THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1915. AUSTRIA AND HER ALLY.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13744, 6 April 1915, Page 4

THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1915. AUSTRIA AND HER ALLY.

The circumstantial report of yesterday that the Emperor Francis Joseph has been endeavouring to enlist the aid of the Pop© in the conclusion of a separate peace between Austria and Russia is the subject of an official denial from Vienna to-day. It is nevertheless very probable that Austria would welcome the possibility of peace even at the- cost mentioned by a Moscow newspaper as the basis of the alleged proposal, namely, the surrender of he annexed provinces of Bosnia aijd Herzegovina and of Austrian Galicia. Russian military circles^ it is stated, do not believe such an arrangement would be practicable while the AustroGerman armies are interwoven, md Berlin is directing the plan of camgaign in the Carpathians. There nve other difficulties which would stand in the way of a soparate peace at the suit of Austria, and the chief of th jn is the early decision of the Allies to regard such proposals with disfavour. An agreement is in existence prey ..iting any one of the^ Entente Povvu-s from negotiating singly with any enemy country; any such conversations must be conducted jointly, and all must agree to any arrangement. The reports, from a variety of sources of Austria's anxiety to disentangle herself from the desperate enterprise in whi she was made a tool of Gernuny, have been too frequent to be altogether devoid of foundation, and there can ho no doubt that the internal situation of the Dual Monarchy is grave in the extreme. The same measures are i resumably adopted in Austria as in Germany to keep the people in ignorance of the real position, and to conceal the. truth concerning the disastrous reverses the troops are encountering, but it has evidently not been done as effectually as in Germany, and the people are apparently thoroughly disheartened by the non-success of the campaign, and the privations they are compelled to undergo. These thiags, a.;id the- constant evidence of Ger -an driving power, have led both the common and the educated opinion of *he country to a very definite yiew. The London "Daily Mail" recently published a remarkable statement by an English woman who had just returned to London from the Austrian capital, where ishe lived for many years, and therefore has an intimate knowledge of all classes. Although no restraint wis

placed on her movements, she was till a week before her flight a nominal prisoner. After describing the sufferings of tho people through the dearness of provisions, and the despair aroused by the constant return if enormous numbers of wounded, slm says the people realise now the war is not Austria's, but Germany's, and are anxious to be done with it. Dissatisfaction and discontent have given pla re to open expressions of hate. No longe" is Germany the generous champion . f a righteous cause, but a. merciless tyrant bleeding the land of its possessions, human and material. Rebelli .h is spoken of as inevitable if Germany".« mailed fist is not removed. At first there were whispers. Now there are open threats, only suppressed in +ho presence of the Kaiser's officers. Everything German is spoken of with barely controlled hatred. "Deliverance from Germany is hoped for and prayed for," the writer continues, and—ironical though it may seem— England is most looked to for that deliverance. 'If England quickly wins we shall be saved' is the strong seati-" ment of thousands." ■