The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1918. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 October 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1918. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

To understand the cable messages concerning tlie state of the Aus-tro-Hungarian Empire it is necessary to know some of.tlie factors which are operating to. bring about dismemberment. It has been stated that the sufferings of the Austrians are beyond human description, but "Austrians" is a concrete word which, includes commonly the people of several races. There are no Austrians, There are Austrian Germans, Hungarians, Bohemians, Southern Slavs and Poles. The Austrian Germans have (states Johann Alexander, a Socialist) for the last twenty years been seized with the mania of Pan-Germanism, and the only difference between them and the Prussians is that the Austrian German is haughty and arrogant, while the Prussian adds cunning to the vices which his Austrian brethren enjoy in full measure. Another side-light is thrown on the infamous policy of intrigue which Germany has developed to such a base use, when it is seen how she is scheming to absorb Austria into the German Empire, and with it. of course, the Austrian Germans. A special press campaign was instituted in the, German newspapers about the rebellions, the strikes and other horrible conditions that prevail in Austria, and especially the privations of the German Austrians, but it is always the non-German element that is pilloried and not the pro-German for Pan-German) position of the community. Johann Alexander asserts that the plain truth is that every division of the non-German elements hate the monarchy as it is constituted ! to-day. also that the Bohemians, the Slavs and the Poles hate the (German elements, and they hate the Hungarians, while the Austrian Germans wish to reduce the Hapsburg into a princedom and join the German confederacy, the motive being to justifv a closer union of Austria with Germany. It is small matter for wonder that under these circumstances the non-German elements are becoming more and more determined on securing their independence." and thai Count, Knrolji has introduced a Bill in the Hungarian House of Deputies for a severance from Austria. It would seem that the majority of Socialists in the Dual Monarchy are built on very much the same lines as their brethren in Germany; they are as Pan-Gor-man under the skin as the junkers and capitalists of Prussia; by lip they condemn German militarism, but by act they show an innate love for Germanism. The only logical course for them to take is to shake off the dust of Austro-Hungary from their feet and migrate to Germany, where they will soon find their level. The only salvation for the nonGerman elements is separate national existence under guaranteed security—the security for which the Allied forces are now contending. It is said that the non-Ger-man elements of Austria are suffering ten times more miseries through the war than the German elements, and this may readily be believed. They are not only suffering privations incidental to the war, but privations that are purposefully, maliciously and barbarously created for them by the Hungarians ancl German Austrians. It is claimed that had it not been for the equally mutual hatred between the Hungarians and Austrians and the non-Ger-man and non-Magyar races, the monarchy would have been completely exterminated during the last three years; for, since the war these races have been ruthlessly persecuted and murdered, by the ten thousand. Bohemians, Serbs. Slavs, Latins and other races have been sent to unknown destinations as prisoners for having spoken harshly of the Prussians. In the city of Prague alone more than 10,000 Bohemians have been subjected to death through execution and prison privations. "The world," says Johan Alexander, "will some day know, and will no doubt gasp in horror at the unbelievable tortures the nonGerman races have been subjected to by their rulers" The very | poor and lower middle-classes of the Austrian Germans have very little love for the ruthless policy of the Pan-Germans, but they are angry because their rulers did not fulfil their promises, for they believed, as did Germany when , she started out to deluge the Con- ■ tinent with blood, that the war ' would last only a few weeks. It ; is quite possible that had the arE mies'of the Central Powers returned triumphant, with the blood : of their neighbors dripping from J their "finger-tips, these very dis- | contented elements . of to-day • I would have danced to meet them, even as they danced in the streets

of "Vienna when the led by robber assassins, marched to the Serbian frontier to rape a heroic little race, but the prolongation of the war has continuously added to their trials and sufferings, and now they are yearning for deliverance from a thraldom that has embittered their lives and made them rebellious. Johann Alexander has presented their case with a force that carries conviction. It is the case of all the weaker nations—the nation?. that need protection from domination and ill usage. That Avisv.'ia-Hungary will be dismembered is a foregone conclusion, and the races that are now under the heel of a cruel oppression may look forward in the near future to working out their own destinies under circumstances which would be impossible had not the Allies broken, the power of militarism and autocracy. The latest phase of events in the Dual Monarchy is regarded as a prelude to Hungary making separate terms of peace, indicating that she is determined to cut adrift from Austria and Germany. The stoppage of the export of grain to Austria is a direct blow at the present tie, so that with starvation staring her in the face Austria cannot possibly continue in the war. The "rotten empire" appears to be on its last legs.