The Position In Austria.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 12 September 1918, Page 3

The Position In Austria.

GERMANY'S RULE IN THE COUNTRY. (By Mrs Julian Grande.) BERNE, July 14. The ordinary man in a country such as Switzerland, bordering on Austria, often asks: What is happening in Austria? Of late rumours of all kinds have been in circulation about riots, revolutions, and risings in Austria. All these rumours seem to have been repeated, with sensational headlines, in some British and French newspapers, and possibly in some United States papers also. The defeat of the Austrians on the Piave at the end of June, when the Hungarian Prime Minister Wekorle uttered his famous lament about Austria-Hungary having lost 100,000 men, made many people, at any rate in Switzerland, think that Austria was going to collapse, and the Austrophile Swiss papers shed so many crocodile tears about the Piave disaster that the innocent and uninitiated really began to believe that Austria-Hungary was in a truly critical condition.

It is only a double-faced Power such as Austria-Hungary which could thus deceive the world. Wekerle's lament was uttered in ordf r to do a good stroke of business for the Hungarian Junker. Hungary does not want any other agricultural state, Roumania or the Ukraine, for instance, to be admitted to membership of Mittel Europa, because she is also an agricultural State, and does not desire competitors. By con fessing her heavy sacrifices, site is virtually telling Germany: "Now we are quits," and letting her know that she cannot force upon unwelcome new members of the Central European Alliance. Wekerle's slyness i,j proverbial, and is well illustrated by a story of the old Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph, who once said: "If I ask Wekerle what sort of weather it is, and he answers, 'Your Majesty, it is a fine day,' then I take an umbrella." It is time that the world realises that whenever not only Wekerle but the Austrian State, or the whole gang of Austro Hungarian statesmen either do or say anything, it ought to ask itself the question which was asked when Talleyrand died: "What was his object in dying?" What do they want? What are they-.about? i

Austria at presont lias a Ministry but no Government, a Parliament but 110 majority in it. She can make neither war nor peace, she can neither dismiss her Government nor keep it, neither be governed by legal jncans nor by chanco means, neither off nor conclude her negotiations with. Germany. She is, in short, like' a crossroads every outlet of which is blocked. And to crown all, the Emperor, some reason or other —the Austrians say because of Entente machinations—is extremely unpopular, and _ the * Empress still more so. They were, in fact, "booed" the other day when driving from their palace to Vienna.

A distinguished writer and politician from Vienna whom I met the other day in Switzerland, confided in me the really terrible state of the country of Austria-Hungary. I asked'him, "Why do you not conclude a separate peace?"

"We cannot," he answered. "We aro in the grip of Germany's mailed fist. German troops are mixed with ours. Our finances are in the hands of the Germans, and we are altogether at their mercy.''

Confirmation of this can be iound in the Austrian Press, censored as it is. For instance, the other day the "Wiener Journal" reported that strictly confidential discussions were taking placc in Berlin about closer commercial relations between Germany and Austria-Hungary. Representatives of all commercial and industrial associations, of agriculturo, Wade and commerce generally were present, and the subjects discussed were the drawing up of a uniform customs law and customs tariff for the two Empires, the introduction of uniform methods of customs procedure, similar patent laws for both Empires, and finally similarity of commercial and shipping legislation.

Furthermore, within the last few (lays, the German Ministry of Commerce, in whose hands arc the manifold preparations for "After the war," issued a circular, '' Secret and Confidential," to the various manufacturers in Germany, particularly to those who manufacture articles supposed to be German specialities, instructing them that now after the war one pricc must be charged in Germany and Aus-tria-Hungary for all such articles, and aonther price outside Germany, whether in neutral or in enemy countries. For instance, lithograph stones, which before the war used to cost say 100 marks (£5), and now cost in Germany 200 marks, must be sold outside Germany at not less than 400 marks. And similarly with regard to a number of other articles. If, however, a German firm has say, lithograph works outside Germany, then that firm must be charged for materials the prices prevailing in Germany. Austro-Hungar-ian manufacturers and Arms are, of course, to be treated as German. Presumably Austria, under compulsion, is likewise granting Germany the same most-favoured-nation treatment, although I have no knowledge of a similar circular having been issued by Austria.

It is useless, therefore, to talk of Austria as to a separate country independent of Germany. She is nothing of the sort. She is almost daily more hopelessly involved in the clutches of Germany. The Burgomaster of Vienna, Wr Woiskirchncr, openly confessed at a recent meeting of the Vienna Oitv Council that he had to telegraph to l-udendorlT, Ilertling, and the Bavarian l'rime Minister imploring them to do something to procure food for the City of Vienna, and saying that it' he did not receive help and at once, he could no longer be responsible for the maintenance of public order. LudendorlT graciously replied in a telegram which was read at the meeting, assuring Dr Weiskirchner that he would be only too delighted to help him but that Germany was already doing all she could. All the imports of corn from Rumania, Bessarabia, and the Ukraine were > already being reserved for Austria, said Ludcndorff,. and although he very badly needed it himself, he had oven allowed Austria to have wheat intended for the Western front during April, May, and June. . Here, therefore, is an example of the pitch to which Austria is reduced! It is not the Austrian Emperor to whom an appeal is made, but tho German Comandev-in-Chief, the German Chanand the Bavarian Prime Minister, ■'/

In the absence of a properly constituted Government, backcd by a majority of the House, Austria is in A worse case politically than she has ever been before, worse even than in 1848, owing to insurrections, and 1866 (Sa dowa). On those occasions the peoplewere at nny rate held together by loyalty to the dynasty, but now there is not even that bond uniting them. The roung Emperor Charles no longer has the sympathies of his people, and coii sequently does not represent them. - He has many' enemies and apparently no friends. The Slavs suspect him because they consider him a German puppet; the. Germans suspect him because he is married to an Italian woman; while the Socialists look on both Emperor and Empress as tools of the

Jesuits and consequently agents of tho Vatican. At no time in the history of the Austrian monarchy wore there so many secret police as now watching the person of the Emperor and Empress. Austria as at present constituted is not and hardly can be governed'by'legal means, and the old Emperor fully realised this. When war broke out, the last thing he thought of doing was to convene the Austrian Parliament, and Count Sturghk, one day passing the Austrian Reiclisrat building, remarked with the most cynical frankness, "My greatest achievement was to turn that building s*>+-o a hospital." Such methods, however, can only endure for a time, and Count Sturghk ended his days by Dr Adler's revolver. Austria-Hungary, in short, is in a blind alley, at either end of which stands Germany in arms. The only papers in Vienna which have the courage to raise a voice on behalf of justice are "Dor Kampf" and the "Arbeitdr Zeitung." The latter may not enter Genvmny. Tt is therefore absurd and untrue when a section of the English press writes of tho "Arbeiter Zeitung" as having been bought by Germany. ,