THE NEW AUSTRIA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 8 December 1925, Page 3

THE NEW AUSTRIA.

A COUNTRIFBE3 SUBURB. UNION WITH GERMANY. A capital and a countrified suburb—l iic-oO on»y i L-niaiiL oi i nill i'ibi',l aim warlike .-ius'crai watch was m., c lno u ...re oi me great aus. ro- li a ovarian Empire. Such \>as me lau of me i-i.ap.-v uurgs. due capital is Vienna, city of two million Jiniabiiants, and Kiioun as inr back as history carries any record as if great meeting place of cast and west, of north and south, as a place where strange merchandise and stranger peoples gathered througn dim ages. Wonderful Alpine ridges, beautiful woods, lakes and rivers set amidst the most wonderful scenery of Europe, but with scarcely any , agricultural soil; these form the countrified suburb. Such is the New Austria.

The five vowels so often associated with the old Empire—Austria Est Imperaro Orbi Universe, meaning: It is Austria's part to rule the world —have fulfilled the. interpretation put upon them bv a French wit—Austria Frit in Or be Ultimo, meaning: Austria shall be hindmost in the world. The tragedy could scarcely have been greater. The granaries of Bohemia and -Moravia, of the old Empire, now form part of the new Republic of Czeeho-Slovakia. In the south there has arisen the new Republic of Jugoslavia, the rest of the Em pier went to Italy, Poland and Roumuuia. All that Austria has left is the inheritance* of a wonderful culture; and to the maintenance and increase of that culture the energies of the six and a half million Federal citizens of Austria are now being directed. The culture of Vienna is a valuable factor in. one of the most important of Aus-• trin’s industries, the attraction ot foreign tourists. The agriculture and cattle-breeding of Austria, such as there is of them, arc on a high level. There are valuable raw materials. But in all industries and on. the railways tbe lack of native pit-coal is felt painfully. This defect is being remedied by bv the mighty water power of the country. Great electric power plants have already been erected in orarl•berg and Tyrol for the railway traffic; others are being completed in Salzburg, Stvria and Upper and Lower Austria for industry as well as the railways Until water power is properly developed Austria’s efforts arc being concentrated upon the maintenance of her great intellectual heritage, and the attraction of tourists. The Tyrol has always been one of the playgrounds ot Europe. It is so still. Austria has not received all that she wants or thinks that she needs, from the Allies. Thus there has arisen the movement known ns Anschuluss-tlie desire for union with Germany. * l,c great majority of the people to-day vaguelv favour such a union. Economic, reasons have combined with sentiment to strengthen the movement. It is perhaps. an agitation of despair, and the onlv way to remove it, it isHleemied, the rescue of Austria, from tier prisent mpvht. Certainly the Allied I owers would not permit the plan to ho put into force. Would France agree to-dn> to an increase in German territory even though, as a recent obsener has suggested, she may some day come to tuke the. view that a strengthening of Catholic. Southern Germany os against Prussia, might be of advantage. Would the new countries that have arisen from the. ruins of the ITapsburg Empire listen to plans of a German Austria, Would Czccho-Rlovakia permit ot hei encirclement bv a compact Dock of Germans and Magyars? Would Jugoslavia agree to a Germany at her frontiers. or Italy to the Germans getting a hold on the Brenner? “That is all vc.r.v well.” the Austrians reply. “But the responsibility lies with the statesmen who got us info our present plight. The Treaty of St. Germain told us, in effect, that we could no longer expect to feed ourselves, hut must rely upon our export trade, then our coal pits were ■ taken away, and from the start we were surrounded by a ring of hostile tariffs, so that, when we trim! to place goods in our former markets within, the old Austro-Hun-garian Empire, we were met with strong foreign «H*wmpctitiou, especially fm Germany. What, then, do you expect? Where else should we turn hut to Germany, to which our genius is akin? ’’ The sentimental aspect of the\ argument was admirably summed up by two French newspaper correspondents, who : n vestigat c d conditions in Austria. “Your language is German, they wrote, “but your blood is not, and the spirit, of your city, Vienna, is even 'ess. France and Italy have stamped, in the course of time, an in'offaceable imprint both upon your line buildings and upon your souls. In comparing your city with another outside vour boundaries, certainly no one. would choose n German city, but much moie probably a city of the north of Italy, Milan, for example. Vienna is not, and should not become a German city, : t should be international. But objection to the fulfilment of Austria’s desire is not confined to the Allied and Associated Powers. Under the first protocol of the League of NaGons Loan Agreement of 1022, Austria was compelled to agree as a. condition of obtaining a loan, not to alienate her in-. •lcpen.l-c.ncc. Thus, the League, too, has o measure of responsibility for prevent--,ur Austria from seeking what she -onsiders her best way out of her difli--uilties.