Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1918. AUSTRIA'S COLLAPSE.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 October 1918, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1918. AUST RI A' S COLLAPSE.

Thk collapse of Austria as a partner m the enemy war combination is one of those events foreshadowed for some time now by happenings in Europe, as a result of the sustained Allied successes. Austria, has. been toppling for n considerable time, and but for the moral suasion of Germany would have made' her exit long ago. The internal condition of Austria has been very stringent for a. long time past, while the Austro-Hungarian forces have never bad their hearts in the war, and not fought with the dash expected of them by their Allies. Time and again German forces have been put with the Austrian troops for stiffening purposes, while even Austrian commanders have boon superseded by German officers to ensure more dashing leadership. Of late the internal dissension within Austria has been more and more marked, and the disruption of the nation is one of the events to happen before AustroITungary settles down again after the war. Austria’s exit from the war will have a marked effect in hastening the end of the terrific combat which has gone on now for so long. Whatever may be the advantages to Germany by shortening the battlcfront, and how over strong slm may be to maintain her military activities with hopes of defensive success, these factors will be discounted entirely by the loss of the buffer territory of Austro-Hungary, which keeps the Entente Allies at a respectable distance from the Fatherland. With Austro-Hungary hors decombat, the Allies will have the right of way to the German frontier and this concession will afford the aerial arm of attack fresh objectives on Berlin and other of the large cities of Germany. The Dual Alliance will then be a tiling of the past, and the great hopes of the designers of the war for Mid-Eu-ropean domination will have gone for ever. Austria’s collapse will , cany with it. its extinguishment as a great, power. It has been allied with Prtissia since 1879, and the different nationalities within its borders will now he asserting themselves, demanding separate independence, or a return fo their former national life. I Ids latter will apply to Bosnia and Herzegovina, f ig, ■ Czeelio-Slovaks have proi\V'iniod already a separate nationality. Hie Boles will do likewise. The return of the territory taken from Italy’ will he sought, and Roumanian districts within Hungary will seek to return to the parent- state. The tyranny of the ruling Magyars will he gone, it is hoped ’never to return,. The Allied forces now passing through Serbia, some of which have reached already the Danube will be of sufficient importance to cause Germany to think of another home front apart from the western theatre. Those Serbian troops will have also, the Italian and British troops from north Italy, so that Germany will find herself very much beset, and the military situation created by the defection of Austria from the combat, leaves Germany in a. hopeless state. She will be \\ ithout help from any quarter —alone and friendless. To such an unenviable position she has brought herself through her over-weening ambition. This now condition of utter hopelessness will work its effect on the people. The fact that German has lost already is recognised by some of its loaders, and the assurance of this will he brought home to the community as a whole by Austria's defection. Thus is the final end of the war brought substantially’ near-