St. Paul daily globe., 1888-08-19
FRANCIS JosEPH's FIAsCO.
His Removal of Field Marshal
Won KuhenfeId Weakens a Grip
Dled Army.

pied Army.
Special to the Globe.
LONDON, Aug. 1S.-The statement
now going the rounds of the European
press that the removal of Marshal Kuhu
Won kuhenfeld from the Austrian army
was followed by the retirement of Count
Won Moltke from the German army as
an initiative step towards the reOrgan-
ization of the Austrian and German
armies on more effective scales is rid
iculed by leading military critics, at
least as far as Austria is concerned. A
leading German general officer, whose
name. for obvious reasons, is withheld.
in an interview to-day on the subject said
1.-The AuStro-Hungarian government
the recent removal of Baron Won Kuhn,
took step which has gone far to dimin-
ish that confidence in the military fut-
ure of the dual monarchy which has
grown up in recent years. The EN-
peror Francis Joseph has, in fact, re-
tired one of the only two flrst-rate gen.
erals the Austrian empire had. The
Archduke Albert, the conqueror of
CuStozZa, is the inspector general OF the
army, and Field Marshal Kuhn Won
Kuhenfeld was, until his recent retire
ment, the commander of the Third
army corps, having its headquarters at
GratZ. The corps comprises the con-
tingents of Syria, Carinthia, Carniola
and Istria. Field Marshal Kuhn was
born in 1877, and is, therefore. of the
same age as Archduke Albert, two years
younger than Prince Bismarck and
seventeen years younger than Count
Won Moltke. In 1866
HE DEFENDED THE TYROL
with a small force against the Italians,
and his successful conduct of this diff
ficult enterprise, followed 6y the publ
cation of a treatise on mountain war
fare. which ranks as classic in mill
tary literature, established his position
as one of the first of living commanders.
From 1868 to 1874 he was minister OF
war. and to him is owing all that is
good in the reorganization of the Aus
trian army after the great disasters of
the Bohemian campaign. In 1874 he
was appointed to the post from
which he has been relieved. 1t has
become a painful fact to the major
ity of AustrianS that, in view of the
present critical state of European affairs
the government took very unwise step
in removing Baron Won Kuhenfeld.
AustrianS know how often court influ-
ence has removed their generals from
| commands and how the fortunes of
Austria have thus more than been sac
rificed to military incompetence in high
quarters, and this gives all the more
| reason to regret his removal, as meas
ures severely criticised by Kuhn Won
Kuhenfeld are undoubtedly bad ones.
| There is not now in the military world
much confidence in either the admins
trative or the active chief of the Aus
trian army, and the sole occasion for
reason for supposing that in case of war
the AustrianS troops
| WILL. BE PROPERLY DIRECTED
| is that the Austrian general staff is I'M
| derStOod to be the only medium for the
| conveyance of information to Berlin.
! Many leading politicians are of the
| opinion that there is as much need for
| the powers to increase the efficiency of
their armies as there was a year ago,
/ and the powers themselves seem to
think so, too. These politicians who
entertained the opinion that excellent
| tablished between Emperor William
and the cZar by the recent inn
perial interview are now surprised
at the warmth with which the semi
| official Russian press criticiSe the ten
| sion between France and Italy respect
| ing Massowah, directly charging Ger.
many with creating the situation in
| order to weaken France and warning
| Germany that in the event of the latter
power Joining Italy Russia would not
| stand idly by while France was again
being conquered. The speech of En-
| peror William, Thursday, at the un-
yelling of the monument of Prince
| Frederick Charles, the hero of Metz,
was undoubtedly meant as an answer to
these attacks and plainly indicates that
the recent meeting at st. Petersburg
has had no effect. on the antagonism
existing between Germany and France