The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-01
AUSTRIA AND RUSSIA

From the Louisville Courier-Journal
 InHE report that Austria is anxious to conclude a separate peace with Russia is more credible than that Russia would enter such an agreement
 at this stage. What Austria has to offer Russia is sure of acquiring in the final accounting and probably a great deal
 more. According to the Geneva Tribune, the dual monarchy is willing now to cede large portions of Galcia-a part of the Russian dream-but nothing is said of Russia's ambitions in the Adriatic and in the Balkans, where she has been baked by Austrian territory and influence. In the final disposition Russia has a right to expect that these ambitions will receive very generous hearing, and she is not apt to cease her successful operations in
 the east for the sake of less than she will acquire by pushing them little further. It is not difficult to understand Austria s
 position. She is going from bad to worse Successive defeats, pestilence and star
 vaton are reducing her by rapid strides to the las. extremity On the one side is
 the crushing Russian army; on the other threatened Italian invasion. Whether she is actually making overtures to Russia is uncertain, but the condition in which she finds herself today imparts high degree oe plausibility to the report. It would appear to be the last desperate chance to save something of herself and her peo- pie. Otherwise she bids fair to figure in much the same way that Turkey will figure-as the medium of exchange" wherewith the Germanic alliance will pay in the final settlement.
 Austria has made her last stand in Eu- rope. As an independent state her career might be said to have ended with the defeat that Prussia administered to her in 1885; it was only because of Bismarcks s wish for an independent and grateful ally that she was allowed to continue as an entity. She has owed her existence since then purely to German sufferance There is every reason to believe that Austria is on the point of realizing that Prussia,
 which was so generous to her ill 1866, is
 nnpotent to save her now. Thus-if the
 report to Geneva is true-she is willing,
 without German consent, to cast herseiI
 upon the mercy of Russia and save what
 little she may from the annihilation that
 seems to lie just ahead.
 The report is interesting as indicating
 the point where the first vital break may occur in the disintegrat1on of the Ger
 manic alliance. marking the beginning or
 the end of the great struggle How far Austria is willing to go in her conces-
 sions for peace remains to be seen, once
 the negotiations are under way. It is conceivable that the dual monarchys terms will become more and more liberal as her extremity becomes more dire. Russia wants much, but Russia is not in- suitable Should it develop that she can fare approximately as well by concluding a separate peace as. by pushing on, it is by no means certain she would scorn such nn arrangement. Germany, of course, would have no part in the agreement save that she would damn it and Austria, we may believe, in no uncertain terms. |. For with the eastern situation thus dis posed or, the entire Russian army would be released for operations in the west, where their appearance would have a
 quick and decisive effect. England aud