THE New Zealand Herald DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1918. GERMANY AND AUSTRIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16763, 1 February 1918, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1918. GERMANY AND AUSTRIA.

One of the great factors in the war has been the domination/by of all the units in, the Central Alliance. A vassal in time' of peace Austria has in the course of the war become merely an annex: of Germany;, at first hypnotised by Germany's spectacular politics, Turkey has. at last become!- completely subordinate to her 'will; Bulgaria, turning to what she believed to be the winning side, has'been absorbed by the Prussian war machine. "A year* ago Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg proclaimed the alliance of thQ Central Powers,to be <l a rock of iron." It has always been recognised that Germany drew much of her strength from the unity, of her alliance with her neighbours, while the Allies seemed to be wasting their energies through lack of cohesion in aims and in methods. But the Central Alliance is not a welding of nations by devotion to lofty principles; it has been created by the' pressure of military ambitions and autocratic tyranny. It has always • contained disruptive elements, and it now seems probable that' those forces threaten to break the artificial bonds which have so long restrained them. Perceiving an obvious lack of sympathy,with German aims on the part of sovereign and ministers, the people of Austria have made their first serious effort to find relief from, the' misery into which Germany plunged them. Instead of Prussian methods oil suppression their /boldness has been rewarded with promises of emancipation and of peace. Thus encouraged, discontent in Germany has followed the example of despair in Austria, so that already industries vital to the prosecution of the war have been paralysed. The agents -which threaten to split the " rock of iron " are not confined to the strikers in Austria. The Austria which in 1914 accepted the dictation of Berlin and plunged the world into war is not the Austria of to-day. The Emperor, Francis Joseph deliberately entered into an infamous compact with the Kaiser; the Emperor Charles rebels at the German domination of his sovereignty, and makes no pretence of hiding his antipathy towards German schemes of conquest. The military caste of Austria has been depressed by defeats, and its sympathies have been alienated by the contempt with which it was cast aside by the German High Command, when Mackensen, Falkenhayn, and Buelow were despatched to retrieve its failures. Whether Count Czernin is still pursuing tactics devised in Berlin, only time will show. It is, however, evident that nothing but a great change in the national temper would justify his insistence on a divergence in the war aims of Germany and of Aub-

tria, his { emphatic' repudiation of plans of conquest; and his announcement of tentative overtures to America. . There, are in Austria, apart from the proletariat, powerful political and religious factors working for, peace, and Germany must bo forced to consider seriously the possibility of Austria's defection. The contingency of a separate ; peace with Austria has long been discussed in Britain, where the advantage of conciliating Germany's most poworful ally has been freely canvassed. It is unlikely that the allied Government would entertain any such offer from Vienna. Negotiations with Count Czernin on the terras which he would be likely to accept would involve a renunciation of all their pledges to the " small nations" threatened by Austria's military power, and the abandonment of her subject races to tyranny lin perpetuity. The conditions in which the Allies would be ready to discuss terms with Austria do not yet exist. The Hapsburgs and their Ministers might be willing to barter Servia for a truce, but there is not yet that evidence of racial emanciI pation and political democratisation I which would promise the future security of peaco. It is not impossible that Austria may even go to such lengths as definite proposal? to Italy and Servia. Nor is it unlikely that the internal disturbances may develop mora rapidly than the recognition of the certainty of defeat, and that Germany may .be forced by weakness within the Alliance to modify her military plans; and with them her conception of peace terms.