CRISIS IN AUSTRIA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 191, 2 May 1918, Page 5

CRISIS IN AUSTRIA

THE EMPEROR'S UNLUCKY LETTER MOVE TO FORCE HIS ABDICATION New York, April 3(1. The Amsterdam correspondent of tho "Chicago Daily News" states that nil extraordinary crisis has arisen in Austria owing to tho publication of tho Emperor's letter to Prince Skte. A thousand of the Vionuwo nobility nro trying to force the Emperor to abdicate. Tho Austrian newspapers bitterly condomn Germany's decision to annex !)s----thonia anil Livonia. fTlio lotter referred to was written l>y the Austrian Emperor in March. 191". to his brother-in-law, Prince Sine, of Bourbon, and in it reference was irada to tho justice of tho French claims to Alsace-Lorraine. Its publication led to the resignation of the Austrian Prime Minister, Count Czernin. Exactly what, tho Emperor wrote on this subject is not yet oloar. Several cablo messages have given slightly varying interpretation ot it. French statesmen allege that the Em. peror's letter, which was shown to President Poincare, contained an out-and-out admission, that tho French had a just claim to tho lost provinces. A Frenjh official message quotes tho letter as saying: "To manifest in a precise manner the reality of my sentiments, I beg you to transmit secretly and unofficially to President Poincare that I -would support by all means, and use all my personal influence with my allies, the just claims of France relative to Alsace-Lorraine." Belgium would bo re-established in sovereignty and would keep its African possessions. Vienna at once issued an official report stating that the Emperor Charles's letter to Princo Sixto of Bourbon was fraudulently altered. Princo Sixto had instituted negotiations to prod.uce a rapprochement between tho belligerents, and tho Emperor wrote him a private letter, which was not intended to roach Presidont Poincare._ It did not contain instructions to initiate any ncgo. tiations. It made no mention of Belgium, and 6tated, regarding Alsacc-Lorriune, thjit the Emperor would support tho French claims if they were jusr, but that they wero unjust.] ANTI-GERMAN RIOT AT LAIBACH . CHEERS FOE THE ENTENTE. Amsterdam, April 30. The Vienna, correspondent of tho "Lokal Anzeiger" reports that thero vaa a largo demonstration at Laibach. A fiercely anti-Gorman crowd of Slovenes wrecked tho German casino and shops. The military intervened. The demonstration cheered tho Entonte.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.. THE FGOFCRISIS WORST FAMINE SINCE THE AVAR-' BEGAN. Washington, April 30. Advites from Berno stale that tho Austrian Government is appealing to the people to conserve food, _ as the country is facing tho worst famine sinco the beginning of tho war;—Aus.-N.Z. Cablo Assn. ON TflE BATTIMONT AUSTRIAN OFFENSIVE DELAYED. Washington, April 30. Official messages from Homo state that adverse weather has delayed the threatened Austrian offensive against Italy. The roads in tho Trentino aro impassable, owing to heavy snow, and the Piavo and other rivers aro flooded.—Aus.-N.Z. Cablo Assn. REPORTED AUSTRIAN PEACE OFFER. New York, April 30. The Austrian Emperor is about to i"ake a fresh peace offer to Italy.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. HUNGARIAN - CRISIS Berne, April 30. A message from Budapest states tliat owing to inability to reach an agreement regarding tho franchise reform, Count AVekerle has aeclined to form a Cabinet. —Reuter. DISINTEGRATING FORCES AUSTRIA'S DANGER FROM WITHIN On tho evo of tho war, in 1914, AustriaHungary was rapidly running towards decomposition, and we havo. not to look further for an immcdiato causo of tho war itself (states an articlo in the "Outlook"). Hero was a largo country, indispensablo to Germany for her policy in the East, in which the spirit of emancipation had rapidly taken on alarming proportions. . The eight million Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia had always been a fighting, indomitable group. The Serbian victories in tho Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 had stimulated tho spirit of independence among tho southern Slavs, who all speak the Serbian language and aro of the Serbian race. Austria sent her ultimatum to Serbia in July, 1911, because sho could.no moro resist tiio separatist tendencies of her own people, and sho needed to crush their hopes by | crushing the little independent