A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY

Cr own 8790 . 45 . 6d . n e t.

After th e di sme mb e r m e nt o f the H absbur g — E mpi r e the u n io n o f th e Jugo slav n ati o n th e Se r s C r o ts and S o ve ne s — ih o ne State w ill b , a , l b e o ne o f th e m o st imp o r tant fe atur e s o f futur e r m th e e n n n o f h e M e E ur o p e . F o b gi i g t iddl Age s d o w n to th e p r e s e nt gr e at w ar the w e ste r n o s t r n o f t s n t o n the S o ve n e s ve m b a ch hi a i , l , ha wage d a br ave s tr uggle agai ns t G e r man im “ Th r e r ialis m . e r k e x ns th e i s to p Bulwa plai h ical , o t s o and e o no m e vo t o n o f the p li ical , cial , c ical lu i S o e ne s w ho b e s tr o n to r i n th e l v , will a g fac buildi ng up o f th e gr e at Se r bia o r Jugo slavia o f - r r o to m o w . D E E E I LTD LON ON G ORG ALL N U NW N . A D YING EMPIRE

C N UR P PAN - M N ISM AND E TRA L E O E , GER A , T HE D OWNFA LL OF A US TRI A -H UN G A RY

BOGUMIL VOSNJAK

WITH A PREFA C E

BY

’ T . P . O C ONNOR , M . P .

h, “

O O : R E A E 8: W LT L ND N GEO G LL N UN IN D .

RU SKI N HO USE 0 M U SEUM STREET W C I 4 , . .

PREFAC E

I N a recent book on the E astern ' uestion an E nglish “politica l writer I furnishes some interest ing data in connection with the decay of the Ottoman E mpire in E urope during the course

as of the nineteenth century . In so far this

E i mp re is ruled by a parasite nation, it is similar M to that of the, Germans and agyars

Are a in

l io n . man m i s mil e s . P o u at The Otto E e in Eu o e . p r r p . q p I n 1857 (afte r the Tr e aty o f P ar i s ) I n 187 8 (afte r th e Tr e aty o f B e r li n) I n 19 14 (afte r the Balka n War s)

s These figures are not dead statistic . Within them lies hidden an immeasurable ocean of suffer

s T E ing and blood hed . ime after time uropean diplomacy has save d the Sick Man of Constan t ino l The a p e from death . Jugoslavs , a c pable , virile race, were condemned to ignominious s ervitude and humiliating poverty under the rule T b t of the Grand urk, and excluded from the enefi s

- of Western civilization, until Kara djordje and

1 M r r o The Easter n uestion . . a i tt ' , p 449 5 6 PREFACE

fi his warrior people, lled with the indomitable b h spirit of freedom, roke the spell . T e Serbians

were the first to rise, and by, the prowess of a peasant nation the foundations of a mighty

E mpire were undermined . A century has passed since the days of Kara

is djordje, and again Serbia the pivot of a

s just war again t a great Power . Just as t he Turks never succeeded in assimilating their A subject races , so the Germans of ustria and the Magyars of Hungary have proved incapable

s A s of turning the Slav into u trians or Hungarians . An Austrian people exists onl y in the imagina tion of certain E nglis h writers . There never

A . has been an ustrian nation, and never will be T f here is only a large number of nations , di fering absolutely from each other, each with its own

s s di tinct long and glorious hi tory, all hating their

r m ty annical masters , and detesting all com unity with them, even federation . We all hope and trust that the Wo r ld- War will bring forth a new E urope . O therwise the grim

‘ ordeal on the battlefields will lack all logical

A -“ conclusion . great problem perhaps the — gre atest problem of modern his tory is awaiting s Th e b E olution . problem of the Haps urg mpire cannot be solved by the old methods of mediaeval E diplomacy . Will modern urope, timid and P REFACE 7

’ a e Me t n and hesitating, take the s me lin as ter ich s o many other diplomatists of the old schoo l ? NVill the decay of Austria -Hungary pass through the same histo rical process as that of Turkey ? Will there be the same slow dismemberment as that which in the case of Turkey has been fraught with such peril to the peace of E urope ? I think the co mparison is not altoget her a good

n one . We can ot compare the days in which E ea urop n diplomats worked by, antiquated methods for the preservation of Turkey with t he present

can a age, any more than we comp re the old

the coaching days with age of railways , motor

The - cars, and aeroplanes . Wo rld War itself is proving the greatest breaker of old traditions , and e very man is ca lled to work upon lt he great task of making life more worth living . In politics this gigantic uphe aval is bound to

e u produce great changes . Great probl ms , s ch

n A - b e as the liquidatio of ustria Hungary, will provided with a true and just solution far more easily than in the past, when feudal ideas and autocratic Prussianism were just preparing for their final victory . — In the interval since this bo ok was writt en a year ago— the predictions of the author have been

To - and corroborated by events . day Ljubljana T l u rieste are guarded by German Picke ha ben, 8 PREFACE and the crown of the Haps burgs has lost it s independe nce

' n t In the Vien a Parliamen , the Jugoslavs ,

h s Czec s, and Pole , are claiming absolute State

‘ m s independence . Deputies, victi s of the Hap burg

c A régime, reveal their experien es in ustrian

s r prisons . Inde c ibable cruelties have been per

r d pe t ate upon Jugoslav men and women . How can the Jugoslav subjects trust t heir Ger man and Magyar masters when the dynasty and its supporters have only one aim with regard to — the m the total dest ruction of the Jugoslav race ? C ONTENTS

PAGE E C E PR FA .

O C O I . INTR DU TI N

THE Y E M EM E AND E II . H OL G R AN PIR AFT R

THE Y GE RMAN E M E AND E con III . H OL PIR AFT R ( tinued) - MEANING OF C ENTRAL E UROPE

Iv THE C E E O E C OMMO WE . NTRAL UR P AN N ALTH

TH CY F C E E E v . E NATIONAL POLI O NTRAL UROP 45

vi THE O E E 6 . SL V N S 3

VI I C E M ver sus J O . R ANS UG SLAVS

’ v - VII . S Y J E BY B M C K AND I AU TRIA HUNGAR , UDG D IS AR THE PAN-GE RMANISTS — THE E EME 1 . O z . HUN Ix . S TTL NT JUG SLAVIA

Y B O E M GAR , H IA

E E ' . GEN RAL OUTLIN S

F HE M O ' I . THE LORD O T AN R

TH E W ' I I . E B R AKDO N

A DYING EMPIRE

I NTROD UCTI ON

TH o - E W rld .War respects neither person nor T . h thing e most venerable political institutions , d the most eeply, rooted prejudices, have to cede to the spirit of a ne w society . In contemplating

n d this puzzle of renovation a change which has,

the 1 f since summer of 91 4, transformed the li e mm n of every co onwealth in all its bra ches, we shall hardly, approach with courteous reverence

‘ the problem of the Haps burg E mpire . There is no more piteous spe ctacle than the break - up of an ancient wo rld - wide E mpire which to - day governs t he destiny O f nearly fifty millions

- of men . But E urope is not to day in the mood E to be interested in the Hapsburg mpire, like

NO an an tiquar y in a cabinet of antiques . doubt the breakdown of so Old an edifice is

b s s e regarded as a tragic event yl a en itive obs rver, 11 12 A DYING EMPIRE

me ff but the redee d nations , after su ering bloody

h ne w and cruel persecutions, will enjoy t eir life free from the nightmare of an an tiquated time

. T w worn régime his State, ith its Spanish and

l - Catho ic autocratic traditions , was an insult to m our political com on sense . It was demoralizing, Y killing soul and energy . oung Jugoslav and

it s u Czech nationalism, with so nd exuberant forces , was fighting on against this hated old

h ' régime, whic had its strong hold on the dynasty, the Catholic clergy, the bureaucracy, and the army . What h as E ngland to do with an E mpire which recalls to us to - day the darkest periods of the Engli s h struggle against that autocratic régime when the p e ople were claiming their rights from the king ? What sympathy can the British

E E m l r e mpire, the p of freedom, have with

A - E ustria Hungary, the mpire of oppression and political wrong - doing ? Why does E ngland not follow France in the

o f clear conception the absolute necessity, in case

A ? E s of victory, of a partition of ustria ngli h public opinion treats the Austrian problem with a c e rtain nonchalance ; it does not observe that the internal anarchy of that E mpire was one of E the leading causes of the war . very man who knows the E nglan d Of our days sees a certain INTRODUCTI ON 13

A hesitation with regard to ustria, a curious shy Th’ l . e ness, a prejudiced awe for past sp endour want of kn owledge about the political evolution of the Slav nations of Austria -Hungary veils

T is the understanding of the s ituation of tod ay . h All is a remarkable fact . leading men of

E e e in uropean reputation, who hav sp cialized A f ustrian a fairs , strongly defend the view that after the war the existence of that E mpire w ould ‘only be a regrettable disgrace for the nations forced thereby to be ruled by an alien govern

- ment . From Stead to Seton Watson, from

e o n e s Leger to D enis , th re is not ingle good name in po litica1 literat ure which ' is for a conservative _ Th solution of the problem . e connoisseurs are

Radical, but the governments and the masses are Conservative . We must put clearly the question which we have to discuss : Is an independent Austria Hungary after the war possible ? The Great War is a terrible destroyer 1 What have been the foundations of the Austria of the past, and what consequences will follow the transformations of that E mpire during the war ? The aims to create a Central E urope will prove to have b een the true tendencies of Austrian d A . O l evolution If the ustria is to be no more,

' what is to take its place in o rde r t hat Austrian 14 A DYING EMPIRE

Slav nations shall be secured a free political life ? E very pen that deals with the better future of E urope cannot fail to uphold the di s me mber

A The . E ment of ustria idea of a Central urope , which means the incorporation of Austria in the E German mpire, is but a secondary solution .

We must, however, View the facts and free our minds entirely from' the political features of the past . What we see now is a cancerous common wealth w hich is t hreatened by ruin and internal collapse . Let us , then, not help the forces of

th e the past , but evoke to life energies which are awake and stirring In the oppressed Slav nations 1 TH E HO LY GERMAN E MP I RE AND AFTER

THE science of politicks is one of the most co n

i T s s s e r vat ve . here are leading book on politic which never lose their influence on the destinies of nations there are political ideals which have never changed their nucleus from the days of the As iatic world empires and of Aristotle to T im the Great War . here are, finally, political a s that we believe to be new, but which are really

E is ancient . Central urope one of these . Central Europe means nothing else than the old E mpire

P - T renewe d in the spirit of an Germanism . he E Holy Roman mpire, under the Hapsburgs, has an astonishing. resemblance to the Central

European ideal . T hat was an Imperialist ideal, closely con ne cte d h wit the Catholic Church, the Papacy . Emperor and Pope have to secure to the wo rld

x e r mani a The the famous pa g c . ideal was

- Th thoroug hly anti national . e E mpire was an

- anti and super national State . I t was in the 15 16 A DYING EMPI RE stronge st an tagonism to the English and Fre nch E national State . In the Holy Roman mpire live d

a v Germ ns , Bohemians, Poles, Jugosla s, and

T e E . h I talians mpire was not German, not

Slav, but cosmopolitan . Its vocation was to embrace all the world, all nations, all languages . The Empire created a type of civilization which did not permit the free evolution of single national individualities . I t stood rather for universality . I n the days when England fought her great E struggle for political freedom, the mpire was T the incarnation of constitutional reaction . he spirit of civil liberty never animated the German

s E mpire . It was an hi toric coincidence that the Empire was condemned to death when the ideas of the French Revolution circulated through the world as a whirlwind . German political evolution was postponed b e cause the E mpire was a formidable hindrance to practical statesmanship and to true political unity

f The E O the Germans . mpire was most curiously combined with the rule of the family of the s A Hap burgs , who have always made the ustrian

e r e wa countries their fam ily possession . If th s in the past centuries one spot in E urope where modern political ideals did not penetrate, that spot was the Danube monarchy . For that country

L M R se a the work of ocke, ontesquieu, and ous u

18 A DYING EMPIRE

. h we modern nationalism I t ink may, fear on the day when the liquidation of Austria is

s o A proclaimed, that Rome will upp rt ustria with h great fervour . If t ere is in the world one great power hoping, in fear and trembling , that

A e ustria may scape death, it is the old Catholic T régime . his is not the time or place to discuss whether the destiny of a crumbling old State is worth the attention and the help o f ' Rome ; whether the existence of Austria is f really use ul to the Church , and whether it is the interest of the Church to be the accomplice of oppression, the hindrance of a better and sounder political life of fifty million - men . It

H o l o man E m ir e was B ryce who , in his y R p , characterized Au s trian political mentality with remarkable truth . He is speaking about the years

1 8 66 before , and he puts in the mouth of the North - German Liberals the following words

Ye s A E , your ustrian mpire is the true daughter

Old s of the despotism not less tyrannical, not les aggressive, not less retrograde ; like its pro

o f genitor the friend of priests , the enemy free thought, the trampler upon the national feeling of the peoples that obey it .

A s h s has t u tria a never changed . She e mained the same from the days when the Hapsburgs were the greatest Impe rial dynasty HOLY GERMAN EMPIRE AND AFTER 19

the world knows , ruling Spain and the new

- world, to the outbreak of the .World War . She has been a country procreating slaves but no free man, a country ruled by a selfish foreign dynasty, never by the nation . In this corner of the world patriotism’ has never been the generous

‘ expression of the best civil qualities, but the

The product o f the most egoistic spe culation . patriot w as a clown w ho earned money or favour

T e a of all kinds fo r his performance . h p triot

his was rewarded for sentiments, and no State was more inventive in distinguishing the obedient

The good citizen and in punishing the bad . court was the true centre of the commonwealth

’ a lady - in -waiting s chamber - maid had more ih

' flue nce on State affairs than the best men of the Th u . e co ntry court was the source of all favours , of all influence, the wellspring of the happiness of every o rderly citizen . The E mpire w as the strong factor of historic

I s . t o evolution political significance was po r , but its frontiers created a wall between two worlds . Hungary and Croatia never belonged to the Holy E mpire . Whether Bohemia appe r t ain e d to the E mpire or not w as the source Of an endless quarrel between lawyers and writers h a . t of political p mp lets But S yria, Carniola, T Carinthia, Gorica, rieste, and a part of Istria 20 A DYING EMPI RE

s E . were countrie belonging to the Holy, mpire

’ The curse of a reactionary political system divided the Slovenes from the bulk Of their race .

The t frontier between S yria, Carniola, and w E Croatia, bet een the Holy mpire and the countries of the Crown of Saint Stephen, was

The a formidable obstacle to national unity .

West was separated from the E ast . Land

n traditions , the i fluences of civilization, were quite diff erent in the Slovene countries and in Croatia .

R - West of that frontier, ome and Latin German civilization created special features of public and private life ; eas t of the frontier of the Holy

E s i r It mpire, for centuries the p of Byzantium was strong, and even stronger was the influence of the elements of E astern civilization . But we

’ must not speak too absolutely . Catholic Croatia being beyond that frontier was a country where

the traditions of the Wes t were always strong . T hat frontier was thoroughly artificial, a frontier made by the German conquerors in the M A iddle ges , which did not respect the ties of Th . e nationality , of race and language frontier divided the same race into two parts Jugoslavs

s lived on both side of it . The French Revolution w as a formidable

destroyer . o f that ridiculous edifice called the E i Holy Roman mpire, which w ll remain to all HOLY GE RMAN EMP IRE AND AFTER 21

eternity the most splendid monument of Ger man

s t aats lo s e n political incapacity, of these wir

T s m . Deutschen, as reit chke called Ger ans It was in the spirit of the gre at revolution of France that her son Napoleon effaced an Old E frontier, the frontier of the Roman mpire dividing West and E ast of the Jugoslav territory .

s Napoleon I , in creating the I llyric Province in

1 8 0 s 9, both from countrie which belonged before to the Holy E mpire and from countries like E Croatia and Dalmatia outside the mpire, took the first step in the direction O f a new settle

T as ment of the Jugo s lav nation . his w an emphatic departure from all the ideas of the past . The Illyria of Napoleon I could only emerge

s from the ruin of the Holy E mpire . But the rule of Napoleon collapsed in a few

' 1 8 1 - years , and the year 3 brought a death blow

Th e ld A to the first Jugo slav State . O ustrian

s s rég ime followed progre ive French rule . Patri

s monial absoluti m, spiritual tutelage of the ' Catholic Church , dead ideas of the past tried to m change Jugoslavs, so sy pathetically disposed to

an d revolutionary French rule, into peaceful

A e devoted ustrian subj cts . The Congres s of Vienna was the beginning

' the o f o E of establishment m dern Central urope . Old E E Central urope, the Holy mpire, was 22 A DYING EMPIRE

buried, borne to its grave to the strains of the “ The Mars e illais e . new Central Europe that arose after 1 8 1 5 was no les s the incarnation of social and political reaction . But n e w Central E urope wanted a constitutional organization and so the German Confederation came into being

ld The the worthy heiress of the O régime . Hapsburgs were ambitious to continue their ruling Ol E r e in the Holy mpire . But the Confederation was not a political reality . Behind it were the A States , ustria, Prussia, Bavaria, and others . The Confederation was impotent as the political leader of the nation . It is the greatest merit of B ismarck that he annihilated the Confederation

‘ and created the unity Of the German nation on

‘ a new but narrower basis . But we have to consider the period from‘ 1 8 1 5

1 8 8 . T to 4 his was a period of exhaustion, after

T ‘ A s r ian the period of revolutions and wars . h e u t nationalities , dreaming after the July Revolution

1 8 0 o of 3 , awakened m re and more until the

s tremendou outburst of 1 848 . In the days of Austrian abso lutism it is extraordinarily inter esting to analyse the formation Of elements of a Th unified political society . e German Confedera tion is a strong social force, not an element of politics . In these dark days there was not a a Jugoslav, not a Bohemian, not a Hungari n, but HOLY GERMAN EMPIRE A ND AFTER 23

The a German public opinion . leading German papers were no less influential in the Slav border T countries . here was a certain internationalism bound together principally through the common l medium of the German anguage . Slav poets

and politicians exchanged German letters . Slav Al l scientists wrote German books . the cultured Slav society was in the magic circle of a

foreign civilization . N 0 less equalized were all the features of the

material side Of life . But German material

i s viz . civilization was divided nto two halve , the

pure German North and the Austrian South .

