The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1917. AUSTRIA AND PEACE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 5, 1 October 1917, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1917. AUSTRIA AND PEACE

: ' The' peace resolution introduced by'the Liberal Party in the Austrian Reichsrath is apparently an attempt to _ find a' way out of•' the conditions approaching deadlock which have thus far. resulted from thai efforts of the Emperor Karl to pro-1 mote. a .policy of racial reconciliation; witii N the boundaries of his ."ramshackle.' Empire." ,-. Political and .other events in tho Dual Mon-archy-.since ,the new ruler ascended the" throne ire not, encouraging as.j they bear upon the prospects of. its demoe'ratisation and reform under tho Hapsburo dynasty. There is no doubt that an intense desire for peace is widespread in both Austria : and Hungary, and that an increasingly, vigorous and insistent assertion of their national rights by the oppressed races of both monarchies ' amongst the factors. which make most strongly, for pcacc. But, either because lie has been unable' to fesoapo ; .completely from . Germdn tutelage,- or Decause the prqblom of reconciling the races under Kis rule .is insoluble, .-tho Emperor seems , to have'made little, headway towards the objects Eo -is? generally credited, • with-being desirous of attaining. It is possible to accept without reservation the statement lately made by an English writer: "By the disfavour shown to those responsible for tho war and'for Austria's policy of persecution towards.the:subject nar tonalities, the.-.Emperor clearly indicated that he wished to reform the country and to bring-the war to an Mnd." It is recognised also' that a policy of liberal internal , reform successfully established and carried out would clear the way for peace, !itid might enable the Dual Monarchy to? obtain better terms than are in pi'ospect if it ends'the war as it began with a minority of its population - oppressing the majority. Serbia, Italy, and Rumania have-, claims which all the Entente Powers are in honour bound to support, but the liberation/of subject races in 1 the Dual Monaiohy does not necessarily, imply, in every case their complete separation from tho HapsbuiM dominions. Even now tho hope that reform on federal lines may remove some of the obstacles which stand Ujtween Austria-Hungary and peace has not wholly disappeared. But. "apart from the fact that available evidence indicates that the. Emperor endeavoured to-bring about peace, not by approaching the Allies, but, by bringing pressure to bear on the German Emperor and iit is evident that tremendous difficulties would have to bo overcome before tho antagonistic elements in the population of the-Dual Monaiv chy -could bo brought together in support of a common policy.;.. This holds good even in the new conditions inaugurated by the Emperor Karl, whose . departure from ■ bad traditions appears most notably in the summoning of.- Rcichsratn . and in tho granting of an amnesty to • "political offenders" —men and women who have, dared to stand up for .the rights of the oppressed nationalities to which they belong. Events since tho Rciclisrath was sumi mohed on May 31, a? far as they have been disclosed, give point to an observation made by-Prince Met■ternich nearly sbventy years ago, "that rt those who speak of the sovereignty. of 'the people, as applied to Austria, speak in reality of the dissolution of the Austrian Empire. The conditions in which Metternioh found an excuse, to' his own satisfaction, for persecuting and oppressing tile non-German ' raccs of Austria, command attention to-day for a very different reason. It' may lie truo that the oreation of a. stab e federal State under HapsbTJRG. rule is an impossible aspiration, ihe history of Austria," as one authority remarks, "is not thehistory 01 a nation, but th'at of' a dynasty which, by conquest, and especially by matrimonial ancl financial speculation', acquired lands" and nationalities wherever tlicy could be obtained, a.nd governed these, not from a national, but from a purely dynastic point ot view.'! This holds good of the Dual Monarchy up to the moment when the present Emperor embarked on his reform programme, and it is not to be wondeved ,afc 1 ?. finds tn. material to his hand intractable. ''The existing deadlock in AustriaHungary must bo considered with the fact always in mind that hither- ' to twenty million , Germans .and . Magyars have ruled over thirty million peonle of other races, and op- 1 pressed them with a brutality which- ; has only very reoently been modified. , 'fX is a material fact also that the ] Austrian 'Parliament .in lfe present ] constitution was designed as an in- i strumcnt of imperial domination, i ■In the first place, representation is : not fairly adjusted to population. , On a population basis there ought ( to be 310 Slav members and 206 11011- , Slav members. In reality Uio Slavs , have-259 votes and Austro-Gcrmans | 257. This 4)art, the forms oE tlia . Rcichsrath cnablo a few deputies fo ] brine its activities to. a standstill, < and the Constitution empowers the ■ Government to promulgate aws at , its own discretion when Parliament , is not sitting. Obstructive tactics

by the German faction in the Reichsrath,.have no, doubt contributed to the present deadlock. When tho Kcichsrath met at the end of May expression was at length given to thjj demands of tho subject nationalities. The Czech deputies demanded "the conversion of the HapsburgLoruanian. Monarchy into a federated State of free and equallyprivileged national States, the union of all the races of tho Czechoslovak people, and likewise the addition'of the Slovaks who live, in Hungary (this last a group numbering nearly ■ two millions). The Southern Slavs demanded the union of all the Southern Slavs in an independent State. The Poles demanded tho reunion of all the Polish territories, and the Ruthenians likewise demanded self-government. The chief point made by Dr. von Seidler, the -Austrian Premier, in a speech to the Constitution " Committee of 'the. House, was. that a drastic ■ reform of tho Constitution was inevitable. He said, in part: "Select any kind .of method . you like. . ~ • Let the necesary evolution proceed entirely from within Parliament itself. The Government will gladly accept the role allotted to it by this scheme." It is stated, however, that he made the material reservation thatthore . must bo no "tampering with the integrity of Hungary, and in Hungary, .even . under the falsified census statistics in vogue in the Dual/Monarchy, the Magyars are in a minority as compared with tho members of subject races. Whatever the actual explanation may be, no perceptible progress has yet been made towards realisation of the plans formed by the Emperor Karl and his counsellors for the creation of a new order in' the Dual, Monarchy. Wnen detailed information was last made available a deadlock had been reached in regard to the, composition of a sub-committee of the Constitution Committee of the Rcichsrath to deal with reform proposals and negotiar tions. • Failure to approaoh a settlement is not unlikely to involve the ultimate disruption -of the Dual Monarchy and the disappearance ot the Hapsbuiig dynasty.' ,A Parliamentary deadlock will not indefinitely check' tho demand for peace and-the assertion of national rights which havo gained new force since the-present Eiiperor succeeded to the throne. In- summoning , the lteichsrath and modifying pression of subject r&ccs the Eliperor' gave free, play to- forces which m any case were rapidly gathering head, and that no simple or easy settlement is in sight does not mean thaC these forces \vill subside! That the Entente Powers are bound to adhere unflinchingly to their declared aims, consistent with those of tho races which are struggling for freedom and democratic reform within the boundaries of tho Dual Monarchy, hardly needs to be emphasised. Now that Germany s dreams of world hegemony have been dissipated she is more than ever intent upon realising her Middle Europe scheme, and the hntente would gain no victory worth the name if it left the struggling races of the Dual' Monarchy to their fate. As an Italian commentator, observed recently: "If thci Entente tolerates the existence in Central Europe o{-<i block of -grahite, hard, irresistible, it will have lost the war, and that block can never be shattered until Austria is shattered. The dismemberment of and the libei ation of the nationalities she oppresses is the essential condition of victory, and that condition is all the more essential inasmuch as it is impossible to imagine a stable, settlement of European affairs that is not based on the principle of nationality..",' ' , , | -