THE GERMAN HEEL IN AUSTRIA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 240, 28 June 1918, Page 5

THE GERMAN HEEL IN AUSTRIA

9 YOUNG EMPEROR DOMINATED BY THE KAISER THE PASSING OF THE HAPSBURGS (By F. Cunliffe-Owen in the New Tort "Sun") Emperor Karl, by his abject surrender to tho most relentless foes of his race and of his people, the Hohenzolleras, has forfeited every remaining vestige of good will and of affection of hsi fellow countrymen. It is not enly tho affection of his subjects that Emperor Karl has lost, but also their respect. They accorded this to oven poor old Emperor Ferdinand, who was wont to describe himself as an old fool (Trottl) and who finally became so convinced of tho deficiency of his mental equipment that he insisted upon abdicating in IS-18 in favour. of his then eighteen-year-old nephew, the late Emperor Francs ■ Joseph. But how can the people of tho Dual Empire retain tho slightest vestige of respect for a ruler who permitted himself to be driven by abject fear of the Kaiser to perjure. himself publicly in the eyes of 'the entire world by solemnly denying the contents of the letter which ho had dispatched last year to his bro-ther-in-law, Prince Sixttts of Bourbon, now fighting against Germany as an officer of Belgian artillery, although tho missive was in his own handwriting, and Thereafter endeavouring to insinuate that .t was a forgery, which he laid, first, to his wife's mother, the widowed Duchess of Parma, and then at that of his wife's :;ther confessor? vibe people of the Dual Empire have-, ik/er been noted for Puritanical princi-1 pics with regard to the truth. They are coo near the Orient not to have acquired the taste and skill of. tho Oriental for tho artistio embroidery of facts. But for their sovereign. to brand. himself guilty of so gross, flagrant and unconvincing a piece of perjury and his subsequent attempts to screen himself, first, behind petticoats and then behind the cassock, are more than they, can. swallow and aro humiliations thev will never ■BB able to forget or forgive* Kaiser Elated by His Work, Nothing could have given the Kaiser a greater amount of satisfaction than to place his unhappy ally at Vienna in so sorry a predicament. Anything that can servo to lower the Hapsburgs in.the estimation of the world is to him •a source of tho keenest gratification. He knows full well that from tho time when they first acquired by means of a discreditable financial deal the rank of petty sovereigns tho Hohcnzollerns have always been regarded as vulgar upstarts }>y the court of Vienna and by the great houses of the Austrian and South German aristocracy. Down to the middle of the nineteenth century they were treated more or loss as vassals by the Hapsburgs. They waro never permitted to forget • that their greatest claim to distinction at tho Austrian court was that they had been elevated to tho hereditary position of cupbearers to. the Hapsburg House. By thus having managed to place Emperor. Karl in so humiliating a position, the Kaiser feels that he has now ma measure avenged the many slights which he and his predecessors as Kings of Prussia, and as electors of Brandenburg have been subjected to by the Court of Vienna.. At last ho has got even with the Hapsburgs'and undoubtedly relishes tho notion that he has contributed to their downfall. Indeed it may be. questioned whether that has not been his aim ever since he succeeded to the throne—and perhaps the aim and hopo of several of the Hohensollerns before him. At any rate, there is no denying that Pan-German writers, somo of them in tho, service of the Prussian .Crown, others enjoying Holienzollern patronage, have for years past been publishing without any restraint by the Berlin Government' books, pamphlets and articles in tho daily and serial Press, and even maps, in which the Dual Empire, as such, has disappeared, and the. Hapsburgs reduced to the status of petty sovereign, archdukes of upper and lower 'Austria, thoso territories being vassals to tho Holienzollern Crown. Revolt much more likely here. . We have been hearing so much during the last two or threo years of the probability of an internal revolution in Germany that right has been lost of the possibility of a revolution in the Dual Empire. People have been under tho impression that although there might be discontent; and even local' risings among tho Italian speaking inhabitants of the southern provinces, yet that as n whole the bulk of the population of the twin monarchies was too strongly bound to the Hapsburgs by loyalty and long standing affection to dream of revolution. 13n.t this is-no-longer the case. Revolution in Austria-Hungary is farmoro imminent to-day thai; lii Germany. .There it may be delayed until tho conclusion of the war, when the German people, their national pride humbled by complete defeat, will bo confronted with tho realisation of the appalling cost of the present war and with tho repudiation of the national debt, owing to the impossibility of obtaining through taxation the colqssal sums required for interest and amortisation. in Austria-Hungary revolution is much nearer. The Twin Monarchies have been brought to the very brink thereof by Emperor Karl's surrender of all that ■was left of his authority to the Kaiser. The peoplo of Austria ' and Hungary, starving, mined, and bereaved of those near. and dear to them, have been brought to desperation. Peace is the subject of their doily prayers, of public prayers, in which all classes have openly joined. It was in deference to theso national aspirations, strong already at the time of his accession, that Emporo.r Karl then dismissed tho pro-German Ministers of hi 3 predecessor on the throne. In this Emperor Karl was supported by his Bourbon consort, by her clever mother, and by most of his relatives. A Change of Front, . At first he presented a bold front to the Kaiser and manifested not only independence but absolute coolness towards Berlin.- But unfortunately this did not last. By the middlo of last summer he had permitted the Kaiser to recover a sufficient amount of influence at Vienna to precipitate a condition of war between Austria-Hungary and the United States. Set, in spite of this, which led to the disappearance of any possible reluctance •which may have been entertained by Franco and Great Britain to tho full satisfaction of tho territorial aspirations of Italy and Serbia, at. the expense of course of the Dual Monarchy, Emperor Karl sought to continue in Ijwitzerland secret negotiations for a separate peace through some of his most capable diplomats, such as the Counts Eevertera and Mensdorff. Owing to the uncompromising attitude of the French and English agents, who had no authority ti speak but merely to listen and re-' port, these efforts were of no avail. In spite of the secrecy with which they were environed, something about the negotiations leaked out. Both the French and English Governments then explained the facts, whereupon tho Vienna Government insisted that whatever negotiations had been attempted had bffen inaugurated by the two Powers. London and Paris found no difficulty in proving the Austrian Government guilty of mendacity, and by way of clinching the matter Prime Minister Clemenceau published, the letter addressed to Prince Sixtus of Bourbon by Emperor Karl. If Emperor Karl had stuck to his letter and adhered to its views ha would have retained' the good will and respect of his people. But in the face of threats from Berlin he disavowed the missive, and to show that ha was completely dominated by tho Kaiser ho demanded the resignation of the statesmen and court dignitaries who had identified themselves with his aspirations for peace and who had shown any inclination to resist Emperor William's insolent usurpations of Byereignty in Austria-Hungary. . . Count Czernin was obliged to abandon the portfolio of Minister of Foreign Affairs and the do facto Chancellorship