Not only political ambitions , but religion, tem

e r am e nt p , morals, all the peculiarities of the

e Of hous hold have been one kind in the north,

another in the south . Ruling races have always an ascendancy over the material life of the subjected . S O Vienna became fo r the Austrian nationalities a ruling centre, even in matters of material civilization . Vienna ruled the Slavonic nationalities far less through political ideals than through the charm of good cooking and a light an d superficial T conception of the duties of life . here was created an Austrian type of material civilization which had in Turkis h material civilization a

. w as worthy competitor Vienna for Bohemians, 24 A DYING ' EMP I RE

Slovenes , and Croates, what Constantinople was

n s a The for Serbia and Bulgari ns . only diffi culty is to de cide whether Vienna or Con

“ s t ant ino pl e was more dangerous for Jugoslav

The A E national life . ustrian mpire had, in creating a cer tain administrative order and a l certain amenity of materia life, a weapon against Slavonic nationalism; which w as naturally com pe lle d to be a disruptive force of the E mpire . The factors of material enjoyment thus became the means to prepare Slavonic nationalities for entire Germanization . The preachers of Central E urope forget to - day that there have been

s A s n E predecessor , the u tria mperors , who had — the s ame foe as Central E urope of to - day the national feeling of the Slavonic race . But in 1 8 1 5 and 1 8 48 it was far easier to create Central

E 1 1 urope than in 9 7 , after the awakening of

TO — Slavonic nationalism . O late the door is shut

26 A DYING EMPIRE

1 1 means . In 8 9 List founded the Deutscher “ i : Handelsvere n, and he wrote to his wife I need not tell you that my first idea in establishing the Society was a political one . List had the fine intuition that only an economically united

n Germa y could find the way to political unity . List was the forerunner of B ismarck ; but he was unfortunate in that he did not, during his lifetime, earn the gratitude that his great work T deserved . he German nation left him in distress

and and poverty, one of the builders of modern

Germany ended his life by suicide . Li s t was aware that only the destruction of customs frontiers between the Germ an States could create a national economy in the true sense of the word . He, and a few devoted merchants, began

s the movement for the Custom Union of Germany . The D eut s cher Handels verein presented a memorandum, drawn up by List, to the Council of the German Federation . But the German Confederation was not at all in favour of innova tions . I t was not the German Confederation, but

s Pru sia, which had the sound presentiment of future possibilities of evolution . Prussia concluded as early as 1 8 1 9 a Zo llan s chl uss ve r t r ag with Schwarzburg Sonder T hausen . his was a modest start, but the

I 1 8 problem was put . n 3 4 the German Custo ms HOLY GERMAN EMPIRE AND AFTER 27

Union was established : eighteen States with twenty - three millions of inhabitants economically

s united . Pru sia was aware that the State which guides the Customs Union is the mas ter of Ger

A b e many, and she never permitted ustria to a

A s 1 8 member . ustria de ired ( 59 ) a great German E Customs Union, and the idea of a Central uro

s pean Customs Union was in discussion, but Pru sia refused . I n those days it was the interest of

TO - Prussia to be little German . day it is to her interest to be more than great German, to be Pan - German I What is the influence of economics on political institutions ? That is a question which must b e studied if we would unders tand the true meaning

b e of Central Europe . What are the relations tween economics and politics ? which of the two is the stronger factor in the grow th of the insti tutio ns of a commonwealth ? There w as Karl

M s arx and the doctrine of economic materiali m, the doctrine that economics are the foundation of A all political life . n abs olute assertion of that

s kind is a failure . Modern syn dicali m similarly defines the essential principles of political e vo lu tion . It reduces all political to economical functions . In the State of the future there will b e no more political imperium, the power of c command, but there will be only economical asso i 28 A DYING E MPIRE

s The ation without political purpo es . State will

E m s no more exist . conomic classes with an ad ini t r at io n of economic interests will r eplace the State

Of im e r iit m as owner the p , as a factor of inter national policy . No more State sovereignty,

r i de uer r e that is the c g of syndicalism . I t is an exaggerated ideal which will never be realized

T s in practical life . he true ideal is a compromi e

s s between politics and economic . Political fact are the origin of economic evolution, but economic life is also ever in process creating new political instit utions

s List was the first nationali t in economics . His economic programme is against economic cosmo lit i m po an s . He says in his national system of “ political economy : I knew the theory did not

s b ut vi ualize the nations , only humanity and indi

s viduals . Not only i the individual an economic

s T unity, but al o the nation . hat is a deathblow

A . s to the economic school of dam Smith Li t, in destroying customs frontiers between the States

s Of of Germany, proclaims the ab olute necessity protection against other States . List, in establish ing a national system of economics, prepares a

The new conception of the functions of the State . purpose of the national State is to create a national

s The s sy tem of economics reverse, too, hold

e good equally . Th nation as an economic unity MEANING OF CENTRAL EUROPE 29

T has to create the national State . he fundamental idea of List is that economics are the real creators of politics . An d now we look on the Central E urope pro blem . I s not this the same as when it con

a u s s ? fronted, h ndred year ago , the mind of Li t List had to bring Germany wi thout Austria into

T - - an economical unity . O day Pan Germanists A wish to do more, they wish to include ustria

s T Hungary, perhap , too, Bulgaria and urkey

The As conception is just the same . the Customs Union was the startin g - point for German world

E be power, so would Central urope the economical

s veil for mighty political purpose . The scholars of modern Central E urope never studied the history of the Slavonic nationalities T in the year 1 8 48 . he year of the Revolution is extraordinarily intere s ting also from that special

8 8 s w . 1 point of Vie 4 spelt, not friend hip for

r . The Ge many, but separation from Germany

P alack letter with which y, the Bohemian historian, answered the invitatio n of the Frankfort C o mlmit t e e of fifty to participate in the German Parliament

s and in Frankfort is a serious hi torical document, should make variou s Central E uropean hot - headed

P la k s partisans cautious . a c y is peaking not only in the name of Bohemia, but in the name of the nationalism of all the Slavonic countries of 30 A DYING EMPIRE

Austria . He is the strongest antagonist of the A w A union of ustria ith Germany . ustria, just

an d l to the nations free of German inf uence, was

A n his conception . But an ustria u ited with Ger many is no longer the house ih which Slavs can

’ P al ck s s m n ifi live . a y an wer to Frankfort is ag cent I am a Bohemian of Slavonic origin, and I serve my nation with all that I have, and with all the power that I command . I t is b ut w a small nation, she has al ays been apart

P l ck and independent . a a y knew very well that

‘ the unio n of German y meant the down fall of

A A O in . 1 8 8 h ustria He would save ustria in 4 , p g that she would b e just to her nations . But he A ’ was mistaken . ustria s ambition was to be the gravedigger of the Slavonic nations, and she surrendered to Germany : thus an old E mp i re will perish in painful humiliation .

Bohemians and jugoslavs, Croatians and Slovenes (in 1 8 48 ) protested energetically against T union with Germany . here was only one de mand : - Away from Germany ' Germans in 1 8 48 wanted Austrian Slavs also to b e r e pr e sented in the Parliament in Frankfort But the

‘ s Slovene political ociety, Slovenija, in Vienna, which directed Slovene policy in those days, issued a proclamation for the Slovene nation : Your duty is, Slovenes, to repudiate foreign ascendancy MEANING OF CENTRAL EUROPE 31

Y cour ageously and energetically . our duty is not to send representatives to Frankfort ; to protest f against the o ficial appeal, and to demand that T your protest shall be officially registered . hat was a Slovene voice . Slavonic policy in Austria from 1 8 48 to the outbreak of the Great War was nothin g less than an uninterrupted struggle against the attempt to incorporate Slavonic countries with Germany . Austrian Slavs are shrewd enough to know that Customs Union is only the firs t step to political union . The political struggle against German influence was not only intended to paralyse German political influence, but was also a struggle for economic

The independence from Germany . protagonists of Central E urope are very bad scholars of the O modern history of the Slavonic nations . ther wise they would know that all the political struggle o f the Slavs in Austria was directed against Central E uropean ideas Never will Au s trian Slavs permit themselves to be lured into an economic unity with Germany, because that would

The be their political death . political evolution of the Slavs in Austria - Hungary is nothing else than a united effort again st the propo s ed fo unda E tion of Central urope . TH E C ENTRAL E URO P EAN C OMMONWEALTH

WHAT should b e the extent of Central E urope ?

.The majority of writers unite Germany and Au s tria - Hungary in the new economic un ity called T Central E urope . hey do not generally embrace the B alkans, although there is no question that

al n the B kans, after the fou dation of Central E n . urope, will be only an an exe of that body

An b e m l independent Balkan policy will i possib e, and the Balkan States will become the fie fs of

Germany . If A . we take only the Germany and ustria

- Hungary of to day, we see that this territory is not at all comparable to the extent of the great Th f empires . e land sur ace of the earth is E square miles . But Central urope has no more that square miles if we

Th is include the Ge rman colonies . at ridiculous in co mpar iso a ith the extent of other world

ns n E has empires . For i ta ce, the British mpire an extent of Russia 32

34 A DYING EMPIRE

The World - War has already realized a larger

E s T Central urope in arm . urkey and Bulgaria e C T have join d the entral Powers . he two

o s l Mo n independent Jug av States , Serbia and t e n e r o s g , the faithful defenders of the intere ts f A O s e . the llie in the Balkans , have be n prostrated

s s Bulgaria, treacherous to the cau e of Slavi m and

A is no w the llies, the link between the Central

T A am Powers and urkey . political progr me

O s s ppo ed before only by Serbia, the be t friend of

A s n o w the llies in the Balkan , is provisionally

s s s s accomplished, urpa ing the boldest dream of

‘ - E w ill n r r ate Pan Germanis m . Central urope i co po — the Balkans as s oon as but I will quote an inter u esting sentence of Franz Kohler, the a thor of “ D er ne ue D r e i b and : The problem of the Balkans will not be at rest if it does not become

' a part of a Central E uropean Confederation .

T The hat is the leading idea . Balkans should be E a part of Central urope, and, with the Balkans,

s T E e . naturally al o urk y Central urope will then, l — with German co onies, embrace according to the

— ‘ calculation of N e umann 9 3 million s quare kilo

its be metres ; area, in fact , will that of the

United States .

A s has German authority, Professor von Li t, a

- more grandiose conception of Central E urope . Central E urope is for him the E uropean C ontinent EUROPEAN COMMONWEALTH 35

e without France and the I b rian Peninsula, and T with Russia also naturally excluded . his writer E would incorporate with Central urope, Holland,

1 0 the Scandinavian States ( millions ) , Switzerland

6 and . 3 millions) , Italy ( 3 millions ) , the Balkans The Central E urope of List will cover 8 million square kilometres, and possess a population of

2 0 0 s e e millions . We that this man knows no modesty . Poor France will be totally crushed . W . ith France will disappear on the Continent not only a ll that is most generous and most noble in o the s ul of man, but also the sense of con tempt fo r the work of every oppres sor of national independence and free political evolution .

The - last scheme is very far reaching, and belongs without doubt to the realm of Utopia .

s i s Neutral , feel ng the disa trous influence of German political methods and economic infilt r a d tion, have often themselves attempte a little State

- building . An ti German neutrals conceived the fantastic idea of founding a federation of neutral

States, defending the West from German inter

f The ference, a sort of bu fer confederation . members of this confederation of neutrals were

A - B e l m to be Switzerland, lsace Lorraine, g ip , and T Holland . he paramount task of that confedera

s tion would be to watch over the rights of neutr al .

The - T scheme is to day a failure . he conception 36 A DYING EMPIRE

f e is too idealistic, and does not su ficiently envisag the realities of State life . But it is a quaint con t - r ib utio n to the political ideas of to day .

Here, then, arises an extremely delicate ques tion Ho w will the neutral countries be affected by the creation . o f Central Europe ? These ' c w an ountries are S itzerl d, Belgium, and the

The an Of N etherlands . f tastical scheme a pro fe sso r al law of internation , List, includes in Central E urope all the E uropean continent without France

th e a n and Pyrene n Peni sula, that is , with the

a w N etherl nds, the Scandinavian States, S itzerland,

- an T s . d Italy . hat is too far fetched a cheme The Scandinavian States are absolutely alien to

The the sphere w hich Germany wishes to unite . attempt to win the sympathies of the Scandinavian peoples for a true Pan - Germanic League has not

The an found in these countries a single echo . D es

a - n e are openly nti Germa , and they are very w ll

The acquainted with German national methods . Norwegians are too democratic to sympathize with autocratic Germany Among all the northern

s peoples, the Swede are the best friends of Ger

two — many . There are reasons for this Sweden c is still an aristocratic ountry, but the paramount reason is a question of foreign policy . Sweden is Germanophile because she is a foe to Russia .

an b ut us s a I t is not love of Germ y, enmity to R i EUROPEAN COMMONWE ALTH 37 that is the reason why Sweden is a preponderantly

Germanophile country . A bout Italy we need not waste too many words . The paramount reason why Italy interfered in the

-co nflict T world was neither rieste nor Gorica, but the ab solute necessity to be free from ‘ German

- Th wo rld power . e Old struggle of the Guelfs and the Ghibe llines is repeating itself in our days . I t was a strong historical reason which impelled the best elements of I talian public opinion to T join the war against the Central Powers . hat

Italy did not, at first, declare war on Germany, but only on the representative of Germany, A ustria, is merely a formal want of logic which

s may become dangerou for Italy .

The Netherlands are in a very exposed position .

The Dutchmen are Germanic, but the sentiment of State influence is far stronger than the call

‘ of blood . I t is not admissible that the Nether lands should renounce their political right of State

- self determination . Belgium, in defending her neutrality, was the bulwark also of the rights I of the Germanic neutrals . n contemplating the ’ G Netherlands behaviour, ermans must confess that they ar e not born to gain friendship s in E this world . veryw here they have foes and no

T s friends . hey have an a tonishing gift for gain in g enemies , 38 A DYING EMPIRE

The case of S w itzerland presents especial in t r e s t I s w e . S itzerland willing to enter Central E urope ? If we examine the economic situation of Switzerland before the war we shall s e e that she did not enjoy true independence, but had become more and more porous to the infiltration

' Ge r m an ca it al of p and industry, and, with France i present ng no serious rivalry to this absorption , she had quickly found herself in a po s i t i on of economic de pendence upon Germany The tendency of

s Switzerland, then, is all toward docile partner

’ s i E hip n Central urope s economic unity . The French and Italian party is strongly Opposed to every action which might endanger the free evolution of the French and I tal ian po pu T lation . hey will never consent to a union with an E mpire which proved so totally incapable of ut l dealing with little n ations . B it is remarkab e that the German part is also reluctant . Swiss Germans are also emphasizing that Central E urope must create a sharp conflict with the Western

P o w e r s ‘ and , that would ruin the foundations on 0 which Swiss politics are b uilt . Professor . Nippo ld declared himself in the N e ue Z ur icher

‘ 8 1 1 Z e itun NO . 1 an g ( ) as implacable enemy, the of Central E urope . H e thinks that creation of Central E urope mean s that a politically unani m w b f o de ous Europe ill e defer red, i n t ma EUROPEAN COMMONWEALTH 39

i A s s imposs ble olution of that kind, say

Ni o ld s pp , would make our political exi tence dubious . S witzerlan d represents a unification of — the two alleged oppo s ite cultures Central E urope

r E and Weste n culture . We want a urope which

i is w ll coalesce, and which not broken up into

The s cl e nt is t two halves . answer of this German speaks for itself . What will be the aspect of Central Europe from the ethnological point of View ? The po pu lation of Central Europe including only Germany

A - i T and ustria Hungary will b e very m xed . here

i 6 2 8 w ll be approximately 4 million Germans, m 1 0 M illion Slavs, million agyars , 3 million

1 Rumanians, million Italians, French

. It be s men, D anes will a tremendou task for 64 million Germans to rule

- r an e non Ge m s . Between th se are highly developed nationalities in the We stern sens e of the word .

a a Of French, D nes, Bohemi ns, Jugoslavs the West will create for the f oreign Go vernment many

f s E serious di ficultie . In the German mpire the

w as 2 1 majority of Germans overwhelming, 9 5 per cent . of the population in fact . Central E urope will completely change this proportion . The nationalities will be s trong enough to make

O b s things inconvenient for Germany . nly y mean of oppre ssion could German y be able to realize 40 A DYING EMPI RE

her aims . Furious struggles, and the same troubles a s there have b een b efore the World - War in the b M E Haps urg onarchy, will not permit urope to T enjoy peaceful evolution . here will be a con A glomeration of nationalities of the ustrian type, but the conditions of political life will be worse . The iron German fist will threaten every free l breath of the subjugated ittle nationalities . In Central Europe the struggle of races will b e

e permanent . W must never forget that a crush ing victory of Ger many is impossible . Germans can only hope to conclude the

' f ar r s war o n a condition of p tze e mi e . But a

ar tie r e mis e n E an R p mea s an ngl d, ussia , France , ( a s a s e w e b Italy strong th y er efore the war . The World - War opened the eyes of E nglish

a Germanophils , we kened the German influence

‘ an d e a in Russia Italy, and minimiz d the d nger i ll of a soc al revolution in France . A these Powers will try to support the non - German nations of Ce ntral E urope .

The first aim of Germany would be , after a A successful war, to open the road to the driatic,

the crushing Bohemians and Slovenes, who are

Slav b arriers against German expansion . Look

h ma at an et nographical p, and you will see the Czech territory in the true heart of E urope from

N o b e m n orth, West, and S uth submerged y the G r a

42 A DYING EMPIRE

0 country . N means will b e too brutal to annihilate the Jugoslav language and feeling in the Slovene T lands . hat w ill b e merely the continuation of

- the w Pan German policy in past ; but, ith the sure prospect of succeeding, Germany has only to augm ent the policy which she carried out so h successfully in the Slovene Lands . She as to

an use boards and courts, the l d and the school T for her purposes . his policy, carried through d with a stronger hand, should succeed in sub uing the Slovenes . What does Ce ntral E urope mean from the point of view of religion ? Germany is to - day a State with a large Protestant majority . Catholic inter b ut ests are very strong in Germany, of course, Protestantism contributed far more to the fo unda T tion of the E mpire than Roman Catholicism . he

Protestant North was the maker of Germany .

