Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1918. THE PLIGHT OF AUSTRIA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14735, 15 October 1918, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1918. THE PLIGHT OF AUSTRIA.

The report that Austria-Hungary, : m co-operation with Turkey, has intimated j her intention pi approving President Wilson's terms of peace, is one of imj mense significance, ■''> for though, it may j not mean an aatual submission to these terms', but rather that they, will be taken as tlio basis for bargaining, it discloses the recognition by Germany's principal partner m the war that the ganie is up, and that it is necessary to get out of the plight she finds herself m as quickly and effectively as possible. A significant feature of the situation is the endeavor of the rulers to forestall Allied pemands by granting reforms that they have opposed and obstructed for years., m tli£ j hope that thereby they may remove the disaffection lapidly growing and soliriffy their people, but the, -Emperor Carl's proclamation of ;.i, separate Slav state will, hardly, .buy over tlie people who have suffered. s;6 long from Hapsburg oppression , and whoso sympathies must be running so strongly with the Entente. Prisoners taken lately on ■■: the -,' Italian front, .said Mr. Ward- Price m a dor spatch sent "m August, state that Austria j£ pockmarked- with disaffection. Mutiny' and desertion m the army and food/, riots and strikes among the civil population occur throughout her heterogeneous Empire. According to these accounts-, Austria seems to be going gradually back to a reproduction of the old mediaeval days when bands- of discharged soloWs m arms roamed Central Europe 1 , terrorising and robbing the peasantry and defying all authority. Scattered' about m forest moorland there are to-day many little groups of outlaws, and, as m Montenegro, of mere brigands' who live by plunder. Deserters from the Austrian army rally- tp these bands of freebootcrs,vmore' especially tho men who have returned, from * long periods as prisoners of war m Russia and that they arc now required to. rejoin as soldiers. Military patrols sent amongst them often go ".over -to -the mutineers. Tliere is an organisation of armed fugitives from service m- Moravia which is known as .the Green Guards and is said lo bo 40,000 strong,, while, m Hungary a sort v.of Robin Hood band has come int.i being which calls itself tho Royal .and Imperial Brigands ; of Bihar.. These gonial outlaws are already tho heroes of popular ballads and have reserves of stolcu munitions and sup* plies hidden m tho forests. The centres of settled population also arc not freo from disorder," German troops having been called m to crush .Austrian andHungarian tumults m various towns. In Bohemia tho civil population lias beoriraiding foodl trains as they pass throughfrom Ukraine. Strikes have been frerrment and factories have been blown up. .Mutinies her© and, tliere have testified tn the gradual .'breakdown of the spirit of tho army; Such is the position that the Austrian' rulers are faced with, and with Germany's defeat m the field they can sec that there is no hop© of retrieving their internal situation with help from Germany. These rulers fear greatly the issue that the Allies have m their minds when they speak of securing free determination of their future by' the various nationalities. The crushing -of Prussian militarism is not the only object of the war, or if it is then the' term wants to bo understood m its fullj est application, for as Professor Sarelea I pouits out m his book "La Nation Tchcoue," no doubt it is tr^o that this i is a Prussian war, but it is oven more ! true that it is an Austrian war. It is. true that Prussian militarism is a'sin- ' ister peril, but as Gladstone proclaimed thirty years ago, Hapsburg ,Caesarism *s no less a peril. Ifc is true that the Prus-

rii;i n i.--. ;i Hun, but ihe historical home oi .YUila, J_t/„M-Laud, is the iaiicv of tho .Vlagwir. It is true that we are -.onI routing the ghost, of Krecteriek llu ureal and ol '."■isinarck, but we are a.riu e.\oiei.siiiy- the evil .spirit of LiiavJCs \ . and MetteiHish. It is Uuo -that- we are iigliling lor lii-J jiheutUun oj J>oiyiunii, oat ive are no U:s_ lighting lor tlio • ic'eratiou >l fn-ioia, ot j.-'oland and IJoheniia, and lor. Mio, dismemberment <v niu' Austro-iiuiigai'iuu nioiuirciiv. m tne alliance between Liermajiy ana Aus-iiici-llungaiy not onJy duos Austria represent a.