nation ( with which thoy wanted to unite. _ So many other factors have interposed since then that one easily, forgets that this was tho direct uause of tho world war. The Czechs are a typical example of national resistance. Living in Bohemia (Austria), thoy want to form, together with tho Slovaks of Hungary, an independent State. For a long timo they had disagreements with other Slavic groups on matters' of political tactics. But now they seem to march hand-in-hand with tho Jugoslavs. Tho Jugoslavs (or southern Slavs) include the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, living in tho provinces of Bosnia, Dalmatia, Croatia, etc. Thero are seven millions within the limits of the monarchy. Their groups had been working separately for a long time toward autonomy and unity with Serbia and Montenegro. Now they have como to a completely common programme, and their claim has been expressed in tho Declaration of Corfu (191G) by their delegates who had escaped from AustriaHungary and by the present Serbian Government. One may say that tho Declaration of Corfu has created, or rather revealed, a largo western nation including more than twelvo million souls. Count Tisza, when Hungarian Premier, tried to havo tho Croatian Diet disavow this declaration. Not one deputy was willing to do so. Tho Poles havo been the most conciliatory to A'icnna. Their condition was better than the condition of the Poles in Germany and Russia, because tho Austrian Government was using them to maintain (ho balance against other parties. Hut they are Polos first. They show more and more distrust of the Government, and protest against tho military requisitions imposed upon their country (Galieia), which has hail so much to sutler from war and invasion. The Huinanians who have been oppressed for years by tho Hungarians had a moment of great hopo when tho armies of ( Rumania invaded their territory. That hopo vanished when Rumania had to retreat. Tho Riithenes havo claimed unity with Hie Ukrainians from Russia, who bolo.ng lo the sumo rare. As lor Ihn Italians, tho "Irrednnti" of Trieslo' and the Trentino, everybody knows the fervour of their desire lo bo united with their brothers from Italy. Tho Ruling Groups. AVe come now to the two ruling groups, Germans and Magyars. One thing binds them, and one thing only; it is their common enterprise of subjugation over other races. Otherwise they have only

motives for disagreement. Hungarians havo fought for thoir indopendonoe against tho Austrian*. But to-day they refuse to the other races, moro hercely than tho Germans themselves, tho freedam that they have been rjaimiu.g for themselves. Thero havo been during the war som-j tendencies towards fcdernlisation in the policy of Austrian rulers. Count Tisza, in Budapest, then asked in a tragic tone, "Js everything permitted in Austria?" A. source of bitter anxiety also i 3 tho financial situation. The EmP'ro has been made so absolutely dependent on Germany that should Germany v ! withdraw her help thero would bo im- ; mediate disaster. Meanwhile the Aust trian' exchango is far below (he German one in neutral countries. Nevertheless, Ausfrians and Magyars , possess hogeuiony, and cling to if. And as it became impossiblo to/maintain it in (ho present crisis, they had to carry on , war against their own subjects. There is no exaggeration if wo look at the facts: ~ Among civilians alone, as eavlv as I January, IDIG, tho "Neues AViener Tage- [ I blatt" announced a total of 3!1}3 capital , I executions of Austro-HuiiEarian citizens , I (800 .in Bosnia, 720 in Bohemia). Of } course this was only the beginning. , In Bohemia "the most notorious case ■■ of military disaffeotion is that of tho '■- j Twenty-eighth Czech Regiment; (the ,! 'Children of Praguo'), which left for the [ | front singing a famous Pan-Slav hymn ,: which contains a verso in honour of the . ■ Russians and French as friends against t the Germans. They also carried a bant': ner bearing an inscription to tho effect !. that 'wo aro marching against tho llus- .; sians, but nobody knows why.' At an , : early opportunity the Toginiont passed i; over, officers and men together, to the , Russians. _ On April 1", 1915, an Army t ■ order was issued proclaiming its disgrace [ and temporary dissolution. Similar !n- ----; cidents occurred in the Eighth, Thirtieth. ', Eighty-eighth, and One Hundred and .! Second Regiments, nnd in the Eleventh . Regiment of Landwehr. Decimation has ~ been frequent, and if the number of mih- .; tarv executions over becomes known it .: will be found to havo reached an appali; ling figure. More than ono Czech regi- .: ment is virtually interned in Hungary as . I unreliable, and meanwhile Bohemia has i; been garrisoned by Magyar troops." ) (From "Tho New- Europe," January i, t 1917.) And if this needs confirmation, . ■ wo find it in (no enemy Press itself. On , October 30, 1917, tho Hungarian paper , "Budapesti Hirlap" -said:—'The Czechs i must learn that tho Entente Allies will ; never be victorious, for tho Czech policy is founded upon tho Entente victory. In May and June, 1016, alone, sovenlyoight Czech periodicals were suppresses, and tho reading of Tolstoy and Enicrson, among others, was forbidden'. In Transylvania tho Rumanian subjects of tho monarchy, as wo said, livo under Hungarian oppression (in twenty years over tlireo hundred and fifty Rumanian intellectuals were' condemned lo over otto ; hundred nnd fifty years of imprisonment i for i "incitement against tho Hungarian ■ ■ nation"). By somo clever electoral dis- ', position, only fivo deputies represent ' tlireo and one-half million Rumanians at tho Hungarian Parliament. In October, 1917, one of thorn, Pop Ssicso, denounced tho dreadful plight of his countrymen, prosecuted and interned by the aulhori- , tics, priests, women, and children being deported to the interior. . Appalling Happening. , Tho most appalling things happened in , southern Slav territory. One oj' the es- , sential war aims of Germany and Austrial was the crushing of the Serbian race, as standing in tho way of their expansion. ("Serbia and Montenegro should disappear from the map, becauso thereby tho road to the East would ho open," says tho Austrian General R. Gerba in tho paper "Die Drau." Therefore ho demands immediato annexation.) In ; order to remove (hat obstacle nil means ■ were good, and now tho fate of tho 11 Jugoslavs is equalled in horror only by tho fato of tho Armenians. No excesses . or atrocities committed on'the Western : fronts can be compared to what tho A.ustro-Hungarians did to their own subjects there, l'fyr we have to insist again on that poA. which seems incrediblo to our minus: theso are no war cruelties, theso are facts of internal adt ministration,' After the retreat of the Serbian armies tho authorities exerted full vengeanco upon tho populations which had welcomed their brothers, nnd large numbers of men wero executed or deported. "Dio Bosnische Post," a semi-official organ, published in 1915, botween February : 20 and March 23, only, a list of 5200 fnmi- : lies expelled from a few districts in : Bosnia. These families, whoso men are mobilised in tho Austrian Army, wero driven to Montenegro or other frontiers, and most of them aro to-day wandering from place to place, eating the grass on the mountains ("Obzor" of Agrnm, Novembor 11,1917). For Herzegovina alone, tho military governor, Sarkotic, recontly announced two hundred cases of. death from starvation. Wholesale trials, on tho ground of ' high treason, took place, liko the Ban-, [ jaluka trial of 1015-16, when sixteen • death condemnations and eight hundred 'jahct fifty-eight years of prison wern in- '; flicted. Fivo deputies to the Bosnian ' | Diot, twenty priests, and nineteen school- ' j mnsTers were among the condemned.' '(•Mention of tho most typical ones is > i perhaps to be found in the speech deliv- ' I ercd by Deputy Tresic-Pnvicio at tho 1 i Austrian Parliament on October 19, 1917. ;! The Austrian censorship stopped its pub'j licat'on- in tho Croatian "Novosti"; but ' j what wo possess of it already is suffi- | j cicnt. At Arad and at Doboj alone. [ whero interned civilians suffered untold ■ martyrdom, nhout eleven thousand por- ■ sons died from' starvation, typhus, and 1 other causes. Among them was a noble ; fi>;uro of a national leader from Bosnia. Deputy Trosic-Pavicic says that one Austrian general (Potiorek) signed thirty--1 live, hundred condemnations to death. 1 Prominent leaders of the various 00-1 1 pressed races of Austria-Hungary who . could escape to France or England have taken tho lead of separatist movements ; —namely, Professor T. Masaryk for tha Czechs, Dr. A. Trumbio for' tho Jugoslavs, otc.. They want each group to ■ unite with its brothers outside the Habs- ' burg monarenj.' 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