The dynasty, the greatest statesmen, like Bismarck,

T e E have b ee n Protestants . h spirit of the mpire is far more sympathetic to ev angelic austerity than

- C i m el to easy going atholic s , the r igion of the

South . E Austria is the most Catholic State in urope .

N ine o ut of t e n inhabitants are Catholics . Catholicism is deeply rooted in the soul of that

E a e s mpire, the most tradition l forc , perhap , in

b s e history. The Haps urgs aved th Ro man Church EUROPEAN COMMONWEALTH 43

’ in the days of Luthe r s formidable crusade . No

n s av dy asty, in fact, pretend to h e done so much for Rome as the Ha psburgs . But Rome has In completely repaid this formidable debt . the

ha e game of exc nges betwe n Rome and Hapsburg,

s o a s carried on through m ny centurie , Rome was

r n u f the losing pa t er . It is tr e that Rome o fered to Austrian ab s olutism the strong help of a

s hierarchy, of Church discipline . Dyna ty, Church, and State we re all penetrated b y the same s pirit

r . of political eaction Sovereignty of the people,

u democracy, have been great catchwords, but p holders of such doctrines were mercilessly pers e

t The cu e d by the rulers of the State . spirit of

e w as lib rty turned into ridicule by State servitors,

an d flat te r e r s r e by the Church, by the of the actionary masses . Hapsb urgs an d civil liberty

as T are ideas different as night and day . hese people, and the most enlightened of them, the n Viennese, had no political commo sense, no spirit of liberty . Central E urope will b e more Catholic than — Protestant 62 million Catholics against 44 6 million Protestants . But the influence of the Catholics s hould b e counteracted by the fact that i E m the bu lders of Central urope are North Ger ans,

The men of stout Protestant creed . influence of a a W de t Catholic H psburgs and Vienn ill cline, he 44 A DYING EMPIRE

Protestant minority and the Hohenzollern will

s s a ume a vigorous control . Orthodoxy was regarded by the Hapsburgs

A - always as an enemy . ustria Hungary had million O rthodox . The policy of the Haps burgs was full of the most ignominious Machiave llisrn . The organization Of the Church was a wonder

The of complication and artificial division .

b B uko vinians metropolis of Cernovice, em racing ,

R D alInat ian uthenians, and Serbians , following the o f d a s w s r A lines u li m, a a t ue ustrian anomaly The three millions of O rthodox will be soon

’ Of merged in the sea the ruler s religion . Central

- u E urope will be strongly an ti O rthodox . So m ch w for the religious point of Vie . TH E NATI ONAL P O LI CY OF C ENTRAL EUROP E

ONLY if we consider the close connection between economics and politics can we duly appreciate the danger hidden ih the conception of Central E urope . N ever was a Customs Union made without some political purpose . Was not the German Customs Union only a step to national unification ? The true purpose of Central E urope

- is to Ge r mamz e Austria Hungary and the Balkans .

A e Neumann s lib ral author, , openly confe ses in his C entr al E ur o pe C e ntral E urope w ill be in

an w us n German h ds, it ill e the Germa world and the medium of the German lang uag e ' b G (p . We enter the arena as etter ermans in economics I 5 Ho w nice it would be to change Czechs to Germans if that were pos h sible (p . T e ingenuousness of this last remark is incomparable l The purpose is to

f s Germanize, but there are di ficulties . Suppo ing i that Czechs are less stubborn nat onalists , and the dream of the Central E uropean prophet is 45 46 A DYING EMPIRE

k w realized . But ho w important it is that we no the soul of the man who complains that Germans

' of to - day are unfortunately bad Germanizers l V h \ V. y have I quoted these utterances ? Because

— The now we see unveiled what Germany wants . Th truth is shown with rude sincerity . e problem of Central E urope must be considered from that m point of View, na ely, the political purposes of

Germany . I t is easy to obs erve that German politicians and authors have no clear conception as to the A character of the national struggle . ustrians and German s in general have not the gift of s agacity A i in political matters . lthough dwell ng at the

b E s door of the Haps urg mpire, German remained blind to the probability of civil war among the

A ‘ he A ustrian nations . T struggle ag ainst ustro German supremacy was fought pr InCIpally on E economic lines . very nation tried to organize her own economic life, to emancipate herself from

German economic influence . Czechs and Jugo slavs founded a national organization of co operative societies to b e independent of German

s -f capital . National factories and busines enter

’ s i l ~ prise , nat ona trades unions, and workers

s a s s ociation created a national economic structure . There was in the Austro -Hungarian E mpire an

A - ustro German economic system, and a Czech, POLICY OF CENTRAL EUROPE 47

M a Polish, a agyar, a Jugoslav separate economic system, the one fighting against the other ; for the nations economic progress was a medium of

The successful political evolution . nation which was the strongest had a special chance to be

s victorious in her political a pirations . That is the creed of Austrian nations—through T economics to political success . hey will look with undisguised suspicion on every attempt to bind together the Monarchy with Germany into T one economic territory . hey will, by all possible w means, hinder an economic union hich has for its purpo s e the destruction of all forces that are against German supremacy . What is the practical proposal of N eumann with regard to Central E urope ? A Customs Union is not enough for German aims they want m ore . N e umann is Candid enough to declare that merely a Customs and Trades Union is not A realizable from the ustrian, nor from the

Hungarian point of view, nor from that of the E German mpire (p . Central Europe

s implies not only a Cu toms Union, that is an but organization of economic relations, a State organization higher than the States which con

O - cluded the union . ver Austria Hungary and Germany there will be another State with special institutions There was a famous professor of 48 A DYING EMPIRE

Constitutional Law in Germany, who wrote that Germans are the fittes t men in the world to T found federatio ns . his is a sub terfuge to lure

A - o ustrian Slavs , who, h wever, are too shrewd to / f ir be seduced . I t would be much a e r to announce

We w ill found a new federation, of which,

n E under Prussia hegemony, the Hapsburg mpire and the Balkan States must also be members . The partisans of Central E urope are also ih cautious enough to emphasize that Hungary must E be a member of Central urope, no Central

Europe b eing possible without her . Hungary

- is treated as an over indulged only child . Hungarians are praised as wise co nnoisseurs of

' ' the world, able calculators . But children of

The that kind are very capricious . Central European propaganda was doomed in Hungary to complete failure, for not one of the leading E Hung arian statesmen is captured by it . very E where Central urope encounters opposition . I f there is any answer to the call of Germany, it is only the hypothetically expressed opinion : I f

s b e a Custom Union founded, that can only be A on a basis of Hungarian separation from ustria . That is the curs e that follow s the Hap s burg crime of declaring war against Serbia ; they b ut did not destroy Jugoslav nationalism, they pulverized the last debris of the unity of the

50 A DYING EMPI RE

Th aw is o ne Sta tes . e unification of civil l also of the topics of a Central E urope an programme . N e um ann puts forward the following scheme for the division of the adminis trative functions of Central E urope . Prague will be the centre

- for all functions created by inter state treaties , with the exception of all work‘ of local interest t he centre for maritime commerce w il l b e f n Hamburg, the centre for intercourse o excha ges ,

n d h a i . T e B erlin, the juridical centre, V enna capital of economic Central E urope is therefore ' E Prague . But the true heart of urope is Czech . T — C l hat, however, does not matter the entra E uropean genius will settle an d surmount all

f e umann C u di ficulties . Herr N is a man of heerf l fantasy . H e is fond of travelling, and ten years after the foundation of Central Europe he come s w “ to Prague . Here he has an appointment ith the President o f the Central European E conomic

’ An d w e Committee . now must quote him, with many excuses , knowing that every connoisseur of Austrian national struggles will laugh at his ignorance of the jealousy with which every Slav ' nation is watching the influence of her language . Herr Neumann asks What about the Czechs and the other non - German citizens ? The Central -E uropean President answered At first intercou r se was hampe red b ecause we spoke POLI CY OF CENTRAL EUROPE 51

Ge r an in the f ce b ut the ch r e and m of i , Cz e fa m r business man we re too irnpo r t ant fo r us no t to b e

‘ in touch with them . But I can s peak a few — Czech words that helps the people to understan d

' Ge n e t rma b ter . German r eforme rs ar e al l complaining that

Ge a ar e l t a t rm ns bad co onizers, and h t hey

r e u o h a nable t win t e hearts of the people . But

e m e es ma e t he s mis ak s . they, th s lv k mo t odd t e u t ima i e in the case o f th e Fr h-C a ians J s g n , enc nad , “ the M s C n Pr ime ini te r o f anada saying , I a d

’ fi e ia s o t w o s e a r h b ut if my O l d n rite r p k F enc ,

we m t o so we e lo fe w F e nch wo ds us d , mp y a r r h t i t mixe d up w ith Engli s ' O, so na a slmfl d as pr ussiana ' Having now acquaint etf our se lve s with the ide as o f an impo rtant C e ntral European author

ab u s ic i s le t ass o n to e in o t lingui t r ght , us p xpla in a fe w wo rds the administrative o rgani z atio n

o C t th n s s f en ral Europe . In e dy a tic relation

t e w o l c an e b ut do acto he r il l b e n fo rma h g , f

the Hohe nzo llern will r ule Central Europe . I mentione d before that an administration of common e conomic affairs is created by mutual

t T f co m reaties . hese a fairs will be treated by mit tee s e b G of exp rts nominated y, the overn

e ments of t he various States . Conferences o f th dele gate s of t he Confede rate d State s will call 52 A DYING EMPIRE forth memories of the Government of the late German E mpire There will not be a Central

E b ut e uropean parliament, fre meeting of the members of the parliaments of the Federated

States will probably be graciously allowed . But Central E urope has not only economic

E s d functions . Central urope i surrounde by a

o Th e al Chine se wall f tre nches . peoples of Centr Europe will be in the same pos ition as a trenches community . It is painful to register that a leader of German democracy created the the ory n of trench co mrnunity . Wh at i credible blind

‘ ado r at io n o f ' i ness, and what militarism The culmination of German impudence is the statement that the military state of Central

E urope is to correspond to the economic s tate .

T . b e i E o here is, then, to a m litary Central ur pe

as well . Thus is cr e ated the eco nomic and military

o ? unity, but , what is the purp se of it all So fo rmidable a Le viathan can not be immobile in i the political world, harming nobody and profit ng nobody ' E vidently this Leviathan needs a l foreign po icy . There w ill be no Central

E E e a uropean Parliament, but a Central urop n T foreign po licy . hat means the irrespo nsible

o f n o f rule the dy asty of Hohenzollern, and the

c s to he r s o rea tionary caste which are be upp rt . P OLI CY OF CENTRAL EUROPE 53

The Chine se trench wal l will have as a con s e quence a Chinese foreign policy . Democracy is a Cinderella in such a state .

‘ s e d A Irrespo n ibl rule an bsolutism will,

- l e manating from Pan Germanistic foreign po icy, insidiously s ubo rdinat e the government of the

e To Confed rated States to the German yoke .

A r a ustria and Hunga y, will happen what h ppened to Croatian internal autonomy in asso ciation with

' r Hungary . Their autonomy will avail Aust ia

e si or Hungary nothing in cclesiastical, in chool, and e n linguistic matters . What th real ruler i

The m i . B erlin co mands, that w ll be done man who has an l in his h ds foreign po icy, army, and

l r . All economics , is the rea leader and rule other matters are of secondary importan ce . There are people who think that German y is

e ripe for democracy, and that ther is hope that Ger man y will enjoy democratic institutions in t he future . But if a demo cratic autho r l ike N e umann

s m it ws advocate a syste of that kind, merely sho how utterly incapable the Germans are of any l rea democratic policy . The German attitude towards non - German nationalities was always a proof that German s l ack true common sense in politics . Serious German political authors frankly confess that Germans ar e unable to treat people who have the 54 A DYING EMPIRE misfo rt une to b e under the ir r ule w ith fairnes s

in his or justice . Franz vo n List confes ses

' m Ei n e ur o 'dis alte r S taatenve r pa phlet, p “ b and no t t r t o win he , We did y the arts of ' l s . N um a o v r f an the people e ann ls states e y. r k y, We do not understan d die grosse Kunst

‘ der Mensch e nbehandlung the gr e at ar t o f man B u the r as n aging me n . t he t hinks e o is A r i ? t hat they ar e a young pe ople . And ust a ' Ar e not Aus trian State tra ditio ns the O lde s t in Europe ? Yet Austrian Germans have bee n un able to grant to t he Slav nation s the freedom I - m o ld v s atis fie d and self govern ent, which ha e

e s A a r e has b n the m t thes nation . ustri n ul ee os

kwa e c r and u ar h o f bac rd, r a tiona y, unpop l met od

n o governme nt . Under it the free e volutio f c s G a and itizenship ha had no chance . e rm ny

A n e in the s t o f i ustria, both i capabl pa rul ng s r r a k other nation , w ill unde r t ake a fa harde t s in the c ea o n en al E e Th w l no t r ti of C tr urop . ey, il promote pe ace w ith a s ett le ment o f that kin d . Central E ur ope will b e a fo cus o f national hatr ed

A a wi l e r Like old ustri , its future l ndange good relations between all the nations of E urope . For the connoisseur of Austrian national s s e n truggle , it is xtraordinarily interesti g to observe ho w the fathers of the Central Europe an

C e do ctrine solve national questio ns . entral Europ POLICY OF CENTRAL EUROPE 55

’ t o e C c w l it is not manag hur h or school, nor il expel the Hapsburgs from the throne . With regard to the question of languages, the liberal

e u ann N m is slightly reserved . Linguistic questions cannot be exempted from decisions of the single States . H e does not state positively the right of the States to decide alone which f language has to be o ficial . But all these are t r ifle s in co mparison w ith the true meaning of a Commonwealth like E Central urope . This commonwealth will be

‘ G e r m ans who c ruled by the , will ommand all

ff . foreign, military, and economic a airs What is a mere auto nomy in school matters in a commonwealth w here foreign politics and economics are in the hands of a ruthles s rulen? ' It is ridiculous to suppose that the rulers of ' l a s B er in will permit Bohemian chool autonomy. to exist if they WISh to des troy that national i ndividuality . E A w very, ustrian average politician kno s very ’

A . well what is , the quintessence of ustrian politics Austria - Hungary was the valet of Germany in fo reign politics ; an independent Austro

‘ Hungarian internal policy w as therefore im l possible . Berlin interfered in al questions of

A - ustro Hungarian home policy . Central Euro pean doctrines ‘ and C ustoms Union had no place 56 YING EM I E A. D P R

m . therein . C roatia off ers a s eco nd exa ple

Croatia was under Hungarian economic rule, and therefore Hungary was also the mas ter of E Croatian home politics . Central urope will be nothing else than a sequence to these two classical examples . There is a curious discrepancy in the assertions T of the Central Europe authors . hey say

We emphatically, will ,not Germanize, but their conception is a German Central Europe . In Central E urope the German spirit must

A ar f r the . l an e o dominate ustria and the Ba k s ‘ E Central urope an, and no less for the Prussian

e a s doctrinair s , in re lity political colonie which have to be co lonized by German settlers . This note of the colonial character of the country of the non - German peoples is a striking evidence of the true purposes of Germany . In th e me an time it shows the great densene ss of German leaders hip 3 they canno t avoid a word that s tings W M like the lash of a hip ; agyars , Czechs , and Jugoslavs will never submit to be treated as the people of a country which has to be colonized . Once more there is here fre s h evidence of the total incapacity of the German s to unders tand the

T has psychological basis of politics . here never been a world - policy di s playing such utter lack

s of rudimentary knowledge of political p ychology .

58 A DYING EMPIRE

and i e i Ljubljana (La bach) , ach w th w h its own public opinion, but no Vienna it

u T w as an Imperial p blic opinion . hat the real reaso n w hy the E mpire became such a

c l w n . oward y, retched symbol of political weak ess Absolutism and foreign rule together destroyed

‘ the foundations of a soun d political life . Forgery of documents by officials to prove a charge of

— ‘ high trea son as in the Zagreb high treas on ca se — an d the Fr ie djun g trial in Vienna was only a natural product of this empoisoned soil . It was,

an E an d . To indeed, mpire of lies intrigues intrigue as an Austrian is a pro verbial sayin g A d in Russia . d to all t hat Byzantinism and Pharisaical bigotry, and you will have some idea of the stifling atmosphere of the Austrian prison in whi ch nations of the most powerful vitality have rotte d and decayed . C entral E urope w ill be a commonwealth in

a c o f . which Germ ns ommand the majority, course But tha t majority will b e nearly counterbalanced by a minority of far stronger political skill

Th litical than Germans posses s . e vivacious po temperament and tenacity of Jugoslavs , Czechs ,

‘ M s m and agyar will be certainly the doo , of

German hegemony, if political freedom should be granted to Central E urope . But in Central

E n u urope Germa s m st be the masters, and they POLI CY or CENTRAL EUROPE 59

will en de avo ur by all means to annihilate eve ry

w E e ish for real political freedom . Central urop cannot be a truly free commonwealth it will be

in h n o f i A s a prison whic , i stead the ndolent u trian

e l b e th e es an d jailer, ther wil rude, ruthl s, ultra

e disciplin d Prussian jailer . The Ger mans have invented a new name for the i E e nat onalities of Ce ntral urop . Jugoslavs,

C e s and Ma s ar Zwis e nvolke r z ch , gyar e ch , that

“ ' ' is b we -na n t t e , e t e n tions, little a ionali i s , o n t ye t free pe oples as re gards culture, — b ut at pres ent only half -dev elope d so the

' - Ger mans think l T. hese between nat ions h i ' h t a e ee b u . v b n the ur den o f A str a .W a can b e do ne with t hem? They will r ece ive

‘ a ne w an d far more beve r e schoolmaste r, who w l ea d l ne o e c and il t ch them iscip i , bedi n e ,

u s c ltu r e . The Ge r man s say that t hes e nation h ve had O o u l a nt a no pp rt nity. to deve op a perm ne

l e po itical in dividuality. That is the o ld hackney d asse r tion that Slavs a re no t e mpire -builders

a n b n who s e fo r { St ate ilde d) . But is respon ibl the fact that Austrian and Balkan Slavs did not build up strong natio nal States ? D id not Germany prevent an Austrian Federation in which should have be en a Bohemian and C roatian

? A t the nation D id not us ria, following advices o f the F e d c s o the s ri ri hstras e, p ison Serbian dyn a ty 60 A DYING EMPIRE

‘ of the Obrenovici and force he r to a life -o r -death

? an l struggle with their own people Germ y wi l,

— o l perhaps , object Slavs are not fit for p litica independence . Germany objects that thes e people ar e so

the has enslaved, that voice of the nation no ’ w influence in politics . Germany do e s not kno Bohemia where Czech self- governme nt became an accomplished fact owing simply to the

“ political capacities of the C zechs a nd their civiliza

c h s b th e tion reated by t em elves, not y Hapsburgs Ar e the Serbians incapable of be ing an in ? T dependent nation hey, who defended their country with a te nacity unknown in history ? If there is in the world a nation with a strong

o l e ? p itical sens , is not that the Serbian nation

to G s She deserves be free far more than erman , born and living in o bedience and s ervility. Have not the Croatians defended their constitutional life again s t Hungarian draconic outlaw ry ? Have no t

an s the Slovenes , threatened by enemy eighty time

s A th e P an - G m n stronger, aved the driatic from er a

s ? s m‘ thru t Has not thi , too , earned the the right to develop independent political life ? m Hermann Ullman , in a very valuable pa phlet,

The Vo cati on o Ger m’ans n C e nfr al E um e f i p , attributes a curious po s ition to these poor

' - A between nations . ll nations belonging to the P OLI CY OF CENTRAL EUROPE 61

Eu m l r the ae Central ropean Com onwea th, f om pr

n e w a tical political poi t of Vi , particip te in the

r a C w peculiar Ge m n ommon ealth idea, which is T really Central Euro pean . here could not be a more obvious or more open confession of Pan ‘ h Germanism . It at once separates t e idea of Th culture from that of politics . e betwee n

‘ nations are suppo sed to be of the same value

o f in all from the point of view culture, that is, matters which are not against the Central E uropean Commonweal th . But in po litics there Th ar e pe ople o f full and o f lesser rights . e

r o th rights a e n t e qua l . Here e betwee n

ha b ut nations ve no separate aims, there is only — h one purpose t e Ge r man national purpose .

