The sun., 1918-08-02
Fight Among the Central Powers
Over SpOils.

lne present npnt over the SpOllS OF
war among the Central Powers, a
fight which began with the formation
Of their alliance and which has been
constantly increasing in bitterness,
has disclosed how irreconcilable are
their differences and how hopeless Is
a satisfactory settlement. Germany
has been distributing the prizes with
a high hand, taking the choice Of the
loot and ut the same time attempting
to reconcile her allies to the con-
cessions which she has made to them.
That they have failed to appreciate
her gifts Is due TO their own greed
and to the fact that they recognize in
all Of her appointments Germany's
desire to increase her own power and
to reduce each of her allies to a state
of subservience to her.
The greed of the Bulgarians for
territory has been the cause Of much
Of Germanys worries in southeastern
Europe. They insisted upon strip
Of Turkish territory that gave the
control of Adrianople and an outlet
to the Egean Sea as the price of
their entrance into the war. With
the success Of their army and the
large Austro-German force in Serbia
they demanded Macedonia and the
practical obliteration Of Serbia as a
nation. The Rumanian conquest af-
forded them an. opportunity to grab
the Dobrudja. The result Of these
nccessions of territory would be to
establish Bulgarian hegemOny in
the Balkans that would constitute a
menace to Austrian control in east
ern Europe.
Austria was thus forced to oppose
Bulgaria's ambitions and ut the same
time to oppose Berlin, which en-
couragel them. She stopped Mt the
insistencn of her Slavic population
the systematic murders and perse-
cutions by which the Bulgarians were
endeavoring to annihilate the Serb
race. At the same time she took
sides with the Turkish Government
in its effort to recover the territory
It had been forced to cede to Bull
garia. This encouragement of Aus
tria was, no doubt, responsible for the
Turks constantly growing demands
for more territory.
ri, Do k
and his crowd the Transcaucasus as
their share of the Russian grab. But
they demanded in addition much of
the Russian Black Sea coast and
western Persia. To have granted this
was to imperil Germany's Wanted
open way to the East She not only
sought to defeat her own gift by Sc
cretly aiding the Transcaucasian peo-
pie in their opposition to the Turk
ish occupation, but she strengthened
her hold on the Black Sea region by
the seizure of all the Rumanlan and
Russian ports. Besides. she turned
deaf ear to the Turkish appeal for
uSSlSluli't uSbiliSd WV al l'Np-
lutionisis and the British invaders
and for mid in recovering the lost
sovereignty over Egypt and North
Africa. Germany's manipulation left
her in control in the East and Aus
tria and Turkey worse Off than at
the beginning of the war.
The concessions which Austria Sc
cured in Rumania, strip along the
border for 1.-THE protection of her
frontier" came to her as the result
of fiukc Germany had permitted
her to gain this territory because she
believed that with the retirement OF
Count CZERNIN she would have the
complete control of the Polish sltua-
ton. Berlin has made the discovery
however, that CZERNIN's successor
Baron BURIAN, is intensely DESTROYS
of n settlement of the Polish ques,
tion, and that he will support the
Austrian Poles. This means that
Austria will oppose Prussia's scheme
of the absorption of the Polish prov
inces or of their establishment into
an insignificant vassal State. The
Polish party Is one Of the strong po
litical units of the empire and BIZ,
RAN needs its assistance.
These counter demands of the Aus.
trian Poles on one side and of Prus-
STA on the other have caused n dead
lock over the division of all the Rus
sian Baltic provinces that is appar.
emily impossible to break. To per,
NIT the placing of IN Austrian Prince
on the throne Of any Of these little
States or to allow the annexation OF
the Polish provinces by Austria, Ger
many sees would increase the power
of her ally and defent her plan OF
securing the subservience OF the Qua
Monarchy. Austria is stuhbOrnly
waiting for Bcrlin's next move.
The thing that leads Germany to
show such defiant disregard Of her
allies is the fact that she feels they
are in no position to desert her. The