The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1918. GERMANY'S LAST PROP FALLS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1918. GERMANY'S LAST PROP FALLS.

Austria-Hungary lias occupied a peculiar position in regard to the present war. Always too weak to stand alone, she came to lean heavily on Germany, while at tli« same time carrying out the position of one of Germany's props—a useful function as far as providing man-power was concerned, especially when stiffened with German troops. One by one the German props have fallen under the strain, until only Austria was left, and now she also has gone under, leaving her German overlord to face his enemies alone, loathed by the whole civilised world. It has been manifest for some considerable time past that Austria would be compelled to sue for peace, and the surrender of Bulgaria brought about the crisis which rent the dual monarchy into fragments, leaving only chaos and dismemberment where the Ilapsburgs formerly held sway. Austria-Hungary entered into the struggle at Germany's bidding. It was the dual monarchy that lighted the torch from which sprang the greatest and most criminal war that lias ever blackened the pages of history, and deluged fair lands with blood. This State was not an enemy of the Allies, except at the bidding of the Ilapsburg Ministry, which, yielding to the injunctions of Berlin, betrayed its own people. As a matter of fact, the Emperor Francis Joseph declared war without daring to consult his Parliament., for he knew only too well that nearly threefourths of his subjects sympathised with Russia, France and England, and, being definitely hostile to Germany, would have opposed, by the vote of their representatives, any sanguinary conflict destined to turn to the advantage of Germanism. The Emperor, however, had no option but to obey his taslcmaster, and let loose the dogs of war. Italy subsequently saw her opportunity to uityvpt to recover her unredeemed province,,■ so that Austria's entry into the war, evil as it was in design, will result in Italian unity, thanks to the power of the Allies' forces. Austria-Hungary has, as it were, been living on the brink of a volcano, and the inevitable eruption has split the dual monarchy into fragments of nationalities." For this happy release the T-lungari ans have only in part themselves to thank, for it was to the sword of the Allies, and the faith for which it was unsheathed, that the greater thanks are due. Austria is now out of the war, and the publication of the conditions imposed is awaited with considerable interest, especially on their bearinsr on. the Allies' dealings with Germany, militarily and diplomatically. That Austria's power of interference with the neighboring nations will be placed beyond doubt may reasonably be assumed. It seems fairly certain that the sway of the Hapsburgs is ended, and it is expected tLat a similar fate will shortly overtake the House of Hohenzollern. The alliance between Austria and Hungary never was anything but. an alliance. It was not a union of peoples animated by a common ideal, for the common good, but merely the best business adjustment that could he arranged between the representatives of a few great families on the one side and a few on the other, the connecting and binding link being made up of the desire to maintain the ruling d.ynastv and an intense hatred of democracy. Small wonder, therefore, that so rotten an edifice should have crumbled to disaster before the hammer blows that have of late been delivered against it by the armies of the world's democracy without and those even more ceaseless and far-reaching assaults of its own virile protestants within. The attempt to keep together what has long been contemptuously referred to as "the ramshackle Austro-Hungarian Empire" was among the last despairing attempts o(: autocracy further to impose itself upon the nations of Central and Southern Europe. The attempt has ended in the complete isolation of Germany and the downfall of the monarchy. Germany totters alone, knowing that her doom is only a matter of time. The longer she defies the world the heavier should be her punishment. That was the tone Kaiser took in relation to the Allies, and it will, therefore, hold good when applied to Germany. The collapse of Germany's last prop emphasises the fact that autocracy must crumble Jjefore the determination of democracy. That, however, may be left till after the war, except as regards the very important question of who is to be responsible for observing the armistice and peace conditions. What matters mostly at present is that Austria is out' of the war, thereby releasing an appreciable host of fighting men to assist in the final act of the war drama—the complete defeat of the nation and its rulers who are the real cause of the conflict. That defeat is inevitable, but fere ap&ea®tpJ^ji^o^emen.t,, evidently.

engineered by the Pan-Germans, to bolster up the Kaiser, so as to stave off a republic. It is horrible to think that ruthless militarists are prolonging the struggle for their own selfish ends. The latest messages from the western front indicate that the Allies are breaking down all opposition, and are nearing the main German railway system, so that unless Germany admits being defeated the war must go on until she is brought to her knees by force. There can be but one ending, and Germany is slofwly, but surely, approaching her final coup de grace. This must be the last war, and possibly it would be a most effective policy to fight to a finish.