- mucli stronger political laclor L.iian is usually assumed; sue. also represents, something more sinister, more essential ly evu than her northern ally. I I it bo true tliat wo are lighting ill defence oi small nationalities, Mien _\ustria'is by far the 'more dangerous enemy, lor the crushing of small nationalities may almost be said, to be tlie law oi tne Austrian stale. JJivide et empira lias always been its motto. Austria nas used tlie Germans'* to keep <loavii the Uzeohs, .the jviagyavs' to keep down tlie Xviimauuuis and t-iio Croatians, the Poles to oppress tlio Riutheiiiahs, tlie Italians to keep doAvu the Serbo-ijaiimatians. Ho iatai is the political atmosphere of the i>uai Monarcny to small nationalities that even the liberated peoples have mvariaoly aised, tneir newiy -recovered ireeclom to, oppress the freedom of their weaker 'brethren. Jules Andrassy, avUo m lc*4B iiad been seratenced to death and executed) m effigy for his part m the Hungarian rebellion, became 'di years later as Hungarian frime Mmister one oppressor of -he SlaA's. Similai-iy the son of the Hungarian liberator, Kossuth, became .the] advocate of a relentless repressive policy, Even the Jews nave become the servile lienchmen of the. Austrian Germans and the Magyars. On the other hand if it be true that we are fighting foi* freedom and democracy, it is again, Austria that is the more dangerous enemy. For the Avliole policy of the Austrian state is opposed to healthy democratic development. Reaction, obscuration, 'and oppression are tlie watchwords of AusticHungarian statecraft, whether' Aro consider the-ad-ministrative oppression of the .capitalists and, of the Jews, who have monopolised the press, and avlio aro exploiting their monopoly m the interests of the Crown, or the social oppression? of the feudal magnates, AS'ho maintain the peasantry m bondage, or the ecclesiastical oppression of clericalism, which keeps the people m abject ignorance. It is necessary, says Professor Sarolea, to keep m I mind those essential characteristics of [ the Hapsburg Monarchy to understand the responsibility of Austria-Hungary m. this war„ and the relative contribution Avluo'h each of the Central Powers made /to fhe.Avorld Avar. 'Prussia has contributed, \liei* military and ' political efficiency, but Austria has contributed her aims and ambitions,' her subterranean methods, her intrigues and conspiracies, hoi* police, her bureaucracy, her diplomacy. It is tho southern ally Avho^has lured on the northern' ally. It is the Serbo- Austrian oonflict whicli has lit the conflagration, and that conflict began forty years ago. Before tlie outbre.k of hostilities. Aye Avere told by Berln: that the Serbia")* quarrel -was merely an Austrian quarrel. The, German contention contained an obvious falsity. But it also contained a substantial truth. The Balkan policy Avas essentially on Austrian polipy. And but for the peren-' nial struggle of the Austrian Teuton and of the Magyai;„a_;ainst, tlie Slav tho Avar would not have broken out: ,An<_ it is no less necessary ; 'io realise the/Austrian charaoterics ter understand tlie only conditions Avhich- can. ensure a lasting' peace settlement. .By all .means let us proclaim the necessity of crushing. "Prussian militarism, as long as avo remember tliat it is even more necessary to' destroy Austrian Caesar ism. It is more necessary, but it is also more difficult. The destruction, of Prussian militarism may be brought about by an internal political reform, m Germany, and the German people may ultimately achieA'e their own salvation. On the contrary the destruction of Austrian Caesarism can only be brought about by the dismemberment of the Hapsburg Monarchy. • Tliat must be the condition of any settlement of/jpeace Avith Austria; .The three nationalities —the Poles, {Tie Ozecho-Slovaks, and the Jugo-Slavs — to whom' the Allies Avould bring freedom are not "small nations" m the most literal sense of .the term, says the London Daily Chronicle. Tlio Poles arg tha next largest nation m Europe after tlie Italians — much' larger, for instance, than the Spanish. Tlie Jugo-Slavs and the Czecho-Slovaks are each roughly tAvice as numerous ,as the Swedes or the Dutch or the Portuguese. The Rumanians,, if organised as one state, Avould form a nation of about the same. size. Nor arc they m all cases particularly backward peoples., The Poles have a great historic tradition' and very distinct culture; while the Czecho-Slovaks comprise the most progressiva industrial elerpents m AustriaHungary A Europe; m which/ these nations are placed firmly on their feet satisfies tlie conditions of national freedom' and equilibrium and makes tlie Avorld safer from Avar rind "free for Democracy," m President' Wilson's historic term. Any other Europe is one where stability can only, last m propol*-. tion as liberty is kept down. y