Untitled

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 787, 18 August 1916, Page 6

That Austria recognises her case ;as precarious is indicated by more than one cable message, and it is ! evident that at present there is ; much going to and fro between Berjlin and Vienna in an endeavour to ; straighten things up. The resignation of Count Burian as Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the '.appointment of Count Andrassy in his place, looks like a triumph for I those in Germany who have been j scheming from the commencement Jof the war to get Austria-Hungary | under German control, and will not !i. lease Hungary. But something 'must be done to slay the rot that - has set in, and it is not in the least improbable that an effort is being made to induce Italy to make a separate peace: such efforts have been | tentatively made before. Then there jis the further announcement that I Austria is going to confer self'government on her section of Poland, | and to release interned Poles, a proceeding no doubt dictated partly by 'the fact that already a good portion of Galician Poland is in Russian occupation, and that still more is : likely to be occupied. The London "Chronicle"' says if is believed that ! Germany intends to do the same, as far as the conferring of "independence*' is concerned, and if this is so it can be seen that the idea is fo endeavour to put Russia in She wrong in the eyes of neutral nations, and Ito bolster up the opinion of the | outer world as to German confidence in its power. The device, however, is rather transparent, and the sort of "self-government" Poland will get under an Austro-German administration can be imagined. The whole country—German, Austrian, and Russian Poland—is being scourged by hunger and disease, and Germany refuses to admit food info the country as long as one of the conditions is that it shall be distributed bv neutral Commissions.