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Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 272, 21 December 1914, Page 6

The more influential;;'journals of; Vienna are enthusiastic over the German naval raid on the Yorkshire coast. ' The shelling of unfortified towns and the murder of inoffensive including English women and children, is a feat .of arms which has.moved the "Neues Weiner Journal' ' to declare* that this exploit is the turning point ofthe War. It, all depends on the point of view. Austria herself, has conduct- 1 ed her part of the campaign against; Russia and Servia with traditional f util-: ity„ Her military,record, extending, over centuries, has been irretrievably damaged- in the'.present war. - .For the; Dual Monarchy, the long lane of ; defeat has .no turning ir; , towards victory or glory for Austrian arms. Her millions of soldiers have brought her nothing but disaster on disaster. Had Austria been at all a sturdy foe, Germany's ease would not now have been so dubiojis. Germany, relying on the Austrian armies to hold the Russians in check, leaned too heavily on a broken reed, with the result that the mischief was done in Poland before the German General Staff could intervene, and, at a bloody sacrifice, attempt to straighten out the tangle and recover lost ground. Even against little Servia, Austria has proved herself but a blind, stumbling giant. The Serbs, exhausted by war, their resources sapped to'the point of collapse, nevertheless turned in their tracks and rolled the invaders in sad confusion out of Servia. So under the circumstances, this gloating over one of the most inhuman, arid dastardly putrages ever committed on a non-combat- ■ ant,community does not come well from a.;. disreputable. . nation like Austria,; whose own record is such a shameful and hopeless thing. There is this to be added: When the ' settljng-up- takes' place after the war, though Germany will be humbled and crippled, it is Aus-1 tria who will suffer most/ The finger of doom is plainly directed more at her than ait Germany. . Germany will . lose her» : Polish provinces,; as Austria will have to forfeit Galicia, but when the Serbs, have had their cut from the Ausr trian flank, when Rumania, for her neutrality, receives Transylvania, and when • the various- other .nationalities at present forriiirig part of/the Dual Monarchy are once more -logically united according to race,xwhat remains of Austria will be simply the "German section. So reduced and shrunken, Austria may easily be absorbed by Germany, and the odds are that this will be her end.