Manawatu Evening Standard. CIRCULATION 4700 DAILY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1914. AUSTRIA AND BRITAIN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9873, 14 August 1914, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. CIRCULATION 4700 DAILY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1914. AUSTRIA AND BRITAIN.

W hen the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria, and his morganatic wife, Duchess of Hohenlohe, were assassinated in the Bosnian capital on Sunday, June 30, not on© person in the British Empire thought that subsequent events would lead to & war between Austria and the Mother Country in addition to a struggle with Germany. Austria considered that the assassination of the Archduke was sufficient to provoke a quarrel with Servia, although there is little doubt that territorial aggression in the Balkans was Che underlying motive, and in turn Russia, Germany, France, Belgium, and Britain have been drawn into the quarrel. The great European war now in progress, totally due to Austria's attempt to humiliate Servia, is the maddest, act of the many mad things that have been perpetrated by members of the Hapsburg dynasty. Now that Britain is at war with Austria, it will be timely to make some reference to the career of the present Emperor of Aus-tria-Hungary, Francis Joseph, whose 84 years have been marked by nothing but tragedy. Beginning his reign more than 60 years ago with internal dissensions and external aggressions, this double assassination is the final tragedy that overshadowed the life of Emperor, Francis Joseph. The list of tragic incidents began in 1853 with an attempt upon his own life, when a Hungarian named Lebenye stabbed him. Then in 1867 his brother, Arohduke Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, was shot to death by the revolutionists who rose against him. Then a niece was burnt to death in Vienna, a sister met a violent death in Paris, and a cousin committed suicide in Stahrenberg Lake, j Perhaps his greatest blow was when the Empress Elizabeth, his wife, was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist at Geneva. While he and the Empress had been estranged for many years, the Emperor never failed to show the greatest affection for her. Less than ten years before that the Emperor's only son, Crown Prince Rudolph, was shot and killed in the royal hunting lodge at Meyerling. Near his body lay that of the Baroness Marie Vestera. Both had been shot. That mystery never has been cleared. There had been the greatest attachment between the two, j an alliance which the Emperor had been ! unable to break. The Archduke Francis Ferdinand had of recent years been taking over the reins of government from the aged Emperor even without the latter's consent and much to his annoyance. Francis Ferdinand, who as general absolutely controlled the army, was recognised as the strongest hand in the affairs of Austria-Hungary. Not

waiting for the death of the Emperor, when he would have ascended the throne of the dual monarchy, Francis Ferdinand already had arranged for the expenditure of vast sums on the strengthening of thd navy and the army. The Ministries of both countries had been ignoring the aged Emperor recently to confer with the Archduke, and it was quite a well-defined fact that the Archduke was really more the sovereign than has been Emperor Frahcis Joseph. Archduke Charles Francis, known popularly as Karl, who becomes heir to tho Austrian throne owing to the morganatic birth of Archduke Francis Ferdinand's children, debarring their succession, has been carefully educated with a view to fitting him for the position of Emperor. Assuming that Austria is sincere in her belief that the death of the Archduke was due to a Servian plot, her subsequent actions were wholly inexcusable, and the fact that they have resulted in a big European war proves that her ruler in the closing years of his reign has committed a stupendous blunder, which may crush his kingdom and that of Germany to an extent far beyond the calculations of himself, his advisers, and his close, personal friend, the Kaiser.