AN INDICTMENT OF AUSTRIA.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 8, 29 January 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN INDICTMENT OF AUSTRIA.

A WOMAN'S CRITICISM OF FRANCIS JOSEPH.

A DRAMATIC NARRATIVE. 'HEY HAVE MURDERED HIM." low many tourists and travellers Use on crossing the frontiers of Aust that they have entered a realm enly distinct from any other European ntry in atmosphere, traditions, and hods ofjfovernment ? Appearances uile th<£ Tlie scenery, often beau1. grandiose, appeals to r people, light-living and y, are Sfcietive in comparison with heavier Swiss or uncouth German; very railway officials, hotelkeepers, police are less obtrusive and easier manner than those of Germany or sia. In so pleasant a country, amid deasing a folk, it is hard to underid the truth that on entering Ausone enters a moral vacuum. So s an article in a recent literary supnent of London " Tunes." _ bis is the secret of Austria. We d have wished that the author of remarkable book had chosen some » less melodramatic than " The ret of an Empress." Her book is of drama, and sheds vivid light on iy a dark spot in modern Austrian ory. But. unlike many a volume i which it may on first 6i'ght be classit is neither a repository of Court idal nor a collection of " Society " iip. It tells a plain, though not a rie tale with a quiet reserve that ances the effect of the story'told. In Bssence it is an indictment of Aus- , or rather of " Vienna," the real ana—the Vienna of the Camarilla i surrounds the head of the State, he secret police, of ecclesiastical inaces, and of ceaseless political intri- , It is an indictment of Austria ; claims with much appearance of hj, to be' based on the utterances of late Empress Elizabeth of Austria elf. . . , suntess Zanardi Landi claims to be third daughter of the late Empress Lustria, and to have been born in ! at the chateau of Sassetot, near tes-Dalles, in the Department of tbe e InWferieure, Normandy. tone

Semi-officialiy it was (riven out that mother, the Empress of Austria, had with v an accident while out riding. Emefrror Francis Joseph, cam© etly toVe her, his presence m Noridy at the time being known at the 4 but carefully concealed in all r quarters. My mother herselr had t livine at Petites-Dalles under her £ of the Countess Hohenembs. rt passed between her and the Emr will never be revealed. A few ra later, when my mother was realth'^'VH°rav£fc brought up from the Court, in the care of ostensibly because the rJL wished one. at least, of her re?to be accessible to her, and not laraTed from her by the inexorSrementa of the Spamshehte>C°obS Ve Othlr Xns US ma°; KtS^he^^ithissmgu„v. hut as to the main fact that ioreLSsadaughterofthelata rSs Elizabeth, born m wedlock, JSi to be.no reasonable doubt STs the secret of her existence T, have been kept outside a small B 9 Sthe Austrian capital, rumours Ihi existence of an unrecognised }* *of the late Empress have for Se been circulated in quarters ainS w'th Hapsburg family afWere other evidence needed, the Land.'s pages and '**L£ of herself and of her child--0g35 ~iddW it The interest and Sal of Sat she has written lies ffle circumstances than in the they supply upon TiC mvstcrious crimes that s iorf the House-of Austria »n atmosphere of tragedy Omy ,who have lived long in the Aus- ' clnital and have known many of JUmw whose names constantly wrsonages vvn ■* - ap p rcc iate the every detail, the rkable aciiir*. feature of social life Ki JHil.ilitv of the accounts tt !S!tSorityofth©lateEin. IOD StStlT-oi events such as -appar* fe"7 ,■ d , o{ Havana le : lt! L 0 \vo;;-7r.nc3 Rudolph at o'. th . e i° s difficult to conceive !r ' iu "' JUtnr however versed in an ""fi history of modern known and related V> C ° "SrA accent the tale hero fi ?r ßm T n have for the first time death-by drowning in €nt ft lake-of the unfortunate !!< r f Bavaria. Briefly, it » «« D - t ho King of Prussia was to When JJfiJJjjn Emperor at \ers 0D J . the Kloa strenuously. There »PP° *nnwnt a qu?stion of assiSfEora Tmneri : "l office alternately to th€ "Tpruwa and Bavaria. But CingS , prevailed upon by his adri« V f tSSSilarlv by his nncw i, and parti« -. R r . nti to ,old retentions of Prussia. As to he regretted more and •""wife Bcquiescenre; and vdeeply.?,? n Vtl,<> eighties of last . the »«J% o iv«| to re-cinqucr ■* he JKd abandoned. The Kmights 'c ha' « h vorv „id- ' V 1 '?'" and nc his death Prnsv ninety-»" ■ trouble. Id </S"d bedv' and sonl to arck for Prussia and bW , :.l ruler in-chic ike himcli t - H e knew that J German him"' , )h ali/1 p rns . ssf" l , opP °, cnii'fl >inlv come from the intrigros. of Bavarian Court >'*'" J'VT-udwi.it. whose ,pcnd-ti-n tUt ' lo -nim an ™sy victim. must ho in,f , ii2 wa ,. n , (l(! f ( 1 |)< a l" n:l ;,.' . i', , unnort of *h»> ancc ," .j, ~ obtained from •e-- t v,',n. ,:| i' •'" n)l1 a nronl ' so Enr*" I~' i•" -snrv for the blici' 1 ' 1 ' ilfll , r ,! n Austria, ho to t! ,; " n ' ,j ~,, Even after il '''' '""V'tU " -m> ■rrkinn conn by """""r- ' 'n-.« arrested and shut t ,he Km2 u '' rt

