Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 9 December 1915, Page 23

Current Topics

Around Qorizia It is always interesting to look at things from a different viewpoint from our own, and a former resident of the Gorizia region furnishes us with some valuable information regarding the district and people, written from the Austrian side. The facts supplied not only help to explain the importance of the present fighting but throw some light also on the probable course of future operations. ‘ Perhaps it will interest you,’ our correspondent writes, ‘ to know that the Slovenic nation (a branch of the Southern Slavs) to which I belong, having the strength of about one and a half millions, inhabits the Austrian provinces to the east of Trieste and Gorz (this is the German name, in Italian it is Gorizia and in Slovenic Goxitza), just about where there is some lively fighting with the Italians going on at present. My own home is only about 20 miles from the Italian frontier, so you will understand that I was a little scared at the outbreak for my people, but they are still far from the battle front at present. The Slovenians ax© all Catholics, converted from Bavaria in the eighth and' ninth centuries, but have all the same developed a strong national individuality of their own. They possess, in their own national language, a well developed literature and a strong Catholic press of all kinds, political papers, reviews, etc. The largest publishing enterprise is no doubt the Society of St. Hermagoras, this saint representing one of their national apostles, something like St. Patrick in Ireland. The Slovenic nation is not fond of the Italian Kingdom, on national and religious grounds, and this will perhaps to a certain extent explain the fact that the Italians are making such slow progress. The country on the eastern side of the Isonzo river is of course highly suitable for defensive warfare ; there are rows after rows of mountains of the Mt. Cook type —you read such a lot about snow-clad peaks in Italian reports. There is only one little gap which would enable them to pass through, situated to the south-east of Gorz, and then in the direction of Laibach, that is why the Italians are attacking the bridgehead at Gorz with such a fury. The Italians know the country only too well. When there was a new railway line built down the Isonzo valley, a few years ago, an Italian contractor, Conte Cecconi, had a lot to do with it. He also constructed the big railway tunnel through the Julian Alps, from Wochein Feistitz (see Daily Tele graph war map No. 8), under the Hochkogel, on the stretch leading towards Idria di Baza, near Tolmino. One acquainted with the country rather wonders that the Italians have not yet blown up this tunnel, since it is well known that a lot of Italian officers were engaged in the construction, disguised as laborers and engineers.’ • —■

Cupid and the President .. Even President Wilson has come to see that there are limits to the virtue of the policy of ‘ watchful waiting,’ for some short time ago ho made the fateful decision and took a second plunge into matrimony. Just how the President finally fell from the * fine and balanced poise ’ on whicili he prides himself must, of course, be left to the imagination,, but we may hazard a shrewd conjecture that in this, as in less exalted cases, the lady supplied the disturbing factor —though whether 'she did so gently, by pointing out that though there might be such a thing as a nation being * too proud to fight,’ there was no occasion for its President to be too proud to marry, or whether she adopted sterner measures and declared that further delay would be regarded as ‘an unfriendly act,’ the world will never know. Apropos of the marriage, a correspondent of the Daily Mail makes merry over President Wilson’s assumed negotiations with himself, after the fashion of those fine-spun ‘Notes’ which have made this pacifist professor the joke of all the belligerents. The correspondent writes ; Sir,— common with all other American residents in this country, I am delighted

to hear of our President’s ‘engagement, and we feel sure that the whole British public-will unit© with tra in wishing him the best kind of happiness. •We question, however, whether you in this country have any idea of the painstaking self-communion in which the President held himself to strict accountability before taking this step. .In America, where w© have no censor, it is well known that before making up his mind he retired several times into the country to a little fishing cottage which he leased for the purpose, and there in the clear stillness considered, firstly, whether he ought to make up his mind on the subject; and, secondly, if so, what his minVl on the subject was. His passionate desire to set an example by remaining neutral on every subject appeared for a long time to present an insurmountable obstacle, for to marry at all seemed (a) to be ceasing to have an open mind (b) to be taking a side; (c) to bo a reflection on those of his countrymen who remained unwed. There was also the far-reaching question of whether by singling out one lady only he was not casting a slight on all the others. In making up his mind definitely, as we now know he did, I am able to assure the interested public that he acted entirely on his own initiative, and was not once in communication with Mr. Lansing. It may be worth mentioning that the President went for a long motor drive after despatching the ultimatum which has had such a happy answer. Too Proud to Mabry.’

