AUSTRIA'S BOLD FRONT.

North Otago Times, Volume CVI, Issue 13975, 11 September 1917, Page 4

AUSTRIA'S BOLD FRONT.

One of the surprises of the war j lias been the manner in which Austria-Hungary, the "ramshackle empire," to use Mr Lloyd George's expressive phrase, has so successfully preserved a bold front to the Allies. There was nothing unexpected in the wonderful efficiency, the early, successes, and the remarkable recuperative powers of the Kaiser's armies. The unity of the British Empire and the absolute superior- • ity of the Roy.nl Navy surprised no ' one who understands British clutracter, but the way in which the conglomeration of jealous nations composing the Dual Empire has so long held together is indeed a hiatter for amazement. Early in the war the prophets carved up Franz Joseph's Empire, and the world has been given to underl stand that complete dismemberment threatens Austria-Hungary as one of the conditions of an Entente peace. With this prospect before them, is it any wonder that

the rulers of Austria-Hungary contrived to struggle on, if somewhat despairingly, inspired'by the knowledge that although the yoke of the German taskmaster was growing more burdensome every day, the triumph of their foes would mean the loss of their window on the Adriatic, and their submer- , genee in that Slav flood, the darning back of which they have ever regarded as their primal task? Defeat of the' Central Powers brings with it the destruction of the Dual Moi : iarcliy,'the death knell of the proud llapsburg monarchy,, the | lopping oil 1 from their Empire of Bohemia, Galicia, Transylvania, j Bosnia, and the slamming of the I door to the sea in their faces; the \ inevitable subordination of the remainder of the Austria-Hungarian Empire to Prussia, the ultimate independence of the Magyars, and the permanent relegation of Vienna to the position of a second-class capital like. Munich or Dresden. For two years it has been sied that the main Ally of our greatest foe was on the eve of col-' lapse. True there are large sections of the people ruled by the Dual Monarchy who are only too anxious to assist in the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary, which, to them means emancipation from a hated yoke. But the subject races have no other alternative but to light Austria's enemies or be'shot by the Austriians; and, if the exhaustion of Austria's manpower is approaching, we must not lose sight of the fact that the number of efficient ■ lighting men of the subject races to the Dual Empire must liar, been reduced by losses on the battlefields in far greater proportion than that of the Germans and Hungarians which form the main forces of the Austrian/ Kaiser. The Emperor Charles, in Jiis first Throne Speech, voiced the sentiments of the Teutonic.and Hungarian peoples of the Dual Empire when he said: "While our group of powers is fighting with irresistible force for honour and existence, it is and remains toward everyone who honestly abandons the intention to threaten us readily prepared to cease hostilities, amiwhoever wishes to reopen better and more humane relations will certainly find our side ready in a conciliatory spirit. In the meantime, however, our fighting spirit will not relax; our sword will not become blunt. . . . Our group of powers did not seek the sanguinary trial of strength of this world war.;.. The high, aim of humanity can only be attained by a conclusion to the war as will correspond to our peace formula." It would appear that nothing short of the crushing defeat of AustriaHungary will prompt the Dual lEmpire to break with .Germany and sue for a separate peace.