up in the castle at Berg the Empress Elizabeth sought to anange for his flight. The tragic story of the attempu ed flight, of the King's leap into the boat waiting on the, short of the Starnberg lake, and of the anguish of • the Empress on learning of the tragedy, is told in these pages with convincing simplicity. This chapter alone lends rare interest to the book. f Equally striking in its mastery of detail is the version of the death of the Archduke Rudolf, the Empress' only son. Around this tragedy fantasy 'an interested prevarication have woven an almost impenetrable mesh of legend. The account given by the Countess Zanardi Landi. as she claims to have heard it from the lips of her mother, is, to say little, more adequate than any account yet published. Th € late Archduke was determined to separate from his wife, the Archduchess Stephanie, nee Princess of Belgium. He was violently enamoured of the Baroness Marie Vetsera. On the advice of the late Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and of Mgr. Marschall, afterwards Bishop Suffragan of Vienna, he wrote to the Pope Leo XIII. a letter begging for the annulment of hi 6 marriage. The latter was returned by the Pope to the Emperor through Mgr., afterwards Cardinal, Galimberti, then Papal Nuncio in Vienna. Incensed at his son's action, the Emperor summoned both'him and the Empress t 0 his presence, and after a violent scene demanded a promise that his son would not see the Baroness Vatsera again until he had had a further interview with the Emperor. The Archduke retired to Mayerling, and sent his coachman to warn the Baroness not to be alarmed if 6h© did not see him for some days. In the meantime she had been ordered through her mother to marry an Austrian nobleman within 24 hours. On the arrival of the coachman she insisted on accompanying him to Mayerling. Her departure was immediately reported to the Emperor by the Secret Police; and Baron Boltras, a member of the Emperor's Military Cabinet, was sent with a detachment of soldiers to Mayerling to demand the surrender of the Baroness, and, in case of refusal, to arrest the Archduke. Rudolph refused to open to the summons, threatening to shoot the first man who should enter. After some parleying the Archduke opened and let Bolfas in, but others rushed in behind him, the Archduke fired and killed a gamekeeper, dther shots \w|e fired, which killed the Archduke and also the Baroness Vetsera, who rushed from her hiding-place. On hearing the dreadful news the Empress exclaimed, " They have murdered him! " —an exclamation which the details given go far to justify. There is no i;pace to dilate upon the assassination of the Empress herself within a few weeks of the Imperial jubilee, when, if this book may be believed, the Countess Zanardi Landi was to have been recognised by the Emperor Francis Joseph—against the will of the Court Camarilla and the members of the.lmperial Royal Family who belonged to it; but the "singularly lenient treatment: subsequently accorded to the assassin Luccheni is suggestively dwelt upon. Nor can more than passing reference be made to the tragedy which was the indirect cause of the present war—the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the Duchess Hohenburg at Serajevo on June 23.