THE ROUMANIANS AND AUSTRIA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1511, 17 February 1916, Page 2

THE ROUMANIANS AND AUSTRIA.

The reason why Roumania does not desire to fight for Austria is obvious to all who are acquainted with Roumania’s legitimate ambitions, says the Fortnightly Review. Roumania wishes to remain independent. She doss not desire to be absorbed by Russia, but she desires as little to become an Austrian province. German and Austrian rulers and statesmen may promise her internal self government under the Austrian crown. They may tell the Roumanians that all the Rou ' manains will, with their help be united under the Roumanian flag, provided that Roumania will consent to merge herself in the Dual Monarchy. However, incorporated in the realm of the Hapsburgs, Roumania may become not another Bavaria, but another Bohemia. The Roumanians know that the Austrian Empire is based not on freedom, but on persecution, that the Hapsburgs are, and always have been, the enemies of liberty and of nationalism, that they have always persecuted the nationalities under ihgir sway, and that the

traditional Austrian policy will scarcely be altered for their sake. Besides, they have before them a warning example of the 3,500,000 Roumanians who dwell in AustriaHungary, and who live under a modified form of slavery. Nowaday, nations are no longer enslaved by being kept in chains, but by other means. They are disfranchised, they cannot obtain justice, they are impoverished, they are given only subordinate positions, they cannot obtain redress by the law, their education is neglected, their language is destroyed, but on the other hand, they are weighed down with taxes and are compelled to serve in the army. That is the position of the unhappy Roumanians in Hungary, In Austria-Hungary, close to the Roumanian border, dwells millions oi Roumanians in dense masses, but they are practically unrepresented in Parliament and in local government. They are treated like helots, they are made to act to the ruling race as hewers of wood and drawers ot water, and by violence and stealth, by persecution and bribery, they are made to abjure their nationality and to become Magyars, That infamous policy of persecution by unjustified violence has made “ allied ” Austria-Hungary an object of hatred and contempt throughout Roumania.