The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1914. A DOOMED EMPIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 106, 28 September 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1914. A DOOMED EMPIRE.

For the past century historians and diplomats have constantly discussed the curiously heterogeneous nature of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and tho bitter antagonism between the Slav and tho Teuton and Czech and Magyar is one of the commonplaces of international politics (says the Wellington Post.) All that has bound this "ill-assorted" mosaic together for many years past has been a sense of personal loyalty to the aged Emperor, and the military ascendancy of Austria itself. Franc.ia Joseph still survives; but now that Austria seems to liavo signally failed to mainI tain her military prestige against the I first shock of inTasion that has threatened her for close on fifty years, it is more than probable that even before the great war closes, the enmity between Slav and Teuton will blaze out with irrepressible violence, and the Aus-tro-Hungarian Empire will resolve itself into its constituent parts. This event has often been contemplated by the leading statemon of Russia and Germany, tho two gTeat Powers which represent.the Slar and tho Teuton most completely. But though it has been assumed that after Francis Joseph died, Germany and Russia would draw to themselves the SlaT and Germanic States respectively; and thua practically divide tho Dual Monarchy between them, the dissolution of an Empire through a, sudden military collapse has not generally been contemplated. If such a cataclysm actually eventuates, we may safely predict that the various States left to themselves will follow tho impulse of national and racial sympathy; and whilo they may hesitate to transfer their allegiance from Vienna to Petrograd or Berlin they will certainly draw closer to tho Power which in its predominant racial characteristics most nearly incarnates their national traditions and their patriotic ideals. But we may find in the sequel that this conjectural prediction may apply to the German as well as to the Austrian Empire. For the German Empire was built up on the achievements of Prussia in diplomacy and war; it is based on the military ascendancy of Prussia alone; and if once the military and naval strength of Germany ia crippled in a war organised by Prussian statesmen in pursuance of Prussia's declared policy of forciblo expansion and aggression, we may expect that tho ties that now unite the German Empire will bo loosened. Tho South Germans never amalgamated with the (Prussians, from whom they differ radically in temperament, in tastes and in social and political idea#. It is | extflTa£Sflt to assume that if I'rusi sia is no longer a Power to bo feared, • necessity for the continued existence of tlie German Empire in its present form will seem to tho Germans to have vanished. Even if such a consummation was not attained by a natural process of disintegration, it might bo necessary for tho Powers to ensure it, bo oi te safeguard the world againat any recurrence of disastrous wars engineered to suit Prussia' 3 insatiable ambitions. But however the constitution and boundaries of the German and Austrian Empires may be modified as a result of this war, we incline to the belief that tha reconstruction of Europe will be carried out strictly along Nationalist lines. When Austria and Germany have proved themselves unable, as well fcg unworthy, to retain control over minor States that differ racially from their masters, the union of these States with their kinsmen who have so long ia vaia stretched out their hands to help them will be finally accomplished. Germany and Austria may lose their Polish provinces, which are to form a new and greater Poland under Slav protection. Roumania may secure for itself the south-eastern corner of the Dual Monarchy inhabited by its fellow-nation&l-als. Italy may receive the "unredeemed" provinces that Austria has so long held in servitude; Servia may realise 'iier dream of uniting in one great State the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and all the other Serbs who have so long resisted tho encroachments of the Austriana upon their freedom. Last, but not least, France will assuredly recover Alsace-Lorraine; and bo the settlement of Europe may be accomplished along the lines of national and racial identity—the only basis on which the world's peaco can ever be firmly and permanently founded.