The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-08 00:00:00

CLANDESTINE EXTENSIONS OF THE

AUSTRIAN FRONTIER.

The Etoile du Danube publishes a letter from
Jassy, describing the process by which Austria,
year by year, nibbles off the territory of a weak
neighbour :

From the time that Austria laid her paws upon
the Bukovina, she has had more than 150 leagues
of frontier in common with Moldavia. Even at the
time of the first demarcation, when Turkey, with-
out possessing the right to do so, gave up two dis-
tricts of Moldavian territory, Austria found on seve-
ral points the moans of extending her frontier by
several square (German) miles beyond the amount
which had been conceded to her. To this very day
the people execrate the name of the traitor, one
Canta, who; having been sent by a Fanariote prince
to superintend the works of delimitation, contrived
as the price of his guilty connivance that an estate
belonging to himself upon the frontier should not
be included within the Austrian territory.
As the line traced out in this way was not pro-
perly and satisfactorily made, the military autho-
rities advanced their frontier guards every year,
under various pretexts, further into Moldavia.
Then, every five or six years, the Austrian govern-
ment demanded the formation of a mixed commis-
sion, in order to rectify, as they called it, the fron-
tier between the two countries.

The commissioners on this side, as soon as they
mashed the localities, being suborned with money,
sanctioned all the encroachments that had been made
up to the time of their arrival. Sometimes the Aus-
trian commissioners alleged that the frontier pre-
sented too irregular an outline, and that it was in-
convenient to guard it. The commissioners then
gave up a few thousand hectares more to Austria,
and the frontier was rectified.
At the end of some years, the s %me ceremony was
repeated, always ending in some fresh concessions to
Austria. On the side of Transylvania, where super-
vision was still more difficult on account of the
mountains, pretexts for these invasions never failed;
so that during the last half century Austria has ac-
quired along the entire line more than 200 square
(German) leagues. After this, who can doubt that
she is one of the great conquering powers ?
Whilst the Western Powers were shedding their
blood and spending their treasures to save an empire
without demanding in return for so many sacrifices
one inch of territory, the Austrian militia were every
day poaching some fresh strip belonging to Moldavia,
and along the whole line of the frontier, both on the
Bukovina side and on that of Transylvania, the in-
vasion was uninterrupted.

During the occupation alone there were sent in-by
the frontier proprietors more than 100 claims for re-
dress, all of which remain unanswered.
Austria has now just demanded a fresh commis-
sion of delimitation, and the Caimacan, in appoint-
ing as commissioner for Moldavia the logothete John
Canta, alias Cantacuzene, decorated by the Em-
peror Francis Joseph, gives a proof of the solicitude
he employs in preserving the interests of the coun-
try, which he governs by tho grace of the Sublime
Porte

Should this new commission yield all the ground
lately encroached upon, of which there is unfortu-
nately little doubt, Moldavia will have on the Aus-
trian side not a single defensible strategic point left.
At all times, the crest of the Carpathian range, the
watershed between Transylvania and Moldavia,
used to form, as de jure it still does form, the fron-
tier between the two countries.

At the present moment the Austrians are found
quite at the base of the Moldavian slope. Another
occupation like the preceding one, and the fron-
tier, instead of being at the earpathians, will spee-
dily be at the Pruth.

Nevertheless we must hope that things will not
be pushed so far. When the frontier of Bessarabia
and the Caucasus shall have been rectified, it will
be possible, I would think, to rectify the Moldavian
frontier likewise. In every case, I have no doubt
that a request to this effect will be made by the ap-
proaching divan ad hoc.