A FOOLISH SPEECH

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 261, 23 July 1918, Page 4

A FOOLISH SPEECH

The speech by Count Czebnin which is reported to-day no doubt has the full approval of the war party in .the Dual Monarchy, even if it has not been directly inspired from the headquarters of the PanGerman cult. It assists an understanding of the position to remember that, as Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, Count Czbiinin spoke in much the same strain, while, the :-ocallecl treaty <if Brcst-Litovsk'was being drafted. He is the camouflage artist of the Pan-Germans, and it is his function to talk sweet nothings about peace and anti-anncxationist aims while his masters arc perfecting or rounding off schemes of aggression and conquest. Apparently the idea has now entered his mind, in the leisure of retirement from official cares, that the belligerent nations, and more especially the Allies, are so heartily sick of the war that they are ready to listen to any nonsense that is - prattled on the subject of peace. Otherwise he would hardly havo ventured on the quaint suggestion that Austria, a byword amongst the nations for tyranny and oppression, is "predestined to fill tte role of mediator." Even Count Czerxin might have been cxncctcd to recognise that whatever hopes the Allies base on Austria rest solely on the fact that the races constituting a majority of her population over whom she rules by terrorism and to whom she denies elementary politi"al riirhts arc showing an increasing inclination to cast off their fetters. As it stands, his' speech is cither an inept nnpeal to war weariness or sheer and unadulterated nonsense. Had he listened to the sound of guns and tho tramn of armies in the Western theatre he might have spared his breath.