T a of c . here is also the ide oercion In politics , Central E urope h as b een forced to act as a

The o n E unity . nations f Ce t r a l urope will not

“ have the right to d e te r mine the ir o wn destiny . Central E urope is only a step to the unification of Ger many with a ll those countries which are

- A - to day un der ustro Hungarian rule . In E nglish leading m agi z ine s we can find very strange opinions about Central E urope . I

. A will quote o nly H N . B railsford : fter con cluding a sullen peace we might , if we chose, by

f s boycotts , by punitive tari f , and by the working of ou r world - wide fi nance render Mid- Europe a 62 A DYING EMPIRE

r in and c n Ge a to a im ba r en ga , ondem rm ny gr

t l w u a h wi h e s pover y, whi e e plag ed the e rt t hatr d

‘ o iso n i t an d i u e s that would p , loaded it .w th arg m nt

u The that wo ld beggar it . other policy would ‘ ' ue s t io n s a ic b be to regulate tariff and trade q m a ly,

an fi in u n f r ur s se to but to dem d rmly, ret r o o a nt i Mid -E : t th r e co ni the creat on of urope firs , e g i w i it the i i e o f t on by it, and ith n , of pr nc pl i a n o e me a e s b s o in nat on lity, i s m extre c s y ce si n, o thers b y ho me rule . TH E SLOVENES

To wr ite ab out Central Europe and no t mention

wo e e Th e es the Slovene s uld b a mistak . e Slov n

r e e e the t t a , b sid Croatians and Serbians, hird fac or

in the . b i Jugoslav national unity Ser ians, Croat ans, and Slovenes ar e of the same race and of the sa ar the me language ; they e same nation, s s e eparated by a pernicious past . Their aim ar to b e united in o ne national State with Serbia The Slovene s are a Central European people

l e T ar exce le nc . p hey inhabit Styria, Carniola,

Ca i h a T s e and a r nt ia, Gorica, Gradisc , rie t , Istri

— E T n all countries of Central urope . heir cou try r lies on the high oad of the nations . Every nation in the Middle Ages which endeavoured to reach Italy was compelled to choose the Slovene

Lands as a thoroughfare . I n the early centuries of the Middle Ages the . Slovenes ruled half Austria : their territory ex t e ended to the D anub in the north, to the Brenner in h - t e we . But P G t st the first real a n e rmanis , as 64 A DYING EMPI RE

was b Charles the Great, an inexora le enemy of the Slovenes . H e colonized the Slovene Lands

i . with Germans, and ext rpated Slovene aristocracy

German Catholic priest s have been the most e n e r v

e t r s o f the E getic ab to mperor in State bus iness . Slovenes tried to hold up the first German push to C i the South, onfederated w th Croats and

ut n Serbians ; b they collapsed . From the te th

to ak the o - War century the outbre of W rld , Slovenes have b e en exposed to the most ruthle ss n b ational persecutions y Germans, but they have saved their existence through t enacity and a vivacious national conscie nce .

- Living on the great cross road of nations be ' t an e and A o ween the D ub the driatic, being in t uch w We e he ith stern civilization, the S lov nes are t most We stern representatives of the Souther n

an d a s Slavs . Western civilization Western st ndard o f e s life, W stern conceptions of morals and ociety took deep root in them . The Slovenes have be en by destiny chosen to be the bridge b et wee n the .West an d the

- countrie s of the Sout h E ast . The Reformation was for the Slovenes a period

‘ r i e m The of r is o g m o . B ible was translated into

a b Tr the Slovene l nguage y Primoz ubar, one of the most en ergetic fighters for the Reformation .

K r I o Ve r e r ius se I n Ope in stria was b rn g , who

66 A DYING EMPI RE

' E ast f r om Reka (Fiume) t o Krs ko in Carniola on the Rive r Sava to Radgona o n th e Mura in

Styria, being the frontier which divided the Roman

E E The s b e mpire from the ast . Slovene Land

E The f e longed to the mpire . di ference b twe en the Slovene and Croatian wa s unfortunately very

b s considerabl e . Here we find the rule of an a o lute monarch, the domination of the German

f s language in o ficial intercourse, the admini tration

’ ’ carried out b y a well - drilled stah of the prince s servitors, and the higher classes merged in a

W - - On i . estern, half German, half Lat n civilization the othe r side of the So tla in Croatia there was E An in Zagreb a Parliament of the states . other more primitive b ut more individual and more Slav civilization grew up here under the menace of Turkish invas ions a national Croatian aristocracy kept a careful watch on venerab le historical traditions . Latin was spoken b y the higher b ut t classes, the nationalis language did not lose Th its rights . e same nation lived in the Holy

E The E e Roman mpire as in Croatia . Holy mpir

.The created an artificial boundary . Central E uropean doct rin aires and their ideas ar e not

- Th E he of to day . e German mperors of t Holy E t mpire have be en their true forerunners . Cen ral E urope was already formed . There was a great fo e of Ce ntral Europe in THE SLOVENES 67

— the beginning of the nineteenth century Napoleon A b ut I . He carried out the partition of ustria — — the Allies of to -day fir st of all E ngland are hesitating what to do . He founded the first

Jugoslav State in which are united Slovenes, h . T e Croatians, and Serbians capital of I llyria

was b . in the Slovene Lands, Lju ljana (Laibach)

l — Tr A l a . the Slovene L nds Gorica, I stria, ieste,

i a —w the Car nthi , Carniola ith exception of South

e d . Styria, w re unite with Dalmatia and Croatia But Austrian abs olutism killed the ne w Jugoslav nation The era of Metternich merely allowed

I ll r ism a literary movement, the y , to embrace the

e b st men of the Slovenes, Croatians, and

S e rbians .

1 8 8 e u he mis ti I n 4 , the spring of the nations p

s o - w as - cally called, the true birth year of the

Slovene political movement . But that year meant

E e um ann a challenge to Central urope . N is quite right that Paul ’s Church in Frankfort tried to work

E The out the problem of Central urope . Slovenes had no confidence in the Central E urope of these days . With Czechs and other Slavs they opposed E the Central urope conception . In the political history of the Slovenes we shall find a lot of facts proving the aversion of that people to every attempt to bind their destiny together with the destiny of Germany . 68 A DYING EMPI RE

What is to -day the position of the Slovenes against Central E urope ? One and a half millions of the t welve million Jugo s lavs are Slovenes . German influence has b een at work in Slovene

s The A Land . administration has be en ustrian in

Th e name and Prussian in spirit . National Council created b y the German parties took into its hand s the appointment of o fficials and judges

As in Slovene countries . soon as there was a post to be filled in the Government of the Slovene countries, the National Council sought out a suit able Pan German can didate and forced the

The r Government to support him . ight to nomi nate officials passed latterly into the hands of a

Pan German clique . Fanatical Pan German f b o ficials and judges sought, y all means, to hasten the Germanizing of the Slovenes .

Rus s mn -le I t was not the roub , but the German mark, which held sway throughout the country . The land on the linguistic frontier w as bought by Pan - German as s oc i at i ons and given to Pruss ian E s . colonist Here was Central urope anticipated .

Th s . e paramount aim was to de troy Slovene nationality . I t is a hard task to convince people who have suffered so horribly at the hands of

E . the Germans, to join Central urope A w If the llies kne their own interest, nothing but complete defeat wo uld let them acquiesce THE SLOVENES 69 in the incorporation of the Slovenes in Central E urope . I n close connection with Central E urope is the

’ A T e umann s problem of the driatic . . here is in N C e ntr al E ur o pe a very striking sentence : The Austrian and Hungarian knows that all German schemes in Turkey are nonsense without Trieste m and Fiu e . If Germany lo s es the possibility of ruling eventually (through Austrian bogus sovereignty) A i the east coast of the driatic, she w ll be unable to control Balkan affairs with any efficacy . In

s o - Ko n o is t A e the called pact of p , rchduk Francis Ferdinan d gave Trieste and the Slovene Lands to German y Austria wo uld be come a Balkan Power under German hegemony . But the importance of Trieste cannot be more strongly emphasized than by the fact t hat Germany w ished to incorpo rate i t in her scheme acce s s to the Adriatic .

T e If rieste and Dalmatia chang their rulers ,

w b f ‘A a A it ill e the ruin o ustri . ustria less the Adriatic is for Germany without importance .

.T A A s s aking from ustria the driatic coa t, the Hap

E s burg mpire lose , for Germany, every real

The E political value . dismemberment of the mpire will b e only a stringent necessity for all her

b ' e neigh ours ; and Germany, having no furth r E interest in the conservation of that mpire, will b o w to inexorable destiny . 7 0 A DYING EMPIRE

A a t s co s of nearly seven hundred kilometre , M extending from onfalcone, near Venice, to

K is the m a otor, one of ost dmirable series of

s w n . ports, islands, and landscape the orld k ows The distinguished charm of Homeric landscapes

an d lies on the mounts , hills, fjords, waters of the

nu coast of Jugoslavia . Dalmatia is one of the

wn f E kno jewels o urope . A new nation of twelve millions of men hopes that two failures for the future of E urope will be

' O ne avoided . of these failures will be the weak ness of the We stern Powers to permit the estab

h nt E A lis me of Central urope . second danger

: A A exists the driatic as mar e clausum . con s cie ntio us nation like the Jugoslavs will oppose with all her exu berant temperament and juvenile strength such an attempt to strangle her future

A - on the sea . ustria Hungary tried to e xclude b little Ser ia from the sea, and the consequences of that attempt have been disastrous for the tt i Monarchy . Perhaps a future historian will a r bute the death of the old Hapsburg E mpire to her attempt t o kill the futur e of a nation b y excluding her from the sea . GERMANS ver sus jUGOSLAVS

IN E G e advocating Central urope ermany, sp ak

Yo u ing to the Slav nations, uses this argument

ar e too we a G . ak, you must join reat Power

G ma d s er ny, of course, does not preten to addres

w b ut she Slav nationality as a hole, in its unity,

v s addresses separately Czechs, Slo ene ; Croatians,

b . ar e Poles, Ser ians Germans very fond of strong expressions Slav nations have been calle d by t he ge neration which followe d the unification of

Germany : Volke r diing e r e thnic manure .

Slavs have to. manur e the soil of other nations

. t e to make that soil fertile . VVlha tru German

' b ar b ar ism l .They call little Slav nations also

Volke r splitt e r the ethnic fragments - l Germans think they are so we ak that they want to be patronized by Germany, that they are not

inde e nd ripe for, and not capable of enjoying p ence . I t is a truism that Slovenes are too small a nationality to organize an independe nt national n 7 2 A DYING EMPIRE

T e and life . h y must be united with Croatians b a Ser i ns . I f it is true that Germans are the methodic organizers of E urope— they certainly

a as f ncy themselves such, while they do not

i ment on jugoslav unity . Germans are unfit to understand a great national conception of a foreign nation, fighting for existence, for victory . Ger m wi e ans ll not see Jugoslavs, they see only Slov nes ,

b . Croatians, and Ser ians

M/i o i hat ab ut Croatians and Serbians, and the r relation to the Central E uropean Commonwealth ? The German whip (if ever flo ur ishe dv l) w ill force C roatians and Serbians of the Hapsburg Monarchy E to join Central urope .

The a the . policy of Germ ns, rulers of Central

E b e A urope, will only a continuation of ustrian and Magyar methods comb ined with Prussian . There is no doub t that Ger man y will adopt a principle of the days of me diae val feudal rule .

As e a. feudal s igneur had his vassals rendering

e E their ob dience, so also, in Central urope ,

w a e c Germans ill hold Hungari ns in ob dien e, and

n e these agai Croatians, and these p rhaps again T Serbians . hat will be the holy hierarchy of modern feudali sm . Germany will follow the glorious traditions of

A s s h e w so w i u i l u tria ill relig o s discord, w l try to

r i t th sti up religious hatred in Bosn a, will exploi e

7 4 A DYING EMPI RE

A . t a tress peasantry, full of s rength and of

b e in healthy constitution, will driven to German industrial life . Jugoslav peasantry and democratic public spirit will be sacrificed to Prussian ab so

lutism .

An English statesman expre sse d a political t ruth of great value when he said that there is no ff art so di icult as that of ruling a depe ndency .

Vi w I f that is true from the political point of e , A it is no less true with regard to economics . countr y without political self -government must decay in such miserable conditions as the pre dominant nation prescribe s to the prejudice of a dependency and its commercial and e conomical T policy . he German merchant and business man will have the oppo rtunity in the South of estab lish ing a commercial policy which will have only o ne

r — m and c us pu pose to expand German co merce, r h every attempt of the dependency to delive r itself from the foreign economic master . The great political ideal to - day existing in every conscientious Jugoslav has no more intransigeant enemy than Germany . Germany will never permit the national unity of the Slovenes, Croats, and

Serbians to assert itself . But the po litical nega tion has as a consequence an economical negation Jugoslavs must not have the right to b e free from foreign economical exploitation and misrule . GERMANS ver su s J UGOSLAVS 7 5

I t cannot be affirmed too strongly that Central E urope is nothing else than a successor to Pan

Germanism . Only the methods are changed ;

e e v people have b come rath r more clever . and ha e m asked their aims under a less offensive aspect .

A a But the aspect is really the same, to control ustri ‘ G n and the Balkans, through a system of erma a scendancy .

' We need not here repeat all the prejudices shown by Pan -Germanism to the We stern branch

T has of the Southern Slavs, the S lovenes . here b ee n a hard fight for national existence on the part of a little nationality of one million and a half against the giant of more than eighty millions . German influence tried to expel the Slovene a and the l nguage from board and school, in b countries of the national oundaries of the North,

th e D and Mu e on rava the ra Riv r, a horrible struggle for the soil was raging . Like the sea noisily and ruthlessly advancing

e up the b ach, so has German ascendancy devoured

e and f the land of the Sloven , all its e forts have b een towards the diminution of the Slovene census . They have b een strongly s upported in that purpose by the Austrian bureaucracy and by the adminis t r T atio ns of the bo roughs . o understand the great influence of Germans in local government d u bo ies, we must know something abo t the 7 6 A DYING EMP IRE artificial sys tem of e lector al franchise and of local gover nment b odie s which gave t o Ger ‘ n c s l ma s, in ountrie national y intermingled, the administration of towns and parishes also we must

e The b ar in mind that they are only a minority . officials of each community carried out the census i n an d the interest of their party, thousands and thousands of Slovenes appeared for that reason h as Germans . T e falsification of the census was

' one of the mo st po pular instruments of the political struggle, and this was why Slovenes were forced

‘

n . to orga ize a private census In Carinthia, the Sl ovene political society was dissolved because — ‘ they organized a private census an act of petti

A - a ness which, to the nglo S xon mind, proves the most retrograde narrown ess of political spirit . In Grea t B ritain a private ass ociation can create an

‘ m in eo ar y, but Austria p ple are punished for i do ng again for t hemselve s accurately, what the

n e w t th State had do i h e purpose of falsification . E migration is a second r eason why the Slovene E population is not increasing . migration to German countries and overseas was caused by A economical decay . N 0 other ustrian nationality

‘ participated to the same degree in emigration . E migration ruined not only Slovene countries, taking away workers and so b ringin g agriculture to an economic standstill, but also the health of GERMANS ver s us J UGOSLAVS 7 7

ff b e i the emigrants, who su ered horri ly under for gn

O ar e e m conditions of life . verseas Slovenes

r h ' l a i ployed in eve y form of ard bour, ow ng to

s s no the fact that only un killed worker , and t

' qualified men, leave the country . The German infiltration in Croatia was of

The another kind than in the Slovene Lands .

o an pr cess was indirect and far less d gerous . Croatia had her own historical and political ih

' div d al it m I 8 i u y . In the days of absolutis from 49

1 8 60 an to , the German l guage supplanted the f — old o ficial language Latin . But the reign of A f . th e o Germanization was short fter fall Bach ,

fi a Croatian became the of cial lang u ge . The

w as C b ut ruling class roatian, it was not strong

‘ The enough to organize economic life . German Jew had the oppo rtunity to exploit the situation

An d in his favour . the German Jew w as the

is vo a e r P n - co mm y g u of a Germanism .

