New-York tribune., 1918-05-16
Austria and Germany

monarchy fell to a position with respect
to France like that which Austria Hun
gary is now assuming toward Germany.
Louis XIV placed French prince upon
the Madrid throne. Napoleon sent his
brother to the Spanish capital, and for
the time being Spain became French
possession. But there is sharp differ
ence between Spain and Austria Hungary,
for there is a Spanish people possess
ing a pride in race and independence as
keen as that of any nation, while Austria
Hungary is a geographical expression
and a racial complex.
For several centuries the disappear
ance of Austria has been a familiar ex-
pectation. Austria has endured, as one
statesman put it, because if there were
no Austria it would be necessary to
create one. To-day we are facing the old
question in slightly changed form. Be-
yond all question, Austria Hungary has
temporarily lost it's independence and be.
come as completely subservient to Ger
many as Spain was to Napoleon. The
Emperor Charles is no more master of
his policy or of his army than was
Napoleon's brother master of Spain.
Austria's policies will be made in Berlin
and not in Vienna, as they largely have
been since July, 1914.
This raises the old question of the
future in form discussed earlier in the
war and then temporarily dropped when
Russia collapsed and Italy was defeated.
Presumably German influence and Ger
man power will so penetrate the Austro-
German portion of the Hapsburg mon
archy that its escape in the future will
be doubtful. In the same fashion the
Hungarian fraction of the Dual Mon
archy must look to Germany for support
to maintain its minority rule in the
south. Selfish purposes and ambitions
would seem to drive the Germans and
the Hungarians in the Hapsburg mon
archy into the arms of William II.
On the other hand, the Poles, the Ru-
manians, the Jugo-Slavs and the other
smaller races, mainly Slavonic, who con-
stitute majority of the empire, are
and will remain hostile alike to the Ger
man and to the Hungarian. Bohemia
and Moravia constitute the basis of an
independent state. Austrian Poles are
already seeking union with their Rus
sian brethren. The Jugo-Slavs are more
and more tending to final alignment
with the Serbs in the creation of an
Adriatic kingdom stretching from Fiume
to Cattaro. And the more completely the
Germans of Austria and the Magyars of
Hungary surrender themselves to the
Germans the more violent will be the
reaction of the Slavs and the more in
sistent their demand for liberty.
Austria-Hungary it would seem, in con-
sequence must, in part or in totality, pass
to the control of Germany or be broken
up into a number of independent states
stretching from the Elbe to the Save.
And 1T is toward this latter goal that
all the Slavonic races represented in this
country are urging that the Allies should
aid them to march.
On the one side Austria seems in
danger of losing her political independ-
ence at the hands of Germany. On the
other she is threatened with dissolution
into racial fragments. If the German
purpose prevails Mitteleuropa will be-
come a fact, dominant and terrible
TACT. Seventy-five million Germans and
ten millions of Hungarians will rule
Siavonlc races more numerous. Occupy
ing all the lands from the Gulf of Riga to
the Crimean Sea, Ukrainia, Lithuania.
roland, Rumania and Bulgaria. reluct-
antly or willingly, will be swept within
the iron frontiers of the greatest empire
Europe has seen on its own soil since
Rome fell.
1t is unwise to forecast whether anv Of
the changes which are now being made
Upon the map of Europe so rapidly-the
frontiers being carved by the good Ger
man sword--wili endure. A glance at
the map of Europe of 1910 or 1911. when
Napoleon was at the zenith of his power
ana france surrounded by subject king
doms, has its own meaning when con-
sidered together with the fact that in
1913, after one defeat, the empire re.
eeded to the Rhine and few months later
France retired to the frontiers of 1889.
Nevertheless, it is essential to recop-
nize that, for the moment at least, the
German has painted upon theemap most
Of that Mitteleuropa coloring which his
earlier sketches forecast in the years be-
lore the present conflict. Austria, for
the present at least, is falling into the
scheme Of things designed for it by those
who prophetieally outlined the Pan-Ger-