The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1919. THE PEACE WITH AUSTRIA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 220, 11 June 1919, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1919. THE PEACE WITH AUSTRIA

At a surface view there is an absolute contrast between the attitude of Austria towards the Entente, peace terms and : that assufned by. Germany. In the latter country shrieking threats and protests, are the order of the day. In Austria the tone'taken is rather that of submissive resignation. There have been protests and a demonstration of national mourning, but in a statement which was reported yesterday Herr Renner, the Austrian Chancellor of State, said amongst other things that Austria would ac : cept whatever, terms the Allies imposed. It would be hasty to 1 assume, however, that Austria has undergone that genuine change of heart which Germany so obviously has yet to undergo. Taking account of Austria's present position and circumstances, it would be-un-safe to take the apparently humble and_ submissive statement of her Socialist Chancellor at its face value. It is fairly evident that Herr Runner is astutely playing for advantage, 'and is covertly putting forward claims on Austria's behalf which lack any foundation in justice or natural 'right, A brief analysis of his observations will justify these strictures. He said, in part, that "the liorriblo crime of 19U" was com. mitted by the Hapsburgs and Hohonzollerns and not-vby the people. Nevertheless tho present Government recognised that it must liquidate, the costs nnd was ready to assume its liabilities in'common with oil States of the Austrian Empire, iio trusted the world's conscience would not deny the Austrians self-deteru mination, nor bring about economic ,ruin. .' . . They would accept whatever terms the Allies imposed, but they asked for a peace to ensure them a national, political, and economic existence, I'heir foremost aim would be to play a part in tho league'of Nations' v.oblo tasK in the cause of universal peace.

Apart from the suggestion that all .the- States of the former Austrian Empire are on an equal • footing— a suggestion-the Allies manifestly arc bound to reject—a number of things are here implied. Hebr Renner evidently wishes it to be inferred that unless Austria is harshly and unjustly dealt with by & e Allies she 'will emerge from her 'present troubles with assured political'and economic status and capable still of playing an important part in international affairs. This, as may be demonstrated very easilv, is a lons way from being true. Not injustice on the part of the Allies, but a restriction to her natural dimensions will make Austria a comparatively insignificant State, poorly endowed on .the whole with the resources that ma'ke for prosperity. Then again, when he speaks of self-determina-tion, Herb Renner cannot be referring to the compact group of about six million Germans who populate Austria. So far as the Allies are concerned these people are assured of national independence. In the terms presented to Germany ifc 1S expressly stipulated that the entire independence of German-Austria shall be recognised The Austrian Chancel or can be referring only to the isolated German groups, some of them large, which- are located in Bohemia, \in. Hungary, and elsewhere in the territory of the former Dual Monarchy. Little more need be said on this point than that the clause in the Austrian Treaty which provides that the political and religious rights of such minorities and their freedom from all persecution shall be guaranteed by the League of Nations seems to submit the only just and equitable solution in sight. There are in all about 8,500,000 Germans living in the Czecho-Slovak provinces of Bohemia, Moravia, and Austrian Silesia. To grant these- people separate autonomy would hopelessly weaken the reconstituted Czecho-Slovak State; to allow them to unite with Germany would set that country astride the barrier mountains which constitute the natural boundary and protection of Bohemia. The only other considerable German group in what was the Dual Monarchy numbers about two millions and is located in the southern.and eastern districts of Hungary. In its essential aspect, H'err Re'nner's plea for self-determination seems to

amount to a polite request that Bohemia should he placed at Germany's mercy. •

Because of their hearing on the reparation question and for other reasons, the Austrian Chancellor's references to the political and economic standing of his country are particularly interesting. The "truth is that in the natural dimensions to which the Allies propose to reduce it, Austria proper is one of the poorest of the fragments into which the Hapsburg Empire has been divided. This fact minimises the prospect of exacting reparation from Austria, but Hkrh Kbnnek evidently is less afraid of reparation demands than anxious to retain some part of the control Austria formerly exercised over neighbouring and better-endowed territories. German-Austria, as is pointed out by the author of an informative article lately published in the Fortnightly Review, is a mountainous and largely a'pine . country, very unfavourably situated for the pursuit of agriculture and of manufacturing. It is well endowed with forests, but depends largely'on imported food and almost entirely in imported coal. Between tnem, the Czecho-Slovak and Polish provinces of Austria produced in 1912 about three-quarters of the wheat, cats, and straw raised by the Austrian Empire; about five-sixths of the rye, pulse, and potatoes;i about six-sevenths of the barley; 'about two-thirds of the fodder crops and carrots; about,nine-tenths of the hops, and about fifteen-sixteenths of the sugar beet. Thty possessed about two-thirds of the cattle, threefourths of the horses, and threefifths of tbi pigs. In the production of coal the pre-eminence of the Slav provinces was even' more marked. The people of German-Austria, as _ the Fortnightly Review writer points out in citin.fr these, and other facts and-figures, "lived by exploiting the non-German portions of the. .Empire." It was in these conditions that Vienna developed into a great and wealthy city, with a population of two millions. Obviously such a capital cannot bo> maintained by a small State with a total population of about six millions., It is easy in these circumstances to understand Hekr. Renner's insistence that "all States of the Austrian Empire" must unite in liquidating the costs of the war. Austria has so much to fear from being thrown upon her own resources that no_ doubt even a heavy burden of war indemnity eeemspreferable by contrast. The hope of the Austrian Chancellor is apparently that for the sake of obtaining indemnites the Allies may lie induced to partly restore the conditions under which Austria dominated and exploited the races now redeemed. Such a hope, falls stillborn. The course adopted by the Allies _in enforcing the complete emancipation of these races is the least promising they can take as regards war compensation, since the territories they occupy contain an overwhelming proportion of the developed and potential "wealth of the former Hapsburg Empire.' This fact "is very completely outweighed. howcver,_ by the considerations of international justice to which Herii Eennbii pays insincere lip-service in what ho has to say about the League of Nations. Nothing seems plainer than that the solid establishment of the non-Gorman States of Austria-Hungary'in their newwon freedom is at the same time oric of the most, important guarantees of future European peace. With Bohemia fully restored, Austria is reduced to comparative insignificance and can do little harm cither in isolation or in union with Germany. In'that fact'there is some consolation for her manifest inability to pay any very large sum by way of war condensation.