E o f E In the ast urope, in the countries which nevertheless have been included in the system of — the historical evolution of the West for example, — m Hungary and Croatia w e see a curious tendency to emphasize the constitutional, that is f the political , side of State life, orgetting the importan ce of the economic factor in politics . In a country where the great landown er and the farmer are the most important factors o f 7 8 A DYI NG EMPI RE

i econom c life, where there are no clashing ff l di erences between abour and capital, the formalities of constitutional struggle put economic w problems in the background . Nations ith a deep sense of the mystic of po litical institutions will prefer to discuss the subtleties o f the rights h of Crown and Parliament, rather t an be interested in material questions . An example

ar e xce lle nce of a political nation , p , are the

Magyars . It would be an injustice to deny the extraordinary political skilfulness of the leaders

i of that nation , their ncomparable political temperament , unfortunately used far more for bad than for good ends . But in their obsession t for constitution, they have forgo ten that a State without an economic basis is a castle in the air What is wanted there is a class to organize e conomics 1 The Hungarian nobleman was born to rule

c s and ommand, not to be a merchant and hop

T - keeper . here is no middle class , and the lower

l i i c asses are in ignom n ous subjection, or else they

are of Slavonic race . Who is to organize economics ? The German Jew was the necessary

- substitute for a much needed middle class . He adopted without qualms of conscience Magyar ideology of oppression and phraseology of a

fictitious liberty . H e became the most impo r tant GERMANS ver su s J UGOSLAVS 7 9

supporter of Hungarian economics . Without the Of s M . Jew , agyar political life was as nothing what use was it if the Jew becomes knighted, becomes a Hungarian magnate ? Under the historic gala dress of a Hungarian magnate there

a s a is lways the heart of a tranger, prep red

e a s ur treacherously. to b tray the m ster, and to T render to the enemy when the hour calls . he Magyar nation has in the event of the victory of the Al lies her most formidable foe in the

- h o v Jewish middle class , whic will go er straight way to the enemy . It is a pity that Croatian constitutional law is ter r a inco nita a g not only for diplom tists , but also T for constitutional experts . here is a most fully

“ developed parallelism between Hungarian and

An d M Croatian constitutional law . every agyar is proud that his roots of constitutional history E have so close an analogy with nglish institutions . C roatia, formerly, was never subjugated to Th Hungary . e Croatian kingdom was in a special old - fashioned relation of juridical s o cie tas to Hungary . Hungarian and Croatian publicists

s o s e st r ime denote the two kingdoms as sister , p in Croatian language . Hung ary and Croatia deal with commo n aff airs on a footin g of absolute

The equality . two countries are two equal

c a a ee e ' t e juridical subje ts , m king gr m nts with 80 A DYI NG EMPI RE ci r o cal The i ic i n l p assent , h stor al constitut o a relation between Hungary and Croatia is far less clo s e than that of a confederation it ‘ is a special i M relation, wh ch we often encounter in the iddle

A s e ges, when the tie between State and Stat

e r have been nev very strong . Hungarian, as also Croatian , constitutional law is full of l conceptions of the mediaeval estates of the rea m .

‘ The fundam enta l compacts are dr awn up b y

E The the states of Croatia and Hungary . c l onstitutiona traditions of Croatia are splendid, and the historian o f the Cr o atian Sab o r s w ill find a veritable t reas ure - house for the s tudy of me dimval State life But Croatian state smen and politicians to the e n d of the pas t cen tury estimated wrongly the importance of economics in the

State . The old Croatian political culture was adapted

was for nobleman and lawyer . It an agricultural

o ' fo r c untry, where there was no struggle

. e existence In the first half of the past c ntury,

E w s in l e when ngland a ful industrial developm nt,

Croatia was untroubled by economic evolution .

as - as an In patriarchal , e y going, and ple ant m ner, the ruling class of Croatia enjoyed life . It was

n a pastoral idyll, as it were, only i terrupted by exciting Sabor debates , in which the patriotic Illyr ics defended the constitutional rights of the

82 A DYING EMPIRE

Croatian nation concluded that pact with the

Hungarian . But behind this constitutional T phras e ology was the devil . o Croatia financial autonomy was not gran ted . In the Parliament of Budapest taxation has been by vote, and

financial administration is in Hungarian hands . But the Sabor of Zagreb had no voice in T finan cial and economic legislation . his was a disastro us state of things for Croatia . .What availed autonomy in internal affairs of justice

the f co ns t itu and instruction, all ormalities of t io nal i law, if the enemy used econom cs with the sole purpose of destroying Croatian ln

? f o dependence Railway policy, tari fs , tax p licy, these have been the principa l weapons of

An d a Hungary against Croatia . Croati has stood

' helpless under that s torm of economic i njustice and exploitation with the fundamental law in

'

. c her hands Pauperism, e onomic decline, emi

r at io n g , demoralization , have been the dreadful consequence of the neglect of ‘ economics in the

T e organization of a commonwealth . h example of Croatia is typical of the value of economics and their influence in constitutional life . German colonization in Croatia is not at all

1 2 0 a new feature . In 9 there was a German

l s Co ony in Varazdin, and a few year after

Germans colonized the eas tern part of Slavonia . GERMANS ver s u s J UGOSLAVS 83

But it is in the eighteenth century that German emig ration comes really to the fore, when the E mperor Joseph II and the Croatian aristocracy

- To . introduced new colonists . day per cent T of the population of Croatia are Germans . hey

’ are living either in th e greatest town s o r in the f o most ertile pr vinces, as in Slavonia and u - Syr mi m . In Croatia there are twenty nine — German scho ols not in itself an excessive f number, but there is another act that is very, s ignificant in this q u e stion of the relations between

s ruling race , namely that the greatest contingent in Hungarian schools in Croatia are German . The German co lonist is sending his children into the Hungarian school . A lot of Hungarian schools would be closed if these were not used

n by Germans . In Croatia many Germa papers

s are published, and German nationalist ocieties are working hard . It is foolish to divide Croatia - Slavonia into O Catholic and rthodox parts , for there is an O rthodox population even in th e western pa rt of Croatian territory . For example, in the ‘ ’ s O di trict of Krizevci I per cent . are Orthodox ; in part o f Carniola and not far from Karlovac there is a settlement of Greek Catholics a d r n in the district o f Jast ebarsko 50 per cent .

The of the population are Greek Catholics . 84 A DYING EMPIRE

- C o i and south west of roatia, Vojnic , Slunj , G sp c, Th o . e Gracac, is str ngly Orthodox county of

o Srem (Syrmia) IS , from the religious p int of

as view, very mixed, there are elements of

O - O - m riental rthodoxy, Greek Catholicis , Luther

i m - an s an d e w . O f th S , J e eventy one districts of

- n l Croatia Slavonia D y twelve are purely Catholic, while of the seventeen town s only one is purely

o o n e i Catholic, and nly, a m xture of Catholic and

Jewish .

8 2 Cro atia is an agricultural country . 7 8 per

cent . of the Croatian s are peasants ; 97 3 per

. t he . cent belong to industrial class , per cent

m e r c . are in Govern ent employ, and p ent are

. co in trade In mparison with Croats, Slovenes

o f incline more to trade, but the percentage the

agricultural population is only 3 pe r cent . less

The than among the Croatians . land question

is not regulated nearly, so well in Croatia as it

is in the Slovene countries . In Slavonia and

‘ s Syrmia e pecially, the land is in the hands of

' r O German and Magya aristocrats . n an average the Croatian peasant own s from one to five jut r o s

2 r in (Joch ) . But 5 pe cent o f the land the county of Srem is in t he h an ds of lan d proprietors

wh wn o o more than a hundred jut r o s . In the

‘ O o v county of sek the prop rtion is e en worse, the

’ s r g reat landed proprietor taking 3 5 pe cent . GERMANS ver s us J UGOSLAVS 85

o r s n Vir evitica but the w st of all i the cou ty, of , w 0 2 here the pro portion i s 6 pe r cent . 5 per

. w e cent , then, of Crotia is o n d by the great

n n hu e ut r o s la dlords of more tha a ndr d j , and

0 b . s m 3 per cent y, the small farmer of fro one

u r o f e r did r e . to five j t s . Lati undia p e Croatian In Croatia the land is far mo re fertile and better cultivated than in Slovenia . In the county of Zagreb per cent . o f the land is arable

h - ci or orticultural, in B elovar Krizev per

. and 1 e r n . cent , in Srem 59 9 p ce t , but in the

- is last mentioned county only pe r cent .

l . c 0 forest and Styria, on the ontrary, has 5

e an a n and per cent . for st l d, C r iola Carinthia

n s 44 per cent . Arable la d and garden in d l i i 1 e r c . an in Car nth a occupy. 4 p ent , Carnio a

1 . o . N s 5 per cent of the wh le area evertheles , the

Croatian peasant is poorer than the S lovene .

Viticulture is very. impo rtant in Croatia . In

r ce th e the county of Varazdin pe nt . of

e i b . v s superficial ar a is occup ed y ineyard , in

' he Zagreb 1 55 per cent . T total for C roatia

. e Slavonia is 3 per cent , but th re are districts 8 such as Sremski Karlovci where 4 5 7 per cent .

e s of the area ar vineyard . In Styria vineyards

1 e r . occupy 4 p cent of the land, but these are only in the Slovene south . Carniola has less — vit c l r e o er ce n . i the l i u tu nly p t , but n I lyrian 86 A DYING EMPI RE

littoral 7 per cent . o f the l and is taken up by

s The vineyard . crux of Croatian economics is

Th e the lack of industrial development . few industrial enterprises ar e in the hands of

h s foreigners . Croatia a an economic basis of import and export only to and from‘ Austria of and Hungary, to the economic boundaries

has which two countries she is confined . She no eco nomic relations w ith either the Western

- l . States o r the Ba kans , except Bosnia Herzegovina

1 1 6 1 s In 9 3 Croatia had bank , savings

8 2 co - banks , and 3 credit operative societies , but in 1 9 1 2 Slo vene countries had no less than 543 of the latter .

Croatia has some splendid navigable rivers . Seven hundred kilometres of the course of the

lie e e o Sava in Croatian territory, whil ther are als

2 0 0 m o f the 0 0 kilo etres Danube, 3 of the D rava,

1 1 0 T 1 0 and of the River Kupa . here are 5 steamer s for the Adriatic traffic, with a total of to ns . German infiltration in Bosnia - Herzego vina is

“ perhaps mo re methodical than in Croatia . As f r . o a matte of fact, only per cent the

an m population is Germ , but German im igration

o r r it is devel ping in an extraordina y manne , and finds in the economically undeveloped Jugoslav

n population a innocuous compe tit or . The Ge r GERMANS ver s us J UGOSLAVS 87 man C oloni e s a r e e ithe r offi cial creations of the Government o r established by individual initia

- tive . We see here the Pan Germanic tendencies of the Dual Monarchy ; German schools are in Bosnia - Herzegovin a established by the

Government . The colonists are mostly Pro testant . It is hardly necessary to say that the German nationalist o rganizations for Pan German ic propaganda have their branches in

- Bosnia . Pan Germanism has been at work in Bosni a perhaps mo re intensively than in any other Jugoslav country . Here Germanization has had a special colonial character which does not exist in the more progressive countries in the N orth . But although G e rman colonists in Bosnia are

u a not too n merous, Germ n influence is extra l f ordinarily strong . A l the o ficial apparatus has

an t he been Germ , and German language is perhaps spo ken more in Bosnian tow ns than in

' c l ffi the Slovene ountries and C roatia . A l the o cial world us e s German . German is the languag e of

' f o f the o ficers , the restaurants and hotels, of the

and music halls disorderly houses . Germany has been the master -mind in Bosnian Th n . e politics , using economic mea s precepts of the German teacher have been imitated by the G n h ove r ments of t e Hapsburg monarchy. 88 A D YING EMPI RE

Railway policy became a metho d of politic war a M fare in favour of Germ ns and agyars . We see different ways of carrying out this E s a e . hrewd and e rn st policy very, Southern Slav T country is treated in a different manner . here are four diff erent methods of subjugating the Southern Slav countries to German Magyar

The domination . Slovene Lands , Croatia, Dal ff matia, and Bosnia o ered various possib ilities

’ d n of bringing economic isunion to the ation . O f all countries of the Southern Slavs , either A in ustria or Serbia, the Slovene Lands have

The had the greatest number of railways . most

i E e important l nes , even before the Great urop an — Wa r T - C — , have been rieste Ljubljana elje Graz, and Trieste—Gorica (Gorizia) —Celovec (Klagen furt) These important veins of commerce united t he Slovene countries with the South of

The T Germany and Vienna . railway line, rieste

K1a e nfur t fi r s t - A Celovec j( g ) , a class lpine railway

‘ ' v r e at connecting, at no g distance from the Italian

c I z o nz o frontier, the So a Valley f( ) with Carniola

v and Carinthia, has been a ery do ubtful asset to — the Slovenes in fact it has almo st proved

The disastrous . German push to the South, to

A o the driatic, became str nger in the Slovene

Lands just after the opening of that railway, which became there fo r e a fo rmidable We apo n o f

90 A DYING EMPI RE

Dalma tia has been a terribly neglected land Th from the railway po mt of view . e rebellious s D pirit of almatia has an economic origin, for it is due to the fact that it has never been give n h . w a coast railway Sibenik is united it Split , and south of Ragusa a very short line has been built . But the most significant fact is that the

o o a is most imp rtant p rt in the country, Sp lato,

w h The not connected it the H interland . Hun garlans only permitted the junction of the

s - e Bo nian H rzegovinian railway, B rod Sarajevo T Gruz ;(D ub r o vn ik) in the first place because this line was in their e conomical s phere in — the second because it was a bad line the gauge — ‘ was narrow and therefore it could do no harm t o Hungarian economic plans . It is an intere sting fact that in the time of the Turkish domination

B an aluka the j line was built, which was to join

h n and Sarajevo wit Zagreb and Ljubljana, orth,

— - Sarajevo Skoplje Constantinople, south . But the Austro - Hungarian Dualism had no t th e slightest intention of allowing far - reaching plans o f that

Th al kind . e railway policy of Bosnia has ways been directed solely according to the wishes of Vienna and Budapest the welfare of the country itself has never been considered . Railways have been built, but mostly fo r strategical reasons .

a In He rzegovina eve ry, station was built s a GERMANS ver s us J UGOSLAVS 91

E v fortress . conomic purposes have ne er been

c . onsidered Railways were designed to separate , f . m not to unite the countries But ro the political, as also from the legal point of view, it is a very interesting fact that in Bosnia -Herzegovina no railway could be built without the approval of the Austrian and Hungarian Government . It should be noted that one of the paramount reasons which shattered Austrian patriotism in the public Opinion of the Slavonic South w as th A - e criminal railway policy of ustria Hungary . E co nomic negligence in the South was one of - A the grave diggers of ustria . AUSTRIA -H UNGARY JUDGE D BY B ISMARC K AND TH E PAN-GERMANISTS

I MUST point o ut a very stran ge failure in the

Al s politics of the Great Wa r . l the world look

- e A . We at G rmany, nobody at ustria Hungary should vary an old Fren ch sentence The M the fo e . Hapsburg onarchy, that is In no o ther Al lied co untr y is the indulgence towards Austro - Hungarian slavery greater than

E i s in free E ngland . nglish public op nion judge Austro - Hungarian robber y with incredible kind

T LAUst r ian s h s s ness . hes e and even t e e Hungarian ar e e l e e u such nice p op , they hav s ch kind

‘ n s lk s o w e ' An d ma ners in ociety, they ta ll

did do w h E m e t e what they, it nglish n in h ir co untry in war -tit h e ? Thes e candid Viennes e

r an E h t did not inte n nglis jockey, but lef him free to train the racehorses of his Vienna master l And there are restless Slavonic peo ple wishin g to des t r oy this go od o ld Aust rian ho use ' 93 N AUSTRIA-HU GARY 93

O bjections of that kind will not arise in E n E glish political circles , but nglish public opinion is not ye t free from proclivities of that kind . Such excessive and can did indulgence can only be defended o n the grounds that it is in E the true nglish interest . The members of the Jugoslav Committee sacrificed their whole existence, all their property, well knowing that only one thing can save the

s i nation , and that is a mercile s struggle aga nst

A e t ustria . But the Jugoslavs are fully awar hat A their policy, the dismemberment of ustria, is E a uropean necessity, and a condition for the

? - evolution of British world power . H e who saves

A - ustria Hungary will save Germany, and will give Germany a better oppo rtunity of destroying English world -power B ryce wrote once Empires may take a

’ long time to die The long duration of Turkey s

- No w death throe s is due t o mistaken policy .

— - another sick man Austria - Hungary is in the E uropean nursing home . He is condemned to

. E death by, all doctors Will perhaps an nglish

e ? s o i t d b e nurs try to save him If , woul e a crim f to all uture B ritish generations .

,We e a m in are living in an xtr ordinary, ti e, which the most powerful problems are easy to t realize . But a time like his does not want 94 A DYI NG EMPIRE

m trim ers ; there should b e no hesitation , no salvation of the ghosts of the past . What E urope wants is the unconditional dis

A - H T memberment of ustria ungary . hat is the only logical outcome of a process of dissolution, which has lasted for more than half a century . The Great War was the last shock needed to bring this ancient building hurtling to the ground . After the defeat of Turkey at Kumanovo in

‘ 1 1 2 a 9 , there was , in the he rt of every Serbian

‘ t he co nvictio n that A peasant and soldier, ustria

“ Hung ary must share the fate of Turkey . Austria

H T The ungary is the Central European urkey . analogy between Austria and Turkey is really asto nishing . The degree of disintegration is in Th ff both cases the same . e only di erence is that Austria -Hungary as a We stern E mpire shows on her death -bed a little more Wes tern culture than her E astern brother . It is extraordinarily instructive to note how far - sighted Pan - German political writers were

s The with regard to the Hap burg Monarchy . bes t arguments and truest estimates of the rule of Au s tria ar e to b e found in Pan - German t W poli ical literature, hich speaks the truth about

Austria with remarkable candour . It was t he poet Arndt who marked out the AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 95

The natural fro ntiers of Germany . boundary A in i s A . the South the driatic But upon ustria, a k as a part of Germ ny, devolves the tas of con quering the Turkish provinces for German y . She

- must follow the great world road of the Danube . Nobody better than B ismarck has laid down with such fine acumen the importance o f the

Haps burg E mpire to Germany . H is policy with

- regard to Austria Hungary was a masterpiece .