■ A contributor to the Sunday Times also scores a point off the President, and conveys a subtle hint that in playing with Cupid the Harvard man may have missed a higher and more serious opportunity. This versifier writes;

‘ President "Woodrow" Wilson is engaged To Mrs, Blank!’ Of course, I wish you joy: And yet, proud Note-Deviser, don’t you see You’ve missed the finest war men ever waged Just to get bagged by the unscrupulous Boy Heigh-ho you are engagedl —. . . Wellso are We.’

War Prospects Mr. Hilaire Belloc is nothing if not. optimistic, but his optimism is usually backed up by solid fact and reasoned argument. In the current issue of Land and Water — periodical, by the way, has received a very notable ‘ boom ’ through Mr. Belloc’s articlesthis eminent Catholic writer gives a version of the military situation which makes interesting and stimulating reading, and which' gives ground for that feeling- of quiet confidence which is gradually gathering strength on the side of the Allies. He declares that ‘ the maximum energies ’ of the enemy can never again be reached, * for those energies throughout this summer have been spent in attempting to find a decision in the East.’ And on the West Mr. Belloc says, ‘ the Western Allies can now concentrate more men, more rapidly, and (on account of their superiority in the air) more secretly, and accumulate more munitions for the service of more heavy pieces than can their opponents.’ ‘ This is the capital mark of the whole situation,’ adds Mr.-Belloc. ‘ It has given to the Western Allies time to establish a superiority in all the essentials of modern war, and it is probable that the enemy has so engaged himself in the East as to make a retrievement of this position, impossible to him in the West.’ - . ■ * According to Mr. Belloc, the whole war is now dominated by the fact that the enemy cannot, in .the West, recover equality with the Allies and that ho will, as time goes on, b© in an increasing inferiority to them in men, in munitions, and in pieces, because his Eastern adventure thrust forward so far, still 'quite undecided", and -apparently further than ever from ,a decision, strictly binds him. Mr. BellSc then says that the supreme question which the Higher Command and everybody else is now putting with regard-to-the Western front — when and where' will the next blow fall ? And Mr. Belloc replies ; —‘ Upon the inability

of the enemy to guess the answer depends the campaign. But it remains true that the power to take this next step lies now absolutely with the Anglo-French Command; that the enemy has not remaining to him a power of counter-attack sufficient to prevent it, . unless he shall find some way of maintaining himself in the East without disaster and yet with lessening forces, and by transferring to the West from the East a margin of guns, shell, and men which he lias hitherto found necessary upon the East. But the state of affairs in Lithuania does not seem to promise anything of the sort to the enemy.’ Mr. Belloc holds firmly that Germany cannot entrench from north to south on the Russian front, and is condemned to an indeterminate offensive there. And the advance from June to October has cost him nearly 2,000,000 men — ‘ the price was too high.’ The recovery by Russia of a balance in the East is already possible.’ ‘ The enemy has no source of new energy,’ adds Mr. Belloc. ‘He cannot increase his power of munitionment; he cannot increase his dwindling reserves in men. This is a plain piece of arithmetic which everyone throughout Europe knows, and no one better than the enemy’s higher command. One new force of energy, and on© only, has the enemy any prospect of tapping, and that is the having upon his side forces hitherto neutral ’ — such as Bulgaria. How far that move will serve him, with the imminent Russian invasion of Bulgaria and the pending Italian expedition through Albania, the near future will tell.

