New-York tribune., 1918-02-03
Freed From Her
Perils, Austria No
Longer Needs
German
Aid
By FRANK H. SIMONDS

! Author Of "The World War;" ''They Shall
Not Pass"
In the past year there have been fire.
euent and steadily multiplying reports Of
Austrian weariness of the war and eager
ness to make peace, and these reports have
eliminated in recent days in sensational
dispatches describing strikes and disorders
in Austrian cities. Now, it is we'll to dis
count these rumors; it is we'll to put aside
vain hopes of speedy Austrian collapse
and approaching Austrian ruin. Austria,
the Hapsburg monarchy, has existed for
centuries in absolute defiance Of the law
Of gravitation; it has always been impos-
sible, as political organization; it has
frequently been brought to the edge Of
ruin; but it has. invariably recovered and
has suffered surprisingly little reduction in
size over the many centuries in which it |
has fought numberless losing wars.
But bearing in mind all the necessary
cautions which history imposes, it is
equally wise to recognize that the Austro-
Hungarian situation has become one of the
most interesting and important in the
whole war field, and that, Enthusiastically,
Austrian policy, partly induced by domes-
tic discomfort and suffering, partly by the
change Of the external situation, SO far as
Austrian interests are at stake, is taking
new form.
In a word, to make the whole situation
clear, it is useful now to recall what were
Austrian war aims when the struggle was
precipitated by an Austrian ultimatum to
Serbia Above all else, Austria, having en-
gagged for more than century in a strife
with Russia over the Balkan questions,
sSsaw in the rise of Serbia under Russian
inspiration and protection a peril to her
internal safety and barrier to her south
ward expansion. The new Serbia not
merely beckoned to 100000 Austrian
Serbs and Croats, urging them to leave
Austria for Serbia but it also placed a
barrier against Austrian arrival in
Salonica. And Salonca had been the goal
Of Austrian ambition since the struggle of
1866 with Prussia, which turned the
Hapsburgs out of Germany.
jealousy Between Berlin and Vienna
1t is thus essential to keep in mind the
distinction between German and Austrian
war purposes. Germany's dream Of
gandiosc Mitteleuropa left Austria cold
and more than cold-frankly suspicious
Only Austria's necessities as the war pro-
ceeded compelled Vienna to submit to Ber-
lin and the Hapsburg to become the ser
want of the Hohenzolern. Austria was
not seeking to be swallowed up by Ger
many or play a minor part in great new
confederacy, in which Germany should be
the majority stockholder and Austria,
Bulgaria, Turkey mere pawns. Jealousy
between Berlin and Vienna was always
notorious and the contempt of the Viennese
for the Bcrliners is familiar to every
traveller.
Austria's war policy and her peace pol
icy before the war were limited to three
problems: To defend herself against Rus
sian attacks from the cast, in her Galcian
lands; to protect herself against pam
Slavic agitations carried on by her own
populations under Russian guidance, and
to realize the ambition to reach the Egean
and possess herself Of Salonica, the gate
way to the Near East. But against Rus
sia she was powerless without German aid,
as the first campaigns of the war proved;
and when Serbia was by the Treaty of
Bucharest enlarged and strengthened Aus
tran hope of reaching Salonica was
doomed, provided Serbia were permitted to
hold for long what she had conquered.
In this situation Austria first procured
the Bulgarian attack upon Serbia in 1913,
turning to advantage the fact that the
Sc p,,Io x;C %t.1o
and that Russia supported Serb claims in
the Serbo-Bulgar dispute over Macedonia.
But Serbia, with Greece and Rumania,
overwhelmed Bulgaria, and Austria was
left with no other remedy than direct
attack upon Serbia at once, an attack
which meant the appearance of Russia as
Serbias protector. Moreover, when, in
1913, such step was suggested to Aus
tria's Italian ally, Italy refused to hear of
1t. The assassination of the archduke gave
Austria moral issue for doing what her
policy demanded she should do, but the
policy had been resolved over long months.
Now. in the first stages of the World
War Austria was concerned with saving
herself from Russia. In the early CAM
palgns it was proved that all the Austrian
apprehensions as to Russia were warrant
Cd, and in few weeks Russian armies had
overrun Galicia and approached Cracow.
IN the same time Serbia had administered
Two heavy defeats to Austrian armies,
Which had fled, routed, from Serb ter
rltories. Until the Battle of the Duna-
lec IN May, 1916, Austria was faced with
'he possibility of complete ruin. From this