A 1 8 66 H e saved ustria in , but only in the T interest of Germany . here is no more curious history than the two cases of the salvation of

1 8 A s Austria . In 49 the fate of u tria was in A the hands of the Russian Czar, who saved ustria only because she was the representative of the

the principle of authority, divine right of kings ,

An r i an d of Conservative policy . d ass y is quite

’ right in saying that Russia s policy in 1 8 49 was

' uixotic . Russia did not, in the year of

n the revolution , understa d her true interest, which was the dismemberment of Austria .

B ismarck was far more clever in 1 8 66 . He saw clearly that the existence of Austria was Th absolutely necessary for Germany . e quintes

’ sence of B ismarck s policy w as Germany wants A ustria, and therefore she should spare that E A mpire . He knows that ustria will be Ger

’ many s best ally . He is not at all s ure that 96 A DYING EMPIRE

Aust r 1 . m e s he a has a strong vitality ; he co par r . to a house b uilt with bad brick ( 1 8 67 ) — But the cement is excellent the German po pula A tion of ustria . We may ask what will be the

af d result, if ter the efeat of Germany, this cement disappears ? B ismarck asserts q uite frankly 1 8 8 8 A ( ) in the Reichstag, with regard to ustria Hungary I t is not sentiment that unites us and our allies in a commonwealth of peace ; it is the urg ent interes t we have in a E uropean

The b alance of pow er and in our own future . great Chancellor is partially mistaken Austria

a Hung ry, under the protection of Germany, was not in favour of a E uropean b alance of power . Modern Austro -Hungarian history is the history G w of absorption by ermany, an absorption hich has in fact destroyed a E uropean b alan ce of power . I n the same sitting Bismarck asked “ Imagine Austria effaced from the map of

E ? e w urope W shall be isolated from Italy, bet een

e Russia and France, b tween the two greatest mili tary powers in the neighbourhood of Germany .

‘ w s be t wo and We shall al ay one against , be

o s vi no w no w. pr bably sub er ent, to one, to another ; in our actua l situation that is impo s

a t E w s ible . We c nno imag ine urope ithout

Austria . “ The e xisten ce o f Aus tria is nothing less than

98 A DYING EMPI RE a European crisis could touch Ger man inte res ts only inasmuch as Germany is w ith Austria in a

' w We ln solidarity of relations of po e r . could te r po late here the suggestion that it was not at all necessary for Ge rmany to plunge Austria into war with Serb ia . I t is a distortion of the truth to maintain that Austria is the innocent lam b which did not harm T anybody . he hatred of Serbia and the Jugo

i ar slavs was n Vienna, in the Foreign and W

O f e . It wo be fices, stronger than in B rlin uld wr ong to think that the instigation to Austrian policy with regard to them came merely from

‘ :The ue s ar B erlin . tr inners e in the Burg of

- .Vienna and in Buda Pesth , A Germany in the spirit of B ismarck had not E A evoked a uropean crisis for the sake of ustria, had not absorbed Austria to an e xtent which E threatened urope an policy . B ismarck proposed a A f solution for ustria, very di ferent from the spirit of German policy in Austria under William

w The e e in I I , hen he said G rman Imp rial sti tut io ns show the path on which Austria can recon s t itute the political and material interests of her

u b e Ru pop lation, etw en the last frontier of the

~ man ian nationality to the Gulf of Cattaro (II .

2 f der a A H e IS for the e tion of ustria, not for

G no t t e w centralization . ermany should ak a ay AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 99 from Austria the effe ctual right o f se lf -dete rmina E tion, she should not light a uropean conflagration T A for the sak e of Austria . he existence of ustria b ut b is precarious, he means, the dismem erment of Austria will be a catastrophe for Germany . T ’ ’ hat is the true trend of B ismarck s ideas . There is perhaps no more po werful argument supporting the demand of the Austrian Slavs to dismemb er that E mpire than the voice of

B ismarck . A new witness— for our proof that Austria is — condemned to de ath is that most original Pan

Germanic thinker, Paul de Lagarde . No one

r o A wrote with more sa casm ab ut ustria, but also no other man foretold“ with greater certain ty the f On d o . oun ation of Jug slavia In his essay, the P es ent T s ks o Ger man P o lic 1 8 he r a f y, 53 ,

' as the nl remembers Croatia and Serbia o y. countries which have the possib ility of becoming an independent State (be twe en Austrian and

T c e urkish ountries) , b cause they are inhabited by a s e population of a similar culture, and of the am race . Lagarde knows very well that that is pos e sible only after the collapse of Turkey . H emphasizes in 1 8 53 the necessity that this State

w he s should embrace Bulgaria as ell, and assert that the domination of three seas w ill give to

The v . Jugosla ia a permanent material existence . 100 A DYING EMPIRE father of Pan - Germanism is the prophet of Jugo slavia . Lagarde w as car eful to avoid a germaniza M tion of the Southern Slavs . Czechs and agyars should be germanized, but never Jugoslavs .

a v For Lagarde, Germ ns and Jugosla s are the

: two chosen nations . H is words are In the whole wide E mpire the only nations that have any political value are Germans and Jugoslavs . In the so ul of Lag arde there is a dee ply rooted E b A . w contempt for ustria very ord, written y A him about ustria, is a lash with a whip . He says that Prussia has a body not big enough for A f her soul, while ustria has a su ficient body, but

An A . d no soul Lagarde asks, why does ustria exist ? The Turks no longer menace E urope . The real reaso n for the foundation of the Hapsb urg E mpire was the Turkish danger . But what is to - day the leading political idea of that State ?

T E m hati his is a question not easily answered . p cally Lagarde declares Austria has no longer

n w any pretext for existence, and nobody k o s why A she exists . But ustria has a task, and her

Hunde r t task is to b e a colony of Germany . B eas ts and hander l Andr assyi are not able to A guarantee her a place in history . ustria has no e right to State independence, she must b come a dependent on Germany That is a simple

O b e e solution . nly Germans are capa l of b ing

102 A DYING EMPIRE

Ho h n ll ;T b b e z o e m . his Gre at Ser ia as a mem er of the P an - German Confederation will enjoy a h o . a very, curi us legal position In t t Confederation

as a there will be well kingdom of Poland, a

d n Th king om of Ruthe ia and of Rumania . . e

e a o Confederation will hav two citizenships, th t f real citizens and of sub jects . Only Germans

s can be fully qualified citizens . Only German have the right : ( 1) to b e electors and eligible in m nd e Co munity, State, a Empire Confed ration,

2 o s ve in the an d a t ( ) t er Army N vy, (3 ) o e i e t la ut xerc s judicial func ions, and st b not least,

o t n (4) t acquire proper y . Slavs can only i herit ut b not otherwise acquire goods and estates . We

’ c b ut t all that folly, it is in full agreemen with

P n -Ge er a rmanic ev yday philosophy. Very sig nifican t is the fact that the author of Gr os sfl e a ls chl and considers his dream' realizable even in 19 50 . The author of another leaflet,

‘ confesses quite sin ce r e lys : D o ub t le s s t he German Empire has no reason to re joice over the b reak

o i D an b M he r up the u e onarchy, inasmuch as ' I inter nal reconstruction is not ye t fi nished . t is an extreme ly inte resting assertion that German

b -u diplomacy has a duty, to retard the reak p,

T: he although the e ffort will not be successful . t ue i e a o f the au hor is t at the conservatio n r d t h . AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 103 of Austria is in the interest of Germany until the

German spirit is thoroughl y dominant in Austria . This trend of ideas is important for the under standing o f Pan German aspirations to day .

T s a P - i here i no longer an German party, wish ng fo r the total unification of Germany and Austria H but ar e a ungary, people , for solution sparing the individual character of . the Austrian coun

The be r A ia - tries . dismem ment of ustr Hungary, a r a v s war w r u Pan - c: fte ictoriou , ill c sh Germani

- . he W Wa r aspirations for e ve r, T orld did not find Austria - Hungary s uffic1en tly prepared for

German rule . But if the war should end in a

w be dra , or diplomatists should incapable of

an the t A is underst ding rue spirit of ustria, there the danger that the Pan - German movement will aw to s e e i the m ake trong r lif , and cont nue old ga e, pe rhaps with more succe ss than b e fore . Even the Pan -German plans show us that Austria is a factor in Pan -German State - con s tructio m T e e ai l te s ma her for the m of rea sta nship, e n a Pan - an ndeavouri g to sm sh Germanism, c only be the total disme mberment of Austria “Hungary

h - e b ut w No alf m asures, a clean s eep ' Germany cannot b e more successfully defeate d than by the A O dismembe rment of ustria Hungary . nly new States can be tr ustwo rthy guards of the vital int e sts o th s n er f e Allie , Austria, although reco 104 A DYING EMPI RE

un structed after the war, would be totally able to guarantee to the Allies that she would be a

- wall against Pan German aspirations .

b E n I t is a great mistake, made especially y g

e lish political authors, to underrat the impor tance

T - of rieste an d the Slovene Lands . Pan Germans are far more shrewd with regard to the Slovene problem . Paul de Lagarde categorically emphasizes that the possession of Trieste is a vital question for E a Germany . ven though the whole I t lian nation were to assail us, that port should never fall into 8 T w 1 . the their hands, he rites in 53 rieste and

- coastland is the starting point for German trade . Modern Pan - German authors speak about Trieste even more emphatically than does Lagarde The ' words of the anonymous author of Gr e at Ge r many have a hollow ring about them . Germany, he

' n Th wi T . e says, ll never fi ally renounce rieste

c we r e full omplexity of the problem is clear, if

t o f member tha the possession that town, although

v b G e o w gi en y the r at P ers to I taly, is also coveted

The w by the Jugoslavs . muddle ill be a r danger ous one if a third Powe interferes . T But it is not only the question of rieste, Germans are clever enough to understand that T b rieste is an insepara le unit with the Hinterland . The Ge rman people have no r ight e ve r to

104 A DYING EMPI RE

e struct d after the war, would be totally unable to guarantee to the Allies that she would be a

- wall against Pan German aspirations . b E n I t is a great mistake, made especially y g

e lish political authors, to underrat the impor tance

T - of rieste and the Slovene Lands . Pan Germans are far more shrewd with regard to the Slovene problem . Paul de Lagarde categorically emphasizes that the possession of Trieste is a vital question for E Germany . ven though the whole Italian nation were to assail us, that port should never fall into

' w 1 8 T h . t e their hands, he rites in 53 rieste and

- a coastland is the starting point for Germ n trade . Modern P an -German authors speak about Trieste Th even more emphatically than does Lagarde . e

' words of the anonymous author of Gr e at Ger many have a hollow ring about them . Germany, he

T The says, will never finally renounce rieste .

c we r e full omplexity of the problem is clear, if

t o f member tha the possession that town, although

v b G a o we v gi en y the re t P rs to Italy, is also co eted

The i by the Jugoslavs . muddle w ll be a r dange rous one if a third Powe interferes . T But it is not only the question of rieste, Germans are clever enough to understand that T b rieste is an insepara le unit with the Hinterland . The Ge rman pe ople have no right e ve r to AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 105

e C a T i renounc rniola and rie ste w th the coast, irre

' s e ctive p of the people which are living there,

r e r a The says the author o f G at Ge m ny . Slovenes have only a choice betwe en Great Serbia and

Great Germany, and the anonymous author does

‘ not be lieve that they will choose the former . He

a is badly informed about that . But there is clearly expressed notion that Germany will employ all means in her powe r to save Trieste for her E mpire . Pan -Germanism shares the conviction that the possession of Trieste and the road to that world port is the real task of the Pan - German pr o

The t k gramme . realization of that paramoun tas . is one of the most striking German national O problems . nly by considering the important role of Trieste in Pan - German political co nce p tions can we correctly envisage that important E uropean problem which cann ot be resolved by a simple annexation TH E SETTLEMENT

r U S V . J GO LA IA ,

‘ IT s e e ms pe rhaps a little r ash to link Jugoslavia w es Vh at is ith British Imperi al i n te r ts . N Jugo

' slavia ? Perhaps some o ne Will tell us that it is

‘

e c l an t . a g ographi a conception, artificial hing But there was a t ime whe n I taly was called

l i . N a geographica concept on evertheless, no f r s e kil the reactionary. o ce was trong nough to l e civic ideals engraved in the hearts of m n .

To -da the l i and u i n o f all y. iberat on nificat o

a — S v — is Jugosl vs Serbians , Croatians, and lo enes a noble task whose r ealization may b e delayed

‘ a k eac r f b ut o by d r r tiona y orces, no man and n

' nation is ab le t o e xpe l the ideal from the s l f ve s f n -t e ou s o our twel million o dow rodd n, oppre ssed pe ople .

- Th Jugoslavia is not a creation o f to day . e

‘ in s . k name has its history, and its tradition Loo o e i s o f the Renais e and o ld Ven t an map sanc , y u 105

108 A DYI NG EMP I RE ideas of the rulers of this country w e should not enter into recrimin ations concerning the past .

an d Fo r every political step there is a reason, only for later generations it bears the character of a failure . I think there is much to be said

‘ o f for the famous sentence Pitt the younger,

w l : do which I il quote . Pitt said I not enter into discussion with a man who asserts that the preservation o f the O ttoman E mpire is no t a

‘ question of life and death fo r England The

l n fundamenta idea is right, only the expressio O E is wrong . If for ttoman mpire we substitute the l Ba kans, the strength of a liberated nation, Th the sentence is true to life . e Balkans ar e on the road to India . I f they, are in the hands

' a E of a hostile Great Power, Indi and the ast 4 is lost to Great Britain . l Fo lowing this tradition, a school of B ritish statesmanship a sserted the necessity of the preservation of the Grand Turk until the dawn of the B alkan war o f liberation . Disraeli and Gladstone became the two great oppo nents fighting for two different conceptions of E astern policy . I think the fundamental idea of both

’ was the same : the prote ction of B ritain s vital f interests but the means are absolutely di ferent .

’ Gladstone s co nception repr esents the most pe rfect

f t s l l model o B ri ish ocial mora ity, that idea ism THE SETTLEMENT 109 which by creating political institutions is to deliver the world from‘ the nightmare of autocracy . In the days in which the greatest member of the Slav family shook o ff a shameful yoke that was not only autocratic but German l as we l, we should listen with pious reverence to the gre at teacher of E nglish statesmanship

The th e to Gladstone . genius of hour is appropriate to his noble conception of political truth as never before . For Gladstone the deliveran ce of the Balkans from Turkish misrule was a sacred moral duty . T urkey is a legacy of woe and shame, the worst

’ ‘ that exists on God s earth . A country possessing an honest Government and civic freedom must endeavour to raise other people ’s to the same

' ‘ level . It must fight the great battle of freedom against repression for the sake of the down b h . T e a trodden nations No bless e o lig e . hum ni

n taria , religious point of View in Gladstone is

- ' The stronger than the s o called sacred egotism . creation of independent free Christian nations in the Balkan s is for Gladstone a task to be undertaken by the whole of united Europe . In d n d E E the ecisions of this u ite urope ngland, o the freest c untry, must take her part . B efore approaching the subject from' the actual e c w conomi and political point of vie , it is 110 A DYING EMPIRE

e ssential to mention two historical incide nt s . Twice in the world - history our country was

‘ chosen to be the key of the domination of the

’ E ea C t im urop n ontinen , a factor to make it possible fo r the Ge rman race to penetrate to th e

E Th f s i ff ast . e two hi to r cal cas es are very di erent

O n fi and ve ry far apart . e is the rst Slav State

S Car an tania a lovene , the second, French Illyri under Napoleon I . A glance at an historical map of early me diaeval

Europe shows us an extremely instructive fact . The Central Europe of the seventh century was

he Slav . The Slav tongue was spoken between t

’ s w two eas , hose connection under German rule

’ - ai . is the great m of Pan Germanism, viz the

The Baltic and the Adriatic . boundaries of

C ar an tan ia o a h Slovene , the first Slav comm nwe lt

the s . i in pirit of Western civil zation , was in the T yrol . The C ar ant an ians were neighbour s of

' A e e the B avarians . gainst these they defend d th ir

independence, and their fights with Bavarians in w the seventh century, are the first conflict bet een l T S avs and Germans . his early Slavonic fight for independence was the first o ppo sition to

German Imperial tendencies . The Slavonic name was for centuries the

' r symbol of serfdom . But there is no g e at e r error than the opinion that the Old Slavs were a

112 A DYING EMPIRE formed until the fifteenth centu r y in the old

Slovene language . It is absolutely impossible here to explain all the democratic ideas and allusions connected with this ceremony .

The s ir it ~ th e Democratic p , unbounded love of n e o o f o ld i depend nce, was the d om Slavonic

The State existence . international positio n of C f ar ant an ia was di ficult in the extreme . In the

South the Lombards , in the .West the Bavarians E ‘ and Francs , in the North and ast the Huns and

A Slo ve nic vars , threatened the State so strongly rooted in Central E urope . But nevertheless the German fury would never have conquered our C ar ant an ian ancestors if the Germans had not

‘ employed an excellent political s tratagem . Salz burg was the centre whence to propa gate Roman Catholicism and Christi an i ty among the l Jugoslavs . The old C ar antan ian s not on y a defended their home against Germ n invasion, l but they a so fought for their old Slavonic gods,

u Tr i lav . u fo r Per n , g , Ziva In the str ggle a national Christian Church would have saved

C ar ant an ia , but the Roman Church, as a tool

in of German conquest, destroyed Slovene A dependence . strong Slavonic State in Central E l M A urope, created in the ear y iddle ges , would have never permitted the fo undation of the

E E e l German mpire, the history of urop wou d THE SETTLEMENT 113

f h have been di ferent, and the growt of civic m E w u freedo in urope o ld have been far stronger, as the German E mpire greatly hindered free political institutions .

