AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 286, 3 December 1915, Page 5

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

A POLITICAL CRISIS

CONNECTED WITH KAISER'S

VISIT,

THREE MINISTERS RESIGN

(Received•■•Deo. 2, 5.5 p;m.) LONDON, Dec. l: A sensation was/caused by the announcement from Vienna that the Austrian 'Ministers for the Interior, Commerce, and Finance have resigned. It is surmised (hat serious happenings necessitated the changes. These happenings are interpreted as similar to those which filled the army with German tools and sympathisers. The Austrian Parliament has- not met since the opening of the war. The nation has been without the means of influencing the Government. The public connect the crisis with' the Kaiser's visit, though, the German newspapers suggest that the visit was for the purpose of discussing the ownership oi: conquered Serbian territory and the possibility of inducing :»erbia. to conclude peaco.

The. Daily News's Rome correspondent states that the Kaiser's object in visiting Vienna was to dissuade the «e;e<l: and obstinate Emperor Francis Joseph from concluding, a separate peace. Tho Pope's exhortations already resulted in Austria's fruitless attempt to negotiate a separate peace with Russia. When the Emperor Francis Joseph notified the Pope that he welcomed the Papal efforts to end the disastrous war, the Kaiser sent Cardinal Hartmann post-haste to> Rome to inform the Pope that Germany would oppose premature efforts towards peace.

The financial condition of AustriaITungary is most serious. Loans for sixteen months aggregate only £52,----000.000, and comprise mostly cpmpulsorily commandeered bank savings.