The Dominion WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1918. A WEDGE SHREWDLY DRIVEN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 125, 13 February 1918, Page 4

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1918. A WEDGE SHREWDLY DRIVEN

It seems distinctly possible that President Wilson's reply to the German Imperial Chancellor and the Austrian Foreign Minister may ultimately be held up as a conspicuous example of his gift _ for saying the right thing at the right time. In America it is assumed that the main purpose of- the- speech is to drive a wedge further between Germany and Austria, and indeed the President has been at no pains to conceal his object. To the involved obscurities of the German Chancellor and his impossible attempt to reconcile arrogant PanGorman demands with professions of moderate and altruistio aim, President Wilson has returned_ a scornful and uncompromising defiance. He is at particular pains to make it clear that the United States will if necessary use all its resources in resisting such a settlement of the war as Germany still professes to hope for, and that its settled determination this point has not been affected in tho slightest degree by Count Hertling's sophistries. Manifestly this declaration of fixed and unchanging determination is addressed as much to Austria-Hungary as to Germany, so long as tho former Empire is content to be led and dominated by its neighbour. In directly addressing Austria, however, President Wilson.uses terms so.friendly that they will perhaps startle those who have come to regard the Dual Monarchy as being definitely and finally reduced to the status of Germany's vassal. Quite frankly and without any attempt at concealment, President Wilson draws a sharp_ distinction between the two principal partners in the Teutonic Alliance. Austria, ho observes, seeing and conceding essential principles and the necessity of applying them, can respond to the programme of the United States with less embarrassment than Germany. This may seem strange language in which to address the ramshackle Empire which has brutally oppressed and maltreated the Czechs and other subject races living under its sway, and to this hour denies them the < elementary political and social rights which arc universal in all free and enlightened nations, but it derives_ at least a moasuro of justification from the circumstances in which Austria is placed, and from certain tendencies lately manifested in the utterances of tho Minister with whom it rests to express her war and foreign policy. There is in fact a great deal to support a belief that in his unconcealed overtures to Austria President Wilson is astutely attacking tho enemy combination where it is weakest at a, moment when such an attack is likely to tell with maximum effect. Possibly tho speech may achieve its intended purposo in tho Dual Monarchy partly by arousing hopes which cannot be realised. No .amount of kindly talk about the common recognition of essential principles will get over the fact

that tho HAnsBURG Empire is in a condition to fall asunder and that it is arbitrarily held together by bonds which were never strong and which the war has dangerously weakened. But if the hope that internal changes and reforms in the Dual Monarchy may entitle it to assume a worthy nlacc in .the society of nations is dubious, the war-weariness of its population and the real conflict between Aus-tro-Hungarian interests and thoso of Germany, are factors of definite importance with a potent hearing on the war. It is in the highest degree significant that President Wilson's friendly approaches to Austria synchronise with an announcement by the American Secretary for War tlid; Germany is strengthening her armies on tho West front with troops from Austria- and tho Russian front, and that there is great dissatisfaction in Austria owing to the dispatch of ."Uistmns to the West front.

The hope of dividing Germany and Austria is made reasonable first and foremost by the fact that the Dual Monarchy has suffered even more heavily in tho war than its chief ally. This is to be explained on several grounds. Austria has been freely made use of as a vassal and has received the treatment commonly meted out to dominated vassals. In addition, sho has suffered the fate which would be invited by any State- entering such ii war as is now raging riven by internal dissensions. It results inevitably from the conditions in which a minority of the population of tho Dual Monarchy oppresses and rules by terrorism over the 'other and larger part that much of its nominal strength is weakness. The Czech formations which refused duty or, as opportunity served, surrendered en masse to the Russians or tho Italians, were certainly not an effective contribution to tho military strength of the Hadsburo Empire, but the action of theso troops and the ruthless punishments visited upon military insubordination are typical of factors and elements which bulk large both in its military and civil organisations. A nation thus fatally handicapped could not be in any but a desperate plight after being engaged for three and a half years i!J tho greatest and most terrible \var known to history. There is certainly no reason to doubt the reports that are current of appalling conditions in Austria-Hungary, and when the veil is lifted it will probably appear that Germany has given no more remarkable proof of organising ability than in keeping her principal ally so long in the war. It is inherently probable that the Dual Monarchy is to-day verging on military collapse, and that in exacting' Austrian aid on the Western front Germany is taking a serious risk of hastening that catastrophe. Tho manifest purpose of the enemy concentration in the Western theatre is to make a last supreme effort to enforce Pan-Gor-man demands—this is certain, whether or not it is true that Germany is on the eve of staking iall her available resources upon a gigantic offensive—and the question now raised is whether Austria-Hungary is willing to contribute its quota to the millions of men whom, as President Wilson has said, the annexationist party of Germany is willing, to send to death, rather than accept a just peace.

At bottom, the best reason for assuming that Austria may answer this question in the negative is to be found in the extent to which revolt against the intolerable strain of the -war has • developed in its population. But an immediate and striking indication of this tendency, and ono upon which President Wilson has fastened, appears in the tone of Count Czeknin's recent speeches on tho subject of peace. As in duty bound, theAus-tro-Hungarian Foreign (Minister has declared that Austria will support Germany and Turkey to the utmost, but he has broken away from German leading-strings in declaring for peace without annexations or indemnities, and in this respect and others has given some grounds for an opinion which has thus far been canvassed chiefly in America that Germany cannot rely upon Austria's support in a war of conquest. It has been suggested that there is still a way of csca'po open to Austria by liberating tho Slav and Latin elements of her population, and that action on these lines by the Habsbukg Eμl'KitOß and his Advisers, together with a definite repudiation of Germany's schemes of conquest, would at the same time immensely strengthen tho political forces in Germany which secured the passage of the Reichstag resolution declaring for pcaco without annexations. President Wilson's speech is an explicit challenge to Austria to carry to its logical conclusion tho policy which Count Czernin has expressed tentatively and in general terms. Development on these lines is opposed by formidable obstacles, but there are evident grounds for believing' that the rulors of the Dual Monarchy will in no other way prevent its military collapse and political disintegration. The possibility that AustriaHungary is so hopelessly involved in German toils as to be incapable of taking independent action as an organised State certainly affords no guarantee that theso disasters will be averted.