The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-03

refused TO assist or support their rulers
3 in prosecuting Il, some attention might
now be paid to this plea. But the fact
that the war was acclaimed on its out
break In Vienna, that the people of
Austria we're its ardent supporters from
start to finish and that they did nothing
to disspciate themselves from the policy
Of their Government and Its allies until
| they had been defeated IN the field,
| makes Il clear that, according to any
| canon of justice, they must be held to
! bear their full measure of responsibility
for q crime which has brought such
misery on the world.
| There is. however, a further fact to
which the allied and associated Powers
| feel bound TO point. The Hapsbprg sys-
tenn became in its essence a system
maintaining the ascendaney Of the Ger
man and Magyar peoples over a ma
| jority of the inhabitants of the Austro-
| Hungarian monarchy. This ancient and
| effete autocraoy, with Its militarist ira
ditiens, was maintained in existence
! through the vigorous support Of the In
| habtants of Austria and Hungary be-
cause II gave to them q position of
| political and economic domination over
their fellow subjects
| 1T was a policy of racial asoendanoy
| and oppression to which the people of
! Austria gave their steady support, which
was one Of the deeper causes Of the war.
1t led to those irridentist movements
| along the frontiers of Austria and Hum
gary, which kept Europe in a. ferment
OF unrest, II led to the growing de-
pendenoe Of Austria Hungary on Ger
many, and consequently to the subordI-
| nation Of the Austrp- Hungarian policy
to the German plans of domination, and,
in the end, It led to a situation In which
the rulers of the Austre-H ungariaH
monarchy could see no other way of
preserving their own power than to set
| to work deliberately to destroy the lib
erty of small and dependent nations,
which kept alive the vision of liberay
among their oppressed brethren and
which blocked the way to Constantinople
and the East.
Plea for ESCAPE IL Rejected.
In the ePinien there of the Allied and
Associated Powers, il is Impossible to
admit the plea of the Austrian delega-
| ton that the people Of Austria do not
share. the responsibility of the Govern
| ment which provoked the war, or that
| they are to escape the duty of making
repatriation to the utmost of their capac-
ity to those whom they and the Govern
wronged. The principles upon which
the draft treaty is based must there
| fore stand.
Until the signing of peace the people
| OF Austria are, and will remain, an en-
| envy people. Upon it's signature they
will become a state with whom the AL
lied and Associated Powers hope and
expect to maintain friendly relations.
"(2) The Austrian delegation have
further protested against the arrange
rents under thetFeaty governing their
| relations with the new States formed
oJt of the late Austro- Hungarian mon
| archy
'-The allied and associated Powers
feel bound to point out that the disa-
bilities from which Austria will suffer
| will arise. net from the provisions Of
the treaty, but mainly, from the policy
of ascendancy which its people have
pursued in the mast Had the policy CT
Austro- Hungary been one Of liberty ahd
justice to all its peoples, the upper
Danube States might have remained in
friendly economic and political unity.
AS it was, the policy of ascendsncy
produced one of the cruelest tragedies
| of the late war, when millions of the
subject peoples of Austria Hungary were
| driven, under pain of death, to fight
against their will in an army which
was being used to perpetuate their own
service, as well as to compass the
destruction of liberty, In Europe.
| MANY of these peoples protested
against the war. and for their protests
| suffered confiseatien. imprisonment or
death. Many more, who were captured
or escaped, Joined the armies of the
Allies and played their part in the war
of liberation. But they are now, one
and all. determined, and rightly de-
terr1ined, to set themselves up as in
dependent States. They will trust
ancy has borne its inevitable fruit In
the fact of partition, and II is this
partition which lies at the root of Aus.
trials troubles to-day
Policy of domination Fatal.
"vienna was made the economic and
political centre of the, empire, every
thing was artihcially concentrated
there. Outlying districts and railways
were starved in order that the capital
| might thrive. The. breakup of Aus
| tria- Hungary, cutting these centralized
economic filaments in two, can hardly
fail to inflict the severest blows upon
the State of Austria and its capital
But the dissolution of the monarchy
with its consequences. is the direct out
come Of that fatal policy of domination
for which the people of Austria are
themselves principally to blame.
20. The allied and associated Powers
however, hove no wish to- add to the
hardships of Austria's position. On the
contrary they are anxious to do all II
their power to assist her people to &C.
commodate themselves to their new po.
sition and to recover their prosperity
provided always that 1t is not at the ex-
Fense of the new States formed out OF
the late empire
"The breakup Of the monarchy has
given rise to many difficult problems as
to the relations between the new States
which, under the treaty. are its heirs. 1,
has been recognized as reasonable that
the relations between the citizens of the
succeeding States should be regulated In
certain respects differently from the re,
latiops between the citizens of Austria
and those of the other allied and asso-
ciated Powers, and in view of the obser.
yations of the Austrian delegation, the
allied and associated Powers, while ad'
herring TO the general lines Of the treaty
have made considerable notifications In
it's economic provisions.
1.-THE property of Austrian national,
in the territories eeded TO the allied Pow
ers 10 to be restored to its owners fire.,
from any measures of liduidatlon or bar
forbidden since the armistice. and Il
guaranteed similar freedom from seizur,
or liquidation in the future contracts be
twneen Austrian nationals and personi
who acquire, under the treaty, an al
lied nationality are maintained without