Evening star., 1919-09-03
CANNOT SHIFT WARS BLAME,
AUSTRIA TOLD BY ALLIES
Failed to Curb Militaristic Spirit in Pre-
ceding Years, Note in Transmitting
Reply States.

| PARIS. September 2 (by the Asso-
ciated Press).-The note transmitting
| the allied reply to the observations
| of the Austrian delegation on the con-
ditions of peace. addressed to Karl
Renner and signed by NJ Clemenceau.
! as president of the council. follows:
Views as to Enemy State.
| Draft Of the covering letter:
Il. The allied and associated pow
ers have given most careful consid-
GRAFTON to the observations of the
Austrian delegation on the draft
treaty of peace. The reply of the Aus
| trian delegation objects to the draft
| treaty on the grounds that in view OF
| the dissolution of the AuStro- Hun
garian monarchy. Austria ought not
to be treated as an enemy state at all
and that, in consequence, she ought
not to be made in any special way
inheritor of responsibilities in regard
to reparat tion 70 which the Austro-
Hungarian monarchy would undouot-
edly be liable, did it still exist.
"As these observations point to
fundamental misconception of the re-
sporsibilities of the people of Aus
tria the allied and associated powers
feel it necessary to state as briefly as
| may be the principles which they con-
slider must be applied to the settle
ment Of the late war so far as Aus
tria is concerned. The people of Aus
tr'a, together with their neighbors,
the people of Hungary, bear in pc
culiar degree responsibility for the
calamities which have befallen Eu
rope during the last five years.
Precipitated the War.
"The war was precipitated by an
ultimatum presented to Serbia by the
government at Vienna and requiring
acceptance within forty-eight hours
of a series of demands which amount
ed to the destruction of the indie
pendence of neighboring sovereign
state. The royal government of Ser
bia accepted within the prescribed
time all the demands except those
which involved the virtual surrender
of its independence.
yet the then Austro- Hungarian
government, refusing all offers of a
conference of conciliation on the
basis of that reply. Immediately open
ed hostilties against Serbia, thereby
deliberately setting light to train
which led directly to a universal
war.
1T is now evident that this u1ti-
matum was no more than an insin-
cere excuse for beginning war for
which the late autocratic government
at Vienna, in close association with
the rulers of Germany, had long
prepared and for which it considered
the time bad arrived. The presence
of Austrian guns at the seige of
Liege and Namur is further proof, if
proof were required, of the intimate
association of the government of
lin in it's plea (plotC against public
law and the liberties of Europe.
Cannot Shift Blame.
The Austrian delegation appears to
think that responsibility for these
acts rested solely on the Hapsburg
dynasty and its satellites, and that
by reason of the dissolution of that
| monarchy through the victory Of the
allies the people of Austria can es-
cape responsibility for the deeds of
the government, which was their own
government and which had it's home
in their capital.
Had the people of Austria in the
years preceding endeavored to curb
the militarist and domineering spirit
by which the government Of the
Hapsburg monarchy was animated !;
against the war. or refused to assist
or support their rulers in prosecuting
1t, some attention might now be paid
to this plan, but the fact that the war
WAS dCCidlHleO Oh lIS outbreak IN
Vienna; that the people of Autsria
were it's ardent supporters from start
to finish. and that they did nothing
| to dissociate themselves from the
policy Of their government and it's
allies until they had been defeated in
the field, makes it clear that, accord
| ing to any canon of justice, they must
be held to bear their full measure of
responsibility for crime which has
| brought such misery on the world.
Scores Hapsburg System.
There is. however, a further fact
to which the allied and associated
powers feel bound to point. The
Hapsburg system became in it's es-
sence system maintaining the
| ascendancy of the German and Mag
var peoples over a majority of the
Inhabitants Of the Austro- Hungarian
| monarchy. This ancient and effete
autocracy. with it's militarist tradi-
! tions, was maintained in existence
! through the vigorous support of the
| inhabitants of Austria and Hungary
because it gave to them a position
of political and economic domination
| over their fellow subjects.
1T was a policy of racial ascend
ancy and oppression, to which the peo-
pie of Austria gave their steady sup
causes Of the war 1t led to those
| irri,lentist movements along the from
| tiers of Austria and Hungary which
| kept Europe in a ferment of unrest: !:
1t led to the growing dependence of
Austria Hungary on Germany, and
consequently to the subordination of
| the AustrO-Hungarian policy to the
German plans of domination, and. in
! the end. it led to situation in which
| the rulers of the Austro- Hungarian
monarchy could see no other way of
preserving their own power than to
set to work deliberately to destroy