These acts show the Austrians how their new Emperor stands. Next, he (tho Emperor) is planning a reform of the suffrage and concessions to Socialists, which spells the end of Government by great magnates, of whom Tisza is easily chief. An antiGerman movement is rearing its head in Tisza is fighting him.* Am I not right at the forefront of the movement, and Tisza is fighting for him. Am I not right in saying that the cable in Thursday's paper is of vital moment to the world to-day ?