The Washington herald., 1917-02-17
Austria's Dilemma.

The neutral world has no reason
to expect that Austria-Hungary will
do otherwise than support Berlin in
the present crisis. Vienna has sent
an identic note to the United States
supporting the blockade proclamation
and establishing her own intention of
making the Mediterranean as murder
Gus lake as Germany is striving to
make the North Sea. The fate of the
American schooner Lyman NJ. Law
is the clearest proof of her co-opera-
ton in the new Hindenburg ruthless
ness. she seems quite content to fol-
low the lead OF Berlin to the end or
the chapter.
Yet the diplomatic undercurrent
creates a spark of hope that the proud
and ancient empire OF the Hapsburgs
may yet recede from the desperate
adventure in which Germany has in
weighed it. The attitude of the Wash
ington government is most signih-
cant. The break of relations with
ustria-Hungary is postponed. and
Secretary of State Lansing maintains
complete silence on the subject. Count
Adam Tarnowski, the new Ambassa-
dor from Vienna succeeding the un-
fortunate Dumba, has not been given
his passports, although no appoint
ment has been made for him to pre-
sent his letters of credence to Presi-
dent Wilson 1t is evident that a
deep game is being played; that Mr..
Lansing is cognizant of some of the
subsurface elements in Teutonic poll
tics and is taking a hand in it.
1t is bold conception, this OF try
ing to split Germany and Austria
apart on the question of the new
U-boat decree; but what if Mr. Lam,
sing should succeed in it? What if
Vienna, pressed to action by the trag-
ic conditions prevailing among the
heterogeneous groups of her popula-
ton, should rebel against her Prus-
sian master? What if the Teutonic
alliance should be riven in twain
Surely such a development would be
an amazing triumph for the State De-
partment's present policy.
There has been more than one inti-
nation, indeed, that Berlin's intense
irritation with Washington is not
merely a matter of the unexpected
rupture of relations; it is based on
our apparent delay is extending the
same treatment to Austria. The Ger
man foreign office knows the real ele-
ments in the situation; knows the
susceptibility of Austria to neutral
influence; knows the conditions ex-
isting in the dual empire which make
the possibility of a back6re there
against arrogant Prussian domination
not so remote as to be purely chi
merical.
The new Emperor Charles is not
nearly so pro-Prussian as was Franz
Josef. Furthermore, his advisers, in
cluding Count Berchtold, the former
minister of foreign affairs, who re-
tired when war was declared, because
he was not in sympathy with it, are
more or less anti-Hohenzollern. 1t
remains to be seen how far the new
influence will go with him, and
whether he will in the long run sup
port Germany in a war against the
world.
Austria's history abounds in amaz-
ing diplomatic shifts. In the mighty
days of papal politics in Europe she
mastered the game of wrestling vic
tory out of defeat and making a VIC
torious enemy unwittingly play her
own game. She has been beaten in
more wars than any other modern
empire, and yet has survived, strong
er than ever, through the sheer skill
of her diplomacy. 1t is possible that
the United States, by postponing a
break with her, is encouraging Vienna
in a move which will change the en-
tire aspect of the war.