Slove ne inde pendence was gone alre ady . In the thirteenth century the Hapsburgs be came t he

o l r epresentatives f the German racia strength, ' ' but the o ld S lo vene installation was n o t ab o lishe d . Many Hapsburgs humbled themselves before the d Go s o s ve ts ko - ucal peasant on the p polje, in whose family the right to perfo r m the ceremony w as h a e s o n eredit ry , wearing the Slovene p a ant hat the w ay to the stone . But the hat has dis app ea red the thieves We re no t at all common

the people . It is hidden in Pro vincial House

- h mo o n . t e at Graz, the st Pan German t w Afte r victory of the E ntente the Serbian soldiers will

nd u o fi this hat and p nish the thieves , both f the

al e historical hat and of our politic indep ndence . It is a well -known fact that Napoleon the First had the intentio n of conquering India . He said n to M . de Narbonne Alexa der the Great went

‘ as far as I am' going in o rder to reach the

e o r e Gang s . F Napol on the highway t o India U was Jugoslav Illyria . nder French rule in

1 8 0 e the e o f Schéinb r unn v 9 , aft r P ace , Slo enes,

Croatians , and Serbians were for the first time

o ne e ho e - united in Illyrian Stat , w s western 8 114 A DYING EMPI RE

the a l so n z o th frontier was Soc f( ) , and in the nor f west the old Slovene district o Tyrol . What r is the pol itical significance of this Illyria ? Th e visio n of the E as t and the B al kans

s ne w i create political conceptions . Illyria w ll be

- o f the E C the high road France in ast . onstantino politan affairs can be influenced only through

The E Dalmatia . mperor sees in the Illyrian provinces a powerful instrument for his o riental H W policy . e knew that ho ever covets the domination of the E ast must b e master of the ea o f A s e t wo stern shore the driatic, becau e thes lines delimit a single ge og raphical unit . Commerce is the source of prosperity for these

The regions . grea t trade routes between the

r E s The a t and West pass through Illyria . French, when they occupied Illyria, at once understood the true character of the country . The Illyrian provinces are the natural link“ between France

Th e and the E ast . geographical situation of

i an d r Illyr a IS unique, the F ench have openly Th declared it to be so . e French realized that the Adriatic is th e chief means of communication for these regions . Without the Adriatic there

The . can be no prosperity for Illyria , French mm founded the first Chamber of Co erce there,

h T. he d copying Frenc institutions . French a ministrato r s wer e convinced o f the gre at pos sible

116 A DYING EMPI RE

Tu and G an s—o e w IS rks erm ppr ssion, hich the Th n stronge st co mmonwealth maker . e natio artificial ly divided in every possible way by the l hn s n se fis e s of foreig Powers , was a prey to the oppressive policy of two E mpires which

- ’ ar e to day on the verge of cataclysm . No ec o e w as on mic evolution was possible, ther poverty instead of wealth, isolation instead of co minunicatio n

It was t he monstro us exploitation of a healthy and young nation which was attacked by two h c s t e A an d the T E s . orpse , ustrian urkish mpire

T s e w r the a the i r hese Jugo lav mass s e e raj , m se a e Kult ur diin e r u u bl plebs, the g the c lt re

'

an the man s l . m ure, as Ger de icately put it But this Slavonic mass was not only united by c mo es l th om n oppr sion , but a so chiefly, by e economic an d geographical unity of the countr y

' occupied by it . It is very true that the g eo graphical configuration of the country is such

u la i e that it wo ld weld the popu t on together, ev n

' if it were not al ready of one blo od . Le t us fi r é t of al l co nsider the count r y as a geogr aphical unit . Jugoslav t errito ry has the formof an imine ns e Th equilateral trian gle . e mo st w estern po int

the (O T i lav is Slavonic lymp, the r g on the

- C arnio lian n ie . The mos t s u . Italian fro t r o thern THE ' SETTLEMENT 117

‘ ‘ is the G s The i ree k Olympo . indivisible nat onal unit extends fr om the s ource of the Sava and

. The Drava to the source of the classic Peneios .

v M e ar e the s D ra a, ura, and the Danub fine t s a e lin es a n e b ut be the tr t gical im gi abl , yo nd s o and D rava lies the Go po sve t sk Field, beyond the i th c B ar an a an d Danube l e e B a ka, j , Banat,

u he — i e pop late d by Serbians . T D rava Danube l n is a waterway of capital impo rtance . Jugoslav territory as a geographical and economic unit has a great river line in the Save

‘ n e i in the N 0 e D a ub l ne orth, nearly 7 5 kilom tres l in length . It will be a valuab e commercial

- .Th wi . m e . M v artery in the futur e ora a, flo ng fro

S h e . the the out , the Danub coming from North, ar e bo th mighty rivers in the neighbourhood of

e l T ar s and B grade . here e also the River Bosna

Na a h a the rent , through whic connection with

A d {The ma driatic could easily be cons truct e . g nific‘ ent Adriatic coast as an e conomic line is

‘ the — The parallel to the Save Danub e line .

M a e i i c as a orav , too, possesses conom c mportan e possible connection with the E g e an through the T h Va rdar valley . hus Belgrade might be in touc with Central E urope through the valley of the

e the an Sav , and by another route through D ube, b with the Black Sea y the Danube, with the

Z/E e an M v an d g by the ora a and Vardar valleys, 118 A DYING EMPIRE with the Adriatic b y the valle ys o f the Bosna l n and N e r e tva . B elgra de ies betwee three s e as, and has the future of a world emporium of com m erce b efore it . A mer e glance at the map

wi l the h as . If o u l prove trut of this sertion r .

be E W State idea the reconciliation of ast and e st,

b e at e i e it must not forgotten th thos mighty r v rs, ’ N e t s i , ature s gift, have indicat d hi pol cy Jugo a u l k t n two w slavi is the nat ral in be we e orlds,

West and E ast .

e o Now we will quot a Fre nch p litical writer, whose genius and hatred of Ge rman y is his be st Th m recommendation . e man is an anony ous

w b the political riter who , efore outbreak of the

- s a I Franco Prus i n war, traversed the Jugoslav countries of the Austrian and Turkish E mpires . The b ook he wrote af ter the French defeat about Le pays Yo ugoslave o r Jugoslavia is o ne of the most amazing documents of Jugoslav unity .

t who He is an ardent French pa riot, sees the

Pan -G He be v erman danger coming . lie es that E uropean civilization is threatened b y victorious

To C Germany . heckmate Germany there is one

— v powe rful remedy the establishment of Jugosla ia .

’ man a o slaw a in This , who published his j g

1 8 7 4, is a writer of wonderful political acumen, and a scientist whose methods are sociolo gically — t bo corre ct a po litical prophet . Reading his ok

120 A DYING EMPIRE

s we ll . The anonymo us French write r i abs olutely aware of her important role : — The possession

of the rivers an d of. th e southern slopes is to the Balkan peninsula what the posse ssion of the P 0 is to the Italian peninsula (p . And this b rings us to the hear t of o ur d1s

T m ns the course . he anony ous Frenchman explai — impo rtance of the Vienna Constantinople route .

’ ‘ While quoting him we must not forget that this

E . b e i e . route to the ast must changed, it must be removed from German influence . — T t . r he e i e . Vienna Constantinopl rou e, the g eat — route of Ce ntral E urope its ge ographical and

x th e h h - d w commercial a is, ig roa bet een it

’A c m an s ua the e and sia, o m d eq lly, rout of the A C t b i . e. D anu e to the driatic, from en ral,

h an d E e to the s Nort ern , ast rn E urope ba in of

M n an to t -B m E and the editerra e , Sou h aste urope Northern and E astern Africa this he art of its political and econom i c life of which it

{ the Jugoslav lan d) possesses the greatest share . The anonymous Frenchman does not doubt but — A that the , Save Danube and driatic economic

s h s frontier is a sociological nece sity . He emp asize that no nation could ever live exclusively on one

b ut Slope only, was always forced to spread to the other . For him this is a moral, political, and

2 2 0 geographical law (p . ) THE SETTLEMENT 121

The conce ption of mutual rel ations be twe e n

;T Jugoslavia and Italy is extremely instructive . he two be coasts should like two lovers, developing

/ ' a m u e t u a es T s ut al lectr zci é de pr o d ctio ns t idé . hi E ast co ast of the Li ttoral must b e come o ne of the c On c as t entres of Europe an commerce . this o

’ the an A n . the D ube, ustria, Hungary, Ruma ia,

S v N la countries of the orth, Bohemia, Poland,

n R A b a and G e all eve ussia, l nia, r ece, but above w il u Jugoslavia l accum late their products, this coast will b e the outlet of all these countries to

e to the W st, and for some of them equally the

E ast (p . wi the H itherto this country, o ng to fact that the several geographical lines we re cut o ff from

a was b the e ch other, not a le to unfold to world

' The 0 the wealth of its natural resources . Jug

w O se ce. S vs slavs ere an ppres d ra of la , weak, not capab le of impr o vmg the geographical situa

w s A i t ion . I t a a small Darkes t frica in the m dst E of urope . — The French I ron Mask thus I will call the anonymous Frenchman— is convinced that this T country has a gr eat future . here will come a

s complete transformation of these land , their agri

r e sur r e c cultural, industrial, moral, and political

b ut k -u tion, there is one condition, the brea p of ' t — T the wo E mpires urkey and Austr ia . He openly 122 A DYING EMPI RE declare s this territory is the richest country in E urope as re gards natural products (p . The valleys of the Sava and D anube are among

t v and the mos fertile plains of the world . Sla onia Serbia are countries capable of developing a fir s t r l c s u e . n a e la s agric ltur Cor , fruit, c ttle, timb , wil

v be articles of export . Jugoslavia will ha e one

a e E e it of the l rgest viticultural ar as of urop ,

“ ‘ ar e x ellence will be a wine Country p c . It will

' produce wines like those o f Germany and France

N and t in the orth, hose of I taly and Spain in the

Th i fie l s South . e wealth of its m ne d has often E i been emphas ized . xtreme importance w ll attach to the industrial district of Styria and Carniola, which will supply the whole of the B al kans with industrial products . In C ar mo la and other Jugo slav countries the people have for centuries culti vate d l ff home industries, and this wil a ord a sound b asis for industrial development .

’ But what is Jugoslavia s role in E urope ? This is the crux of those most grave questions con cerning the domination or destruction of this or

that race, of the freedom or the servitude of

' E T s urope (p . hi country between the A driatic , the n ean, on the waterway of the

e s D anub , has an international ta k of world impor

The M e tance . I ron ask says, forty years b fore

W r v b the Great a , that Jugosla ia, y her physical

124 A DYING EMPI RE

‘ But no t a and M so m a b ut A i a only Indi e pota i , fr c

e ai - no less ar ms of German world conquest . I t was recently very strongly emphasized that having

l — w no t e in mind B er in Baghdad, e should forg t the

’ an — i an a i s l d road Berlin Ca ro . No t patriotic f t c , b ut the e e w i words of an exp rienc d colonial r ter,

Mr . T M b e l ed . he Saxon ills , should ca l to mind extension of Germany towards the valley of the N ile and E uphrate s would mean to England the

A a A Th e loss of frica, Indi , and ustralia . world irn o r tance e m i p of Jugoslavia, so clev rly e phas zed

M c d by our I ron ask, is orroborate by the cruel e e xperience of th Great War . We must now deal with the true economic value A of Jugoslavia . fter a short lapse of time, the

-We v the o e North st of the Jugosla territory, Sl ven

s wi b e n s l the o a d Land , ll i du tria ized, C astl n ,

Ca nt and c me e es ri hia, Carniola, Styria will be o c ntr o h f d l . s a t e in ustria life Carniola possesse Idrij , m s Eur O e ost famou mercury mine of p , where

i e o mercury has b e en m n e d for cent uries . C l vec

o e l e Ma p ssesses a m ta and pap r industry, ribor

e a machinery, Slov ne Styri . leather, Ljubljana

c and Inner Carniola earthenware, otton, and

n C e n s an d e h n . woolle s , elj a zi c indu tr y art e ware All w these industries ere supplying the Balkans , an d the rearran gement o f South - E astern E urope

“ r will cause the s e industries to expand e no mously . THE S ETTLEMENT 125

But the future of Jugo slavia lies no t in her industrial capacities . Jugoslavia is an economic thoroughfare with few in the world to equal her

e e Sh th e t he in this r sp ct . e is e real link b ween t

t he B rit ish Empire and the E as t . Hi he rto t

D anube line w as the British road to the East . But the Danube river line and the railway land

wa line pass through German lands . It s necessary o nd t fi a subs titute . Friends of Jugoslav future expresse d the sound and realizab le idea that E ng land should dire ct the E astern traffic to Con — — stantino ple no longer via Germany Vienna Buda

st b ut c h . pe , ompletely t rough Jugoslav territory — The railway co nne ction Milano- Ve nice Gorica — — Ljub ljana Belg rade Constantinople wo uld b e far

the O n E e shorter than old line of the rie t xpr ss .

But is o o ne S the m . is this nly ide of proble , I t well known that waterways are always be tter than

ile k landways . N must thin of a waterway through

to A th Jugoslavia the E ast, from the driatic to e

Black Sea . It is a ques tion of French an d I talian water way policy ho w to create a: connection b y wate r

w th e - Rh — ur ea— Po be t ee n e Se in one Lig ian S the ,

o and the Adriatic . I t is supposed not t b e im

“ practicable to c r eate a par tial waterway between these r iver systems an d seas which would connect

A la w A a ac o s the the t ntic ith the dri tic r s Continent , 126 A DYING EMPIRE and e nab le British t raffi c to re ach the Adriatic more easily . We must study the possib ility of the Jugoslav ’ t waterways more close ly . Such s udy would have most far -reaching r esults fo r British trade with E e i R the ast, esp cially w th South ussia, if there w ere a chance of connecting the Adriatic w ith

Se I th f be the Black a. f e di ficulties can over c a e m ome, which ris fro the orographical con figuration o f the watershed be twee n the Adriatic T an d l Se a e r . he the B ack , the prosp ct is ealizable N e r e tva f(Nar e nta) could be used for this purpo se

i T e as far as Ko nj ca in Herzegovina . h water

Ko n ica shed is the Ivan Sedlo metres ) . j t 2 8 0 t o n is at an alti ude of me res, and Visoko

6 The the River Bosna at o ne of 49 metres .

e ckar watershed between the D anube and the N ,

’ th e S hWab is h l o f 8 0 - 0 0 c c e r , an e 9 Jura a titud 5 0

be a metres, can negotiated, and this w terway, link

e a c ing the D anub with the Rhine, is hief

Germanic aim .

' r th e e vi o f lidi e e v F om n rons J , passing Saraj o , — the River Bosna reaches the Sava D an ube l ine S at Brod . From B rod to B elgrade the ava is an b The excellent naviga le waterway . Danube from Belgrade to the B lack Sea is known as a

a - e r m jestic high road of comm ce . It shoul d b e reme mbered that the wate r -power

v and is ve er b of the Neret a Bosna r y consid a le,

128 A DYI NG EMPI RE

r o I t w ul o via In Ge man territ ry o d g Passau ,

Nii m b e r Ratisbon, Bamberg, g to Frankfort and

t R o n Strassburg , A Strassburg the hine is c ne cte d a the M he by c nals with arne and t Seine, and this waterway is completed b o th ~ via France

L 0 ( e Havre 55 kilometres) or the N e therlands . . Thus the Black Sea may be connected with the Channel and England brought a great deal

to th E a e al u . nearer e st , esp ci ly' to So th Russia The Italians ar e occupied with the project of a canal which is to connect the Adriatic with

r T ies te . A h s ack M . M i r the Bl Sea ario lberti, in e la s io lo i a e co no mi ca fi g , suggests quite another w w T e ater ay, which is to connect ri ste with the

' i ak via K ar lo vak u Sava at S s , pas sing and tilizing

r A the River Kulpa by the way . M . lberti calls this water way the re volutionary road of the

' future . He believes that this waterway will se cure to I taly a great future in the E ast (p . I

“ ’ It is like the project of Italy s g reatness and

'

m l a an d co . We power, si p e , natur l, e nomic regret to say that in our opinion this route is neither

s na . To imple, tural, nor economic construct a cana l from Trieste to the Kulpa in Croatia is

The wa T an arduous undertaking . y from rieste to the River Kulpa crosses no less than 1 2 5 kilo

o f th e metres the Kras, famous region of grottos, and the watershed has an altitude of at least THE SETTLEMENT 129

6 k 9 7 ilometres . All this mountain country will

f The T cause engineering di ficulties . rieste

- a Karlovac Sisak can l is a beautiful dream, a pro je ct by which I talian economic expansion alone would profit . During the beginning of the Jugoslav State life the railway policy will be the mo s t important

s The in trument for w elding the nation together .

E s railway will have to unite West and a t, North and South . The chief line from We s t to E as t w ill be the line running from Gorica or Beljak (Villach) in Carinthia—Ljubljana—Zagreb— Brod— Belgrade — — Pozarevac N egotin Vidin on the Danube, cover ing a distance of nearly 7 50 kilometres .

’ A more s outherly line running wes t and east — — — will be the Zagreb Ogulin O tocac Go s pic line . A third line ought to be constructed from Zadar via Ko n ica— o— is j Sarajev Visegrad, Kraljevo , N , to

Carib rod on the Bulgarian frontier . A third line to connect West and E as t might

“ be cons idered . It would cover a distance an d run Ulcinj Skadar— Prizren—Skoplje— Kriva Palanka

(on the Bulgarian frontier) . Here we mus t touch on Tran s -balkanic project s as they appeared befo re the war . The Danube—Adriatic railway was an object of diplomatic conte s t between the E ntente and 9 130 A DYING EMPIRE

the Central Po wers . In the days of the annexa

I s vo l ski E tion, laid before urope the proj ect of a direct connection of Russia with the Adriatic . It was a counter - proj ect to the intention of Germany and Austro - Hungarian diplomacy to try and link B erlin and Vienna with Salonica by

building the railway, from Uvac (on the Bosnian Turkish frontier) to Mitrovica The E ntente diplomacy aimed at taking the Danube—Adriatic railway as much as possible through Montenegrin T or Serbian territory . hence there were two M projects , one backed by ontenegro , the Bar

A Kur suml a— — ( ntivari) , Podgorica, j N is Radujevac

r i line, and the other prefe red by Serb a , via

S nd i i n s t . M j ( Giovanni di edua) , Prizren , Fe r iso v ic Pristina Kur suml ja N is Radujevac line . These two projects were based on two — as sumptions an independent State of Monte negro and the existence of a Turkish and an

A - ustro Hungarian E mpire . But four years after

1 1 2 th e T h E the annexation crisis in 9 , urkis mpire

s collap ed, and we are sure that the same fate will befall Austria after this war . If this is —A the case, then the Danube driatic line is almost complete .

s . Starting from Split, thi line will go to S inj

Ko n ica From there to j , in Herzegovina, a track 0 m of 5 kilometres will have to be laid . Fro

132 A DYING EMP IRE

' be shifted from North to South Russia- to the T B la ck Sea . his would greatly favour Jugoslav

. economic development, as Jugoslavia would become the country of transit between E urope d E ’ an the South of Russia . Hitherto ngland s trade with Ru s sia has not been very considerable .

