Evening star., 1918-02-03
When Light Dawned on Austria.

xerumbling to ruin; Serbia was crushed
?:he had no longer to fear invasion in
Gaiicia. where the Russian armies were
breaking up into debating societies; hei
| read southwark as far as the Greek from.
ter was IN her own hands or those of hei
any. tne Car Ferdinand: there was Ief,
only the Italian to deal with Even more
than this. the campaign of 1916 in Ru-
mama had removed still another peril
| the Rumanan ambition to possess. the
| Hungarian territories inhabited by Rn-
nanlan-sEeakiug Eopula ticns had been a
| long-Standing danger. But Mackenseu and
Fatkenhayn had CT ushed Rumania in No
| vember and December, 1916. and occupied
| both bucharest and Constanza Accord
| lngiy. save on the Isonzo, Austria had
seen all her enemies destroyed: if the
isoiizo front could be cleared all Austrian
territory would be free and all Austrian
! purposes III the war achieved
| But the lsonzo problem could not be
| resolved by Austrian armies alone Aus
IRA .sa @ has never at any time had over
$4,000 at the front Despite having
called UP the old and the very young.
her great losses in prisoners and in cas-
ualties have Kept her resources in man
| power down and she had only slight
| ly over 100000 on the Italian front at
| the time when Cardoza was still ad-
vancing on the lBainsizza plateau. In
addition, she had some thirtv-fiye di-
visions about $5c.Go0 men. in GaIicia
and on the Rumanian front, but these
were both interior troops and needed
where they were. She had to appeal to
Germany once more
| Germany sent to Italy seven divisions
which She had withdrawn from the
Russian front, and with these troops
as striking force the central powers
defeated Italy and threw her armies
| back from the lsonzo to the Piave. In
! fact. there was time when it seemed
possible that Italy might be put out
! of the war altogether. But although
this did not happen. Trieste was saved
| for Austria. Gorilla retaken and three
| or four thousand square miles of Ital-
ian territory taken as pawn against
future negotiations. This was what the
lsonzo campaign achieved
How Austrian Perils Vanished.
In sum. then. Austria has beell freed
by Germany, first. of her chief peril,
Russia. Not only has Russia been de-
feated in the field and rolled back into
Russian territory. but the Russian revo-
luton has so f.isorganized Russia and
so DESTROYED Russian imperialistic aims
that Austria hes no longer to fear her
great Siav neighbor in anv future that
can now be calculated In the same
fashion first Serbia ard then Rumania
have been crushed and two smaller
states ambition to dismember Austria
snd reclaim fractions of their own
races put out of the discussion Today
Rumania is concerned in getting back
what was hers before the war. as is
Serbia. rather than in conquering Aus
tiian lands.
Finally. Italy has been defeated and
has lost half of Venetia. Austria does
not plan to hold this conquered terri
tory. but it is q basis for negotiation
and for compelling Italy to withdraw
from Albania and to surrender her ann
bitions to dominate the eastern shores
of the Adriatic SET. Conceivaoly, but
improbably. Austria might make small
concessions in the Trentino to get a
prompt peace with Italy, but in any
event Italy has ceased to be a peril:
the sole remaining danger has been
abolished.
Up to the moment Italy was defeated
Austria depended upon Germany for
aid. She had been compelled to sur
render her military and in a large
measure her political freedom to save
herself-to get German divisions on her
own front. And up to this time the
war had been war for existence; she
had been invaded by Russia in Galicia,
by Rumania in Pennsylvania. by Serbia
in Bosnia. by Italy in the Trentino and
about Gorilla; she could only think of
peace as a thing to be purchased at a
price, the price of her own territories.
And so she continued to march under
German orders and to accept without
protest-for none. was possible-Ger-