Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] FRIDAY, 11th MARCH, 1932. THE DUAL MONARCHY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 11 March 1932, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] FRIDAY, 11th MARCH, 1932. THE DUAL MONARCHY.

None of tlie political developments resulting from tlie‘war was more striking in its swift occurrence and its effects than the disappearance of the Empire of the Hapsburgs. The Russian revolution was a gradual business, and Germany became a republic and lost territory, but remained a stable State. The “Ramshackle Empire,” which had weathered many a storm, split into fragments almost overnight. The story is told in “The Collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,” by Colonel Edmund von Glaise-llor-stenau, Director of War Archives at Vienna. In Germany the disintegration began on the home front, in Austria it was in the army. Austria suffered even more than her ally from the economic pressure. The German troops got the best of what was going. The Austrians were ill fed and ill clothed; uniforms were only available to those who were actually in the trenches. In October, 1918, the rot set in. Mutiny blazed up in the army, the Bosnians, Hungarians and Transylvanians being in the lead. On 26th October, the Emperor Karl informer Emperor William that he intended to seek a separate peace. The other replied that this decision was “a painful surprise” to him, but Austria was in no condition to go on. On 30th October, the Austro-Hun-garian fleet was handed over to the Jugo-Slavians. But, forthwith, Italian, French and American squadrons arrived on the scene; the Jugo-Slavian colours had to be hauled down, and eventually the vessels were distributed among the victorious Powers. Italy had no wish that her vis-a-vis in the Adriatic should acquire a great navy. The author mentions an incident of which little has been heard. The mutual antagonism existing between Britain and Austria had never been keen, and Die former was not unwilling to negotiate a separate peace with the latter. Accordingly, in December, 1917, General Smuts, Mr Philip Kerr, then Mr Lloyd George’s secretary, and Count Mensdorff, a one-time Austrian Minister in London, met secretly at Vienna. General Smuts put for-

ward a plan for the reorganisation of the dual monarch)' on the lines of the British Empire, and argued that moderate cessions of territory to Roumania, Servia and Poland would placate these countries, and pave the way to a close alliance between Austria and them. Before these proposals could receive full consideration, President Wilson promulgated his Fourteen Points. There were now two paths leading to peace, and Count Czernin desired to keep both of them open. But he was forced to choose between Britain and Dr. Wilson by the premature disclosure of the fact that, conversations with Britain had been held—although not of their substance —and he chose President Wilson, thus bringingdisaster upon Austria. The nine months’ delay was fatal.