The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-12-16
A fight FOR LIFE
WHY AUSTRIA STAKES ALL ON
TIE CRUSHING OF SERVIA
new light ON The War

At the End of Sc ond Balkan Wat
| Austria Decided to Attack Servja--
;, Italy's Reluctance Held ifer Off,
/ But sarajevo Crime Baul,lwd All
Hesitation.
| The New York Evening Sun ocm-
ments as follows upon the recen:
speech in the Italian parliament in
which it was stated that as early as
August, 1918, Italy had Informed
Austria and Germany that she would
not aid Austria in a campaign against
Servia, or in a general war which
might follow:
The most useful purpose served by
the statement made BY Giolitti In the
Italian parliament Is that 1t supplies
a new standard by which to measure
! t.e events which led to the outbreak
of the great war For four months
the world has been busily engaged in
discussing "scraps Of paper" mill
tsrism, Bernhard and other Incl
dental details. But here at last Is a
plain statement Of fact, of cause, OF
/ purpose, easily comprehensive, un-
mistakably authentic.
In 1918, in August, 1918, that Is
| lust after the victories of Seryia and
Greece over Bulgaria, Austria inform.
ed her allies, Italy and Germany, OF
her purpose to attack Servia. The de-
lay between August, 1912. and JutE'
1914, is eXplicable as due to the Sit
uation in which Austrian armies were
found, to the attitude of Germany, to
the influence Of Italian and other ad-
visers. Whatever the cause for the
delay. the assassination of the arch
duke removed the last restraint.
What she had resolved to do in 1918
Austria did in 1914.
It is easy to characterize this Aus
! trian decision as wanton resolve, as
a piece Of international violence in
! defensible on any ground. Yet it re-
mains to examine the situation IN
which Austria found herself and the
alternative left her when at last the
Slay neighbor on her southern march
es emerged from two wars victorious
and in Belgrade the disintegration OF
Austria was the open design Of all
patriotic Serbs.
For a century Austria and Russia
have been rivals in the Balkans.
| Carlyle in his life of Frederick the
Great finds such justification as he
ran for his hero in the matter of the
partition of Poland by pointing to
the fact that save for this arrange
ment Austria and Russia would have
fought over Turkish provinces.
At the congress of Berlin Austria
and Great Britain united to prevent
the creation Of the Greater Bulgaria
provided in the Treaty of San Stef-
ano. At that time and thereafter for
many years Servia was the soldier OF
the Austrian emperor in the Balkans.
Thus for twenty years Austria and
Russia intrigued against each other
in the Balkans, but neither was able
to obtain a decisive advantage over
| the other. This state of balance was
broken in 1903, when the king OF Ser
via, in fact. the tool Of Austria, was
assassinated. His successor, King
Peter, represented the nationalist
element, whose purpose it was to
create strong Servia, whose inspira-
tion was derived from st, Petersburg,
not Vienna.
Menace of Pan.Serb Movement.
Servia having passed over to the
enemy, Austria had now to consider
the possibility of a pan.Serb move
ment in her border provinces, in
Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia,
which might follow the course Of the
Italian risorgimento Of .the last CEN
tury, which. was the natural conse-
quenee Of the territorial gain made
by Sardinia at the congress Of Ber-
lin.
To meet the situation Austria be-
gan campaign Of repression at
home, and abroad in theeBalkans she
supported Turkey. Against Serria she
directed a tariff war which deprived
the little state Of all market for its
agricultural products and temperate
ly ruined the country.
| When the Young Turks seized con-
troll Of the Ottoman empire and
threatened to reoccupy Bosnia, held
but not owned by Austria, Vienna re-
piled by the annexation Of Bosnia
Against this Russia protested. Serria
appealed, but backed by Germany
Austria's will prevailed and 2,0O0,'
/ 900 Slavs, Serb bs race, were annex
ed.
i ~. 49,, oSso1-o p,ecto rap1Sad he
the diplomatic campaign which re
suited in the creation Of the Balkan
alliance, the war against Turkey and
the victories, of KuTanovo and Lule
Burgas, which crushed Ottoman pow
er in Europe. Austria in her turn
ireplied by proclaiming Albanian in
dependence, by refusing to perml'
Servia to gain foothold on the
Adriatic and by encouraging Bull
garia to attack Servia. thus precipi
tating the second Balkan war.
But when, with the assistance o.
ed Bulgaria, deprived her of herets
} Roumania, Greece, Turkey and Servis
crushed Bulgaria, deprived her Of hel
Macedonian and Thracian conquests
Austrian diplomacy was bankrupt
Despite all her efforts Austria hat
seen created on her southern frontier
Servian state, wholly Russian IL
sympathy, determined to get Bosnia
, Croatia, Slavonia, to create create
Servia on the ruins Of the Austro
Hungarian empire.
After the treaty of Bucharest Their
was IefS to Austria no choice but wa
or the inevitable disintegration which
centrifugal influences on all her from
tiers insured. Not alone the Serb
and Croats, but the Italians of Triest'
=, and the Trentino, the Roumanians o
Bukovina and Transylvania, the Ru
thenians Of Galicia, we're now LOOKING
forward to the day when the over
throw Of Austria would permit then
to enter the ranks of their brethren
in Italy, in Roumania, in Russia.