The 1 Crisis ’ in Austria It would be easily possible to misunderstand and to exaggerate the significance of the Austrian ministerial resignations, particulars of which appeared in our cables of Saturday. The Ministers of the Interior, .of Commerce, and of Finance, we are told, have resigned, and the cable proceeds, in its customary highly-colored -strain, to tell us that 1 a sensation has been caused at Vienna by the announcement,’ that ‘ it is'surmised that serious happenings have necessitated the changes,’ that ‘ the (Austrian) public connect the crisis with the Kaiser’s visit,’ that ‘ the financial condition of AustriaHungary is most serious,’ etc. All this is merely wild conjecture, or almost palpable over-statement. The true explanation is almost certainly that given, in a later cable, by the Hungarian correspondent of the Morning Post. ‘The rumors of Austrian peace desires,’ he says, ‘can be dismissed. The most probable explanation of the Kaiser’s visit was a- desire to establish an Austro-German tariff union, to which the three retiring Ministers were hostile.’ ■ » This project for a tariff union or for the establishment of closer economic relations between Germany and Austria has, in point of fact, been under consideration for a great many months past.. Quite six months ago a meeting of prominent national economists of Germany and Austria-Hungary took place at Vienna. Their resolutions recommended the establishment of a tariff union between the two countries which it was held would be of the most far-reaching consequences. By it the tariff barriers between the two Central Powers were to be almost entirely broken down. Only on certain articles, where the different cost of production in the respective lands requires it, would even a slight tariff be retained. The aim would then be to pursue a common economic policy in regard to all other countries. The assembly furthermore resolved to enter at once into communication with both Governments that the first steps might be taken as soon as possible for introducing the proposed union. If established, it was regarded as likely to mark a new era in the economic history of the world. The clause by which a tariff sufficient to equalise the cost of . production between the two countries would be possible was expected to make the proposal still more acceptable. It would, set ■ aside at; least partly the great difficulty previously urged against such tariff union by conservative Austrians who fedred that Austria-Hungary might not be able to compete economically with Germany. Dr Rieser, the pre-

sideut of the Hansa-Buud, is reported to have stated at " this conference that the four great Powers allied against . Derm any and : Austria-Hungary had not only come »to - > political agreement with one another, but had jointly passed a number of economic resolutions. ■ One ' of the most important of these, according to the Zurich correspondent’s report of the speech, prevents any of the four Powers from entering upon a commercial con- .. tract with Germany and Austria-Hungary, . unless the consent of the other Powers has first been obtained. '

* At a later date the movement received a further impetus when the national economist, Professor Julius Wolf, of ‘Berlin, published some interesting ; figures in . the A euen Freien Presse of Vienna to show the advantages Austria would reap from closer economic relations with Germany. The export of Austria for 1900 amounted in value to 1,900,000,000 crowns, and for 1913 to 2,800,000,000 crowns. That of Germany for the same years was respectively 4,600,000,000 marks and 10,000,000,000 marks. Reducing' both to the same terms the Austrian export has increased only 1.6 per cent, during these thirteen years as against an increase of 2.3 per cent, on the part -of Germany. In the markets where the greatest profits are made Austria has secured almost no foothold. Professor Wolf argued that the conditions for production are in some regards no less favorable in Austria than in Germany, while in no sense can they account for the difference in commercial progress between the two nations. He held, therefore, that it would greatly profit Austria-Hungary to join itself more closely to Germany in an economic union and to utilise to the utmost the German initiative. There has been considerable division of opinion in Austria in regard to this entire question. , It is stated that Austrians of note and influence are not wanting who share Professor Wolf’s view, and who believe that this is the time which must decide their country’s economic greatness. The matter has thus been stated by them : ‘ The hour has come when the economic conditions of Austria-Hungary can be placed in their proper relation to the world's economic order. We must now bring about a division of work and an exchange of goods with the German Empire which is suited to our own peculiar development. It is time to find a form of economic co-operation with the Germanic spirit of enterprise, talent for organisation and power of capital which will weld together even more closely, if that is possible, our bond of political unity.’ ■ The cabled resignations may, indeed, represent an extension of German influence and control in Austria-Hungary, but it is an over-statement of the position to regard it as anything in the nature of a ‘ sensation ’ or a ‘ crisis.’