New-York tribune., 1918-01-25
Czernin 8 Peace Terms
No Relief in Them for Peoples Und.-
Austrian or Turkish Tyrannv

.po'i"i 'easeS III 'ne "orlds struggle. Th.
Marine upset Germany's calculation -. "'
speedy crushing of French resistance. w.
dun set her thinking of how to w;tba..
while the stakes were still in her hands .-s
fnaily, the entrance Of the United States =.
vealed to her the spectre of "tbe wr;.;.
the wall" VI
With the succession Of these stages co..
man@uvres for peace succeeded one ano..."
but none offered basis for a ser;or. =.
cussion. Each move was as much of i. 80
as its predecessor, only more deftly cav
tagged. And they all were launched u,,''
the "magnanimous" offer of return >.
sta'us quo, used one time under one n,n.
and another time under different +;.,.
peace without victory" mo annexations .rs
no indemnties always meaning 49,.
thing: German victory
The last move, announced 20 tho u..,,
through Count Czernin, still leaves tho h....
of the matter untouched by the new t..
Clause 3 of the counts statement m 49,.
actually nullifes whatever it NAV bavo
gested as possibilities for serious d;sors
sion. This clause says: "The question -.
subJcction to that or the other cou,.x.. %
those nationalities who have not nol;t;c., :.
n.
dependence cannot be solved internat;onau..
In this case it must be solved by each cov.
eminent, together with its peoples in nav
ner established by the constitution
Let US examine what arc the desions ao..-
hidden behind this restriction.
In his speech at the labor conve,+;o, :;
Buffalo the President gave US kew to .bs
right understanding Of the whole question
ne SAID: Il saw map in which the whole
thing was printed in the appropriate bs.c
the other day, and the black stretched all IN.
way from Hamburg to Bagdad-the bulk ~
the German power inserted into the heart ~
the world If she can keep that she has ken,
all that her dreams contemplated when the
war began"
Black Mitteleuropa
The black which the President nentior.
represents Mitteleuropa with its eastern
wing, which combination consists of Cor.
many and her dependencies, Austria-Hup.
gary, the Balkans and Turkey Two compo-
nents of this block rule over large number
OF subject nationalities, even larger than tho
number of ruling races. These two ara
Hungary and Turkey. 1t is easv to
see, therefore, how the block viii be broken
unless these subject nationaities remain in.
tegral parts of Turkey and Austria Hungary.
Hence it follows that they must be kent
parts thereof if the Mitteeuropa scheme is
not to tall through. And that is exactly
what Czernn's qualified statement proposes
when 1t says that the cases of the nationali
ties must be solved "by each government
with its peoples that is. without in
ternational Intervention. We can Judge even
from now what chance Will the nationalitie,
nave II left to shift for themselves with Ans
trla or, worse still, with Turkey 1t is in
oeed an insult to humanity to make such
propositon-and call it a peace pronosal-
when the blood of a million Armenians and
quarter of million Syrans is still fresh on
Turkish hands crying for vengeance. But
that is the Teutonic definition of "self.deter-
mlnatlon determination and continued suh
jugation!
No matter what high tone the Turks nav
assume, they arc hopelessly German tools.
With Armenia, Mesopotamia. SYRIA and Psles.
tine remaining under Turkish sovereignty If
is apparent how through this tool Germany
VIII have kept practically "all that her
dreams contemplated when the war began"
And with this and the threatening disrup.
uoh OF RUSSIA into smaller states-hewn
stones ready to be Incorporated in the psn
Germanic empire-the Mitteleuropa scheme
VIII have even surpassed the imagination of
and here we may gain from the German
colonial writer's themselves what really cen.
stitutes German victory and how to combat
IL. lhey all dwell on the fact that the ex.
tent OF this victory could be gauged by the
extent to which the road-gcnerallv de.
scribed as the "corcidor"- between the Aus.
TRAN frontiers and Turkey is left open. It's
we'll understood that that means a German
controlled "corridor' Conversely. Ger
man defeat could be measured. therefore By
the extent to which the 'corridor" through
the Balkans and Constantnoplc to the Per-
sian Gulf could be closed against German
Wild ambitions and schemes
Buffer State.
In the Balkan peninsula is the first natural
barrier; but the Balkans are never certain
quantity. The Dardanelles. neutraized and
internatlonalized. are a treaty" barrier only.
i ne value of this barrier as buffer state
is moreover diminished by the fact that Con.
stantinople in Turkish hands is a German
Constantinople in fact. The only remaining
barrier, since territory which is ethnologi-
cally turkish is to remain under full Turkish
sovereignty. is the territory represented by
'ne extending from the Black Sea to the
ouez Canal Geographically this line con-
slsts OF Armenia, a projection OF Mesopota
MIA and OF Syria and Palestine; ethnolog-
caliy tnese countries are inhabited by peo-
pies who are quite distinct from Turkish
Armenlans. Syrians Arabs and Jews. As to
the turkish element, scarcely few thou
sands are to be found dispersed here and
there; at least, this was the case before re-
cent artificial transportation into the Leba-
non and other districts in Syria. By the
establishment OF these countries as autono-
nous states under direct pro.ectorship OF
democratic powers new order of things
VIII be established, Serving all purposes The
Turk will keep what essentially is his. the
oppressed nationalites will be delivered from
the most blasting rule known to history, and
the safety buffer will be under the control
OF strong hands that can defend it against