of the Dual Monarchy to Baron Stephen Burian; Alexander Wekerle had to give up the Premiership of Hungary to Count Stephen Tiaza, whilo Prince Conrad Hohenlohe, former Premier of Austria, was divested of his office of Grand Marshal. All In Kaiser's Black Books, Berchtold, Wekerle, Conrad Hohenlohe and Czernin are all in the black books of the Kaiser, especially the three first named. For William considers them as responsible for whatever independence and 6tiii'nes3 their young sovereign showed with regard to Berlin. Tisza and Burian, ou tho other hand, are the recognised creatures' of Emperor William, and as such are execrated by their countrymen. Tissa in Hungary and Burian in the remainder of the Empire stand for reactionary despotism and tyranny of tiie Hohenzollem brand. Tisza is a masterful man of the most harsh and cruel character, who ha-s relentlessly crushed every effort to introduce universal suffrage in Hungary, and who has treated the Slavs subject to the crown of St. Stephen like helots, whilo he, as well as Burian, are the sworn, foes of the nationalist aspirations of tho Czechs. Of the two men Burian is the most entirely submissive to the Kaiser. Of plebeian Magyar birth, with a mushroom Magyar title of baron, ho is despised and deslested quite as much in Hungary as in Austria. Ho is as graceless in appearance as he is in manner and speech, is defective in vision, except as regards distant objects, and is extremely deaf, a disadvantage compensated by his oxtradrdinary skill in lip reading. Ho is a man of no initiative or constructive ability, and his only advantage in the eyes of the Kaiser is that he can rely upon him to carry out his orders without question. In Germany the Kaiser can still rely upon a certain portion of his army to repress rebellion. But in Austria and Hungary soldiers and officers, even those of the higher grade.?, are completely disaffected and stung beyond all endurance ~, v, tho harshness, tho brutality, and the ,»• .(tempt to .which they have been subI ,'i.ed by the German officers put in nnihority over .them. Moreover, the troops of ihoiDual Monarchy cannot forget that while tiley have been'fighting, not for tho cause of the Hapsburgs, but for that of the Kaiser and of the always abhorred Prussians, their families have been left to starve, even the very foodstuffs produced in Austria-Hungary being confiscated to feed the Germans. Had Emperor Karl remained true to his people they would ha,ve remained true to his house, as in centuries past. Not through affection, but through craven, abject fear, he has sacrificed them and their families and belongings to the Kaiser. And that is why they now consider themselves as relieved of any further obligation of allegianco to the house of .Haps-, burg of such tragic and yet illustrious j memories, but now on the brink of its doom.