The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1918. FATE OF THE RAMSHACKLE EMPIR.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 93, 12 January 1918, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1918. FATE OF THE RAMSHACKLE EMPIR.

There used to bo one Power in Europe that was callccl tho "Sick Man," and that was Turkey. Today there is another Power that may be thus designated, and that is Aus-tria-Hungary. Turkey to-day is sick nigh unto death, and the Dual 'Monarchy is not in a much better condition. Adversity brings together strange bedfellows, and' adversity is bringing together the Austrian Emperor and the -. Turkish Sultan. Charles, 1 who'may 'bo the last of the banefuIHABSBURG dyn.asty, .has. thrown his dignity to the winds and gone to Constantinople tc confer, with the Sultan. They aro companions in deserved, misfortune, and they may well curse tho Kaiser and his gang for' the woe already brought upon their kingdoms-and for the further woo that, lik& a black cloud, is. hanging'over them. But they are companions also in criminality, for they have been the willing fags of Potsdam in this Prussian-made war, and the words of Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson must sound in their cars like the crack of doom or like the trumpets of avenging angels. ■These two Powers have sold their souls to Prussia, and so they aro bodies without souls, and where tho carcass is there the eagles are gathered together. For years before the war AustriaHungary was spoken of as ''the Ramshackle Empire."' Political prophets predicted that when Francis Joseph died this rickety Empire would fall to pieces.. It has not done so, but it docs not follow that the prophets were fools. Dr. William Barry was right when ho said that when Francis Joseph died the Austrian Empire did not fall to pieces because- it-was "clamped to ; gether with hoops of German steel," and that is its position to-day. Mr. Lloyd George says that to-day Aus-tria-Hungary-is simply an "instrument of the pernicious military auI tocracy of Prussia," and as long as the Dual Monarchy is little better {than the obedient hound of the Potsdam whippers-in there never will be a lasting peace. The great military problem of' the war 'is the Kaiser and his War Lords, and that problem can only be solved by the sword. But the great ■political problem is the Dual Empire", and the right- solution of this problem will mean the end of Pan-Gferman-ism, and the rise of a bulwark of free' peoples on the cast oi Germany extending from the Baftie to the Adriatic, and this bulwark can be built out of the many . millions of various nationalities, forced to live under the : Austria-Hungary Hag, The great Austrian diplomatist, Metternich, whose evil hand pressed for long years on Europc ; sneeringly said that Italy in his time was only a "geographical expression." That has not been the case for sixty years, as the unhappy Harsburgs know to their cost. But to-day Austria-Hungary , is simply a "geographical expression." Mr. H. Wicrman Steed, in the Edinburgh Review for October last, contributes. an. article on "What is Austria ?" and' he reminds us that , there is no Austrian nation and'

there is no Hungarian nation. In Austria, so callcd, a minority of Tcji- ■ tons ride rough-shod over a majority 'of;.other nationalities; iinci in Hungary, so called, a small minority of domineering Magyars measure out injustice and intolerance to a majority of other races. Dr. Barry, in his graphic way, says that looking at tJjc-Dual Monarchy, ?! i 'm m '''l°ns of oppressed yzechs, Slavs, Rumanians, and Italians, whq h a t e with all their soul i'euton and _ Magyar rulers, the Empire and Kingdom is simply a oundfo of hissing snakes. The -•ffABSisuRG dynasty under Francis Joseph was able to exist because it was an evil less than former evils. But for many years the Dual Monarchy has_been charged with political explosives that might blow it up at any time. This war has made the Dual Kingdom ten thousand times more hateful than it was to Czechs, Poles, CrOatians and others. Mr. Steed's- opinion is that. when the Habsrurg dynasty picked a quarrel with Serbia it really signed its own death warrant. And we know now by unshakeable proof that Joseph was simply tlie fag of the Ivaiser and his War Lords in declaring war against Serbia and setting the world in a blaze. And all through this war Austria has been Prussia's fag, and neither Emperor, warrior, nor politician in Austria have shown. to any extent that they have souls of their own. Emperor Charles seems to realiso that he is sitting on a political volcano. He has delayed for more than a year taking tho oath to tho Constitution of the Dual Monarchy. Ho knows that the tyranny of minority rule may lead to revolution, and ho may be willing to allow the races the Habsburgs have crushed to rise to freedom and self-govern-ment- But if this be so, his repent-ance-.is perhaps too late. The,downtrodden races under his flag will never forget the awful sufferings and sorrows of this Prussian-mado" war.

Political surgeons and physicians say two things about the future of this ramshackle Empire. Mn. Lloyd George and President Wilson seem to say that the Empire can be mended. Me. Lloyd George says grant self-government to the several nationalities, and President Wilson says the same thing. Ail authority like Mr. H. Wickham.. Steed—the best authority, probably, on presentday Austrian history—expresses himself differently. He says that Austria should be ended, .not mended, and in the article mentioned above, and in an article,) "Austria and Europe," in the Eclinbin'c/h Review for January,' 1917, he gives his reasons for coming to this conclusion. Dr. William Barry, a Roman Catholic theologian of high repute, is also an authority of value on European diplomacy, and lie is of the opinion that Austria ended'and not mended. In the SepIcmbor • Nineteenth . Century and After, irf an article, "Break Austria," he gave reasons for his advicc. In the November number of the same journal he returns to the attack in an article, "How to Break Austria." The articles glow with eloquence and thrill with a passion for freedom and hatred of injustice. Since Joseph Mazzjni wrote his famous indictments of Austria few moro damning stories have been told to the detriment of a dynasty than those articles... of Dit. Barry against Potsdam-controlled Austria, these'article's illustrate'the remarks on. the goocl side of:war, by a writer ill bhp jlibhcrt. Journal. "It purges away, old strifes and sectional aims, and raises us a ,while iuto a higher and purer-air." Steed, Barry, and other influential writers say "break Austria," Let the races which form the majority of peoples in the Dual Empire rise to freedom and independence, and there will ba neither aii Austria nor a Hungary, and the Eabsburgs will disappear like the Romanoffs. There are eight national flags in the Dual Empire of to-day, but the peoples who lovo tho most of those flags have been treated as _ helots and serfs. The vast majority of those people's-hate Germany with a hatred fostered by ages of injustice. The sufferings of the Czechs during the. war. read like a page out of the story of the Armenian massacres, and there is no people more worthy of freedom and independence. Pali-Slavism is dead as a bulwark against Pan-German-ism, but a better bulwark may rise oiit'of"'a broken Austria and an emancipated Balkan Peninsula. Bismarck said that "he that holds Bohemia is the Master of Europe," and Dr. Barry says that an independent Czech nation would be a "wedge in the heart of Pan-Ger-manism," and a "like freedom and independence granted to Poles and Southern Slavs would go a long way to save the Eastern woj'ld from the, curse ,of Hohenzollern greed and : cnsuro .peace. ' . Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson object to. the phrase "break Austria," but if they see to it under the terms of peace, .that the majority of the vaces_ in this doomed ramshackle Empire, come to their kingdom, and are allowed, self-government, that majority would probably as soon bow down to the Prince of Darkness as recognise the Magyars and the Teutons. : as their political masters. The future of this Empire is in the lap of the gods, but a right solution of • its political problems is only sctond in importance to the solution of Prussian military problems. Tho Prussian sword must be smashed and Harsisurg misgdvernment mended or ended.