’ In 1 9 1 3 E ngland s export to Russia was worth

’ 1 0 7 million roubles , while Germany s export was

6 2 At worth 4 million roubles . the same time the United Kingdom imported 2 67 million roubles worth of goods, while Germany imported

“ goods to the value of 452 million ro ubles . ( There is excellent s cope for B ritish economic activity in Russia It will also be a matter of importance to Anglo -Jugoslav relations wheth er the route from Great Britain to — Petrograd continues to g o v ia Rotterdam Ber ‘ — s v ia — —M s lin War aw, and Vienna Warsaw o cow

— v Vienna Odessa . But the route ia Trieste — B elgrade O de s sa would be the most preferable . Jugoslavia can become an admirable highway between Great B ritain and Russia .

s n Jugo lavia, with her twelve million Serbia s ,

Croatians , and Slovenes , scattered upon a territory which can feed the population of a

Great Power, will , in the hierarchy of States,

‘ A s come ju s t after Italy . An ustrian tatesman asserted once that the Hapsburg E mpire is THE SETTLEMENT 133 a Great Power w ith the resources of a Middle

State The s ame is true with regard to Italy . Jugoslavia will have to face the danger of neglecting her home politics by occupying herself too much with foreign politics .

The variety of creeds, the mixture of North and

o s E as e a S uth, We t and t , will mak Jugosl vs into an extremely interesting melting - pot of the neigh

r b o u ing civilizations . But the leading aim will be the full assimilation of the political methods and the ch ief political rules of Western civiliza

. s o tion We will earch for m dels , not in a bogus civilization such as that of Vienna and Berlin, but we will go to the extreme West for social O a s pirations and prototype s . nly a society grown up in civic liberty can be a model for young nations loving civic liberty more than any other

s trea ure . The great importance of Jugoslavia will be a s an exporter o f Wes tern model s to ' the Balkans

E s o and the ast . Jugo lavia will be the m st E Western State at the gates of the ast . It will be no longer a Balkan State ; for that reason

’ it will have a privileged pos i tion with regard

s it s to Balkan State , which will receive through

‘ s medium the pattern of modern civilization .

sl as P Jugo avia will have, the Western ower of

h o u an t e Bal kans, t fulfil a tremendo s task ; d 134 A DYING E MPIRE

s w w a great re ponsibility. ill eigh on her shoulders . H er tas k will be to undertake the organization of the B alkans in the s pirit of equality and justice .

. Jugoslavia will be a living s ymbol of the reconciliation of two great human directions of civilization of West and E ast . Beside the two

s s alphabet , there will be two chief Churche , the T Roman Catholic and the Greek Orthodox . here are States in which Catholics an d Protes tants E live side by side , but no other uropean State has an almo s t equal number of Orthodox and

- O non rthodox citizens . For this reason Jugo s lavia will have a tremendous task‘ in international life in endeavouring to reconcile the Western E and astern Churches, to bring Rome nearer to M T Constantinople and oscow . her e are far reaching vistas of better international and

s religiou unders tanding between the nations . The world and Chri s tianity can only be gainer s if in s tead of hatred there wil l be religiou s

s equality and toleration , and generou friendship in place of enmity . Imagine the cupola of Bramante in Rome no

s v i i longer the ymbol of ri alry to the Hag a Soph a,

w s s two orld of tradition combined, what wealth may not s pring from thi s ground ? It will be an amalgamation of variou s c a d s f r t he ivilizations n trend of thought, not o

136 A DYING EMPIRE

On e s of the greate t Jugoslav men of genius ,

s n the Slovene poet Pre ere , wrote an heroic poem,

The s Bapti m on the Savica, the tragic story

C ir n . r to m of the fall of Slovene indepe dence , the O ld Slovene hero and champion of Jugo s lav is m N a ve c and Slavonic freedom, exclaims, i

‘ ' s ve t a o tr o ko m s lzs i Slave The greatest part

s of the world belong to the children of Slavia .

The — first Slavonic Imperialist but a bad one , as histo r y will tell us .

’ C r o ir s - t m wo rds are ho t any more true to day .

The An - c 1 glo Saxon race oc upy 7 million, an d the Slavonic race only 9 million square m iles .

w as t It perhaps rue in the eighth century ,

C r to mir when , persuaded by the beautiful convert

ate es Bogomila , the l priest s of the Ziva, goddess

his of love, gave up faith and became a

s Chri tian . H e did not fight for the greatnes s

nt of Slavdom he went i o a monastery . Pan - Slavism and Pan - Ger manism are much

s To - u ed words . day there is no s uch thin g as

- Pan Germanism in the racial sense of the wo rd .

A - s an d nglo Saxon , Dutch, Flemish are fighting

s The again t German s . racial unity of Pan G ermani s m cons istin g of all men of the same

s race i no more .

‘ The b é te no ir e of a cer tain s ection of public THE SETTLEMENT 137 opinion w as in the past a famous book by a

s an D an ile vs ki w Rus i , j by name, a work orth

- remembering to day . In this book there is not a bad word aga inst E ngland ; D anile vs kij con s t r ucts an antagonism between Russia and

E s - E e urope . But what is the o called urop of D l ki an i e vs j? It is simply German y . Russia must

D anile vs ki be free from German influence . j advocates the dismemberment of Austria and Th k Turkey . e boo was written in the beginning

‘ ’ T b ete no tr ur of the s eventie s . his e found in o days a man who was just to s o - called Pan

D an ile vski A Slavism and to j. man who is a

British Imperialist in the best sense of the word,

viz . E . P . Lewin, the librarian of the Royal

s s Colonial In titute, according to whom the ideal

’ D anil e vs ki s - of j Pan Slavism were pacific, and

E D an il e vs ki the reconstruction of urope , as j

s n sug ge ted it , nothing more tha the realization of the principle of nationality, the principle

s d Al n e w expre se in the lied Note, the Charter of E urope .

1 0 8 9 saw the Slav Congress in Prague , a l gathering of delegates of a l the Slav nations .

T wh o - here were men, will to morrow be the

s E h as M leader of the new urope , men suc asaryk,

D mo vsk a a . b y, and Kr m r Do you elieve these men were hatching Slavonic Imperialistic designs ? In 138 A DYI NG E MPIRE the old historic rooms of the Prague Town Hall Russians an d Po l e s sat side by side to settle a quarrel between the two greate s t of the Slav

us s a nations, the R sians and the Pole a qu rrel Th purposely fostered by Prussianism . e aims of Slavonic brotherhood are not aggressive . We have not yet settled the conditions of peaceful

- co ordination instead of mutual warfare . The result of the Congress in Prague was

- unfortunately not a Russo Polish reconciliation, but only a harmless book g iving in formation about the Slav nations . In the preface to this

n book Kramar, the Bohemia martyr, wrote, Slav nations are separated national individu

lit i s Th a e . e Slavs can never be one nation

s 0 like the German . N one Slav nation ought to

s expand to the prejudice of another . It i a clear programme . Jugo s lavia has to be the open door of all great civic ideals of Great B ritain, of her wonderful public sincerity and morality in public T and private affairs . here is a place in the world where a certain proverb is r e ally ' v in dicat e d — in practice the proverb, Honesty is the best

policy . Glad s tone was once convinced that the E astern ques tion can be s ettled only by the authority of

I - united Europe . f to day under the stress o f

140 A DYING EMPIRE boon the young nation will communicate it to the dreaming world of the E as t .

— 2 . HUNGARY B OHEM I A .

The making of Hungary is one of the mo s t

s striking sociological processe . But the world { knows no s hrewder falsification of history than

M s the agyars . Careful historical re earch will prove the great share of Slavdom in the fo un da

Th e M tions of the Hungarian State . old agyar

The State is an admixture of nationalities . towns

ar e M . not all agyar, but they are cosmopolitan The tie holding together this artificial State was

s M the Latin language . Slovene taught the agyars — the arts of peace agriculture, industry , and s The M tatecraft . agyars were in the beginning the most unoriginal people for progress ive

T s s civilization . hey were warrior and nomad bearing their home and their con s titution on the backs of their horses . Slav civilization changed them , and gave them more Western notions .

Pure Magyars were for centuries in a min ority . The soil w as Slav ; the Tur an ic invaders were s The M A urrounded by Slav tribes . iddle ges

s Th e know nothing of Magyar nationali m .

M A s is Hungarian State of the iddle ge feudal, and care s no thing for the Magyar national . THE SETTLEMENT 141

character . Hungarian kings proclaim the doctrine that happy is the State in which live many nationalities .

i ‘ The Mag yars r ei n a ned a minority in the country until they began with brutal de nat io n

liz 8 a at io n . In 1 7 7 in Hungary there were M only agyars , and non A Magyars . fter the compromise in 1 8 69 there were Magyars and non

M s . T . agyar hen comes the change N ew times ,

1 0 new methods . In 8 9 there were in Hungary

-M only half a million more non agyars , and in 1 9 1 0 the Magyars were in the majority

of them, and the non - Magyars only What a change from 1 7 8 7 to 1 9 1 0 What ‘kind of national State is that which

M s ? had 1 2 3 years before only 2 9 per cent . agyar The Magyar minority endeavoured with admirable skill to hinder the development of all

- The non Magyar elements . German element

Th s f collapsed firs t . e national weaknes o the German political s pi rit is proved by the facil ity with which Magyars realized their domination betwee n Hun garian Swabians and Saxons . No other Hungarian racial element w a s so disposed for Magyar corruption a s Hungarian Germans .

The n s r u i richest , most i t cted, and c vilized section

‘ - M of the non agyar population succumbed first . 142 A DYING EMPIRE

N early all the o fficial apparatus is Magyar ;

- of one hundred officials ninet y four are Magyars . I n all professions with university. training

Th a M r . e agyars strongly p evail Slov ks ,

R n s uma ians , S erbians , and Russian have a very

‘ thin strata o f peopl e w ith university training . If the non - Magyars also ha d a professional class

Magyar hegemony would be at an end . Statistics as to illiterates are extremely interesting : ne arly

50 per cent . of the M ag yar population can read 6 1 . r and write, 7 9 per cent of the Ge man , 5 5

. 2 . per cent of the Slovak , 7 per cent of the

1 . s 0 Rumanian, 7 7 per cent of the Ru sian, and 5

Te n M per cent of the Serbian . million agyars

r have elementa y schools, and non - M ayg ar s onl y H ere is the source of

M O f 1 0 0 u the agyar he gemo ny . st de nts at

s M . econdary schools 7 9 4 per cent . are agyar

O o f nly by hindering the education the masses , only by an anti - democratic governmental system is the conservation of the rule of an actual racial minority possible .

M s But agyar are an island in the Slavonic sea, and the central problem of Magyar politics has always been how to conserve their hegemony in

- s spite of the non Magyar mas s e s . In clo e con

“ ne ct io n with that was the problem, what alliance T to choose to avoid isolation . here were two

144 A DYING EMPIRE

a u i d h nds of R ssia, instead of creat ng an indepen ent foreign and internal policy ? When Andrassy — states that Kossuth was a wonderful man he was

h e i s r u never an average man , eithe a geni s or u 8 — s premely superficial (p . 4 ) the author judges himself . I t is incomprehensible with what avidity the best

Hu - - ngarian intellects judge s o cal led Pan Slavism .

- Pan Slavism is for Hun garian s a horrible spectre . Magyars have always put the Slavonic problem in a thoroughly wrong lig ht . It is not in

' u i s M w l q est on that War aw, osco , Sophia, Be grade ,

C e ttin e ho v f r j , s uld e er orm an amo phous Th mass . e O riental imaginatio n of the Magyars

' - . T is admirable his Pan Slav State will be, s A ays ndrassy, a meteor passing through the

E . heaven of urope , causing fire and destruction In vain will be the consolation that this monster

- must perish . A Pan Slav State of the Andrassy type would be madness , but Jugoslavia, inde

o f pendent all foreign influence, and only strong

s is by her own national trength, a far more dangerous conception for the Magyar usurpers . The policy of D eak and Andra s sy the elder d was a policy of compromis e . Hungary di not — realize the great aim of every nation sovereignty .

’ s he r With lawyer sophisms , politicians tried to t r veil the rue s tate o f things . Hungary was no f ee THE SETTLEMENT 145

country, she merely had the temporary privilege of holding other people in s lavery . Her freedom w as never more than the free dom to oppress

The A others . Great War came, and with siatic wildnes s Hungarians rushed into the struggle

A . against the llies Here is now, they cried, “ the great moment to crush all foes of the M agyars ' The Magyars became worse than

s the Prus ians, their ideology became more

A l s s r s . l M s Prussian clas e of the agyar , all pa tie including the mo s t candid former friends of the

asz i s nationalities like J , upport the Hohen zollern war mania . In ecstas y they repeat the war cry “ Death or life I

And A s 1 1 6 ndras y said in July 9 , in the Hun garian Parliament : I t is not the dynasty that is at stake, but the whole nation . What would Koss uth have done in these days of the Great Wa r ? I venture to assert that he

- wo uld be anti German . In the preface to the

M e mor i e s o M E xile The f y , he wrote nation 8 6 has decided ( 1 7 ) differently . I t has broken the shaft of that standard which we carried so

' And high on the rugged roads of exile . with deep emotion we quote the prophecy of the old

revolutionary, who told the truth to his nation, which created such a weak compromi s e : The conviction of my heart says, that as I was right 10 146 A DYING EMPIRE once in the controversy w ith the enemies of my

o n in c u try, so am I right now the diversity of opinion which I hold with my own nation .

Th e I am right . judge of the world will

' decide . The judge of the world decided ag ainst a nation which was unable to fight to the end for

o wn her national revolutionary ideal, and which claimed the national death of the Slavs as the foundation of her own commonwealth on the graves of oppressed races . Kossuth knew that

1 8 6 e a 7 was a gr t failure, not only for his own nation but for the whole of E urope . The Hungarian question troubles diplomatists very much . Will Hungary be capable of inde pendent State life if she s hould be reduced and confined to the Magyar territory ? Pan - Germanist s are generally not very kind to

M - agyars . Pan Germanists are sincere and very straightforward thinking people who know very M well that agyars, in entrusting themselves to

' o wn Germany, ruined the foundations of their constitutional life . Here is one of the best Pan

s s Germanist , a man of religiou faith, Paul de

Lagarde . H e is an implacable foe of the “ Th M s r 1 8 M . e agyars agyar , he w ites in 7 5 (in the period when Hungary was in her most “ s plendid evolution) , are condemned to death .

148 A DYING E MPIRE t e ct e d b i by the g rampart of the Carpathians, but ju s t near the Mag yar— Czech linguistic frontier the State boundary between Bohemia and Hungary could be drawn in a manner which gives to

Hungary a natural geographical line of defence . I n the West the frontier between Austria and

Hungary is not natural, and the same is the case

u with regard to Jugoslavia in the South . H ngary must be content to forgo a perfectly natural frontier . Bohemia is a State whose example is very significant . In the crucial national struggle which ab s orbed the immense national energies of the

s Czechs, Bohemia was neverthele s able to de ve lo p economic progress on the scale of the most prosperou s countries . Who therefore can deny that Bohemia has it in her to become an industrial State of the first rank ? She was under Austrian misrule the richest

was country, and her population the most edu A cate d people of the whole E mpire . griculture and industry flourishe d in her . She was once under Charles I V the centre of E urope in T e . conomics, in science, and in art here are in Bohemia all the conditions for a strong im pulsive and intensive State life . She has to

‘ - day a fir s t class railway system . She has an ag riculture surpassed b y few countries in the THE SETTLEMENT 149

world . But her greatest treasures are her mines . The co alfie lds of Bohemia will be the germ of T a mighty industry . here are reckoned to be

2 cwt . 4 of coal to each inhabitant in Bohemia,

0 though in Belgium there are 3 , and in Germany

cwt . 3 3 I t is necessary, however, to point out

' that Bohemian co alfie lds are not yet thoroughly u exploited, and that in the fut re the figure will be far more in favour of that country . Under a free government Bohemia will soon compete

s in industries with Belgium, with the province W of the Rhine, and ith the North of France . A brilliant future awaits this country ; Bohemia will be a Slavonic Belgium o r M anche ster . E very connoisseur of Bohemia guesses that she

d n will be a emocracy . Apart from Belgia i cler calism, we must confess that Bohemia will b e very akin to Belg ium . She will be bigger than Belgium as r ega rds territory and po pu lation, of course ; but there will be the same

th e s parliamentary system, ame political

m h o methods, the sa e ighly cultured p pulation , the s ame memories of a great past . Civic free

' do m will increase her energies to an extraordinary

ni s degree . Slavo c in her oul , Bohemia will be proud to repre s ent the mo s t progres s ive

i l be W a Slavon c e ement , to the e stern gu rd of

ni m the Slavo c world, and to develop a com on 150 A DYING EMPIRE w ealth which shall be a model for other Slav

States . Bohemia will in clude less than three million

An i s . o s 15 i Germans y ther olut on mpos ible, for in l i s arge d stricts, especially on the frontier , Czech T and Germans are intermingled . here is no doubt that Czech statesmen will have to face a serious A question . democratic country cannot be ruled without giving to every important part of the

o E p pulation a régime suited to her . xperience has shown that Germans under the rule of a non - German majority are very content and do not try to overthrow the régime . Germans are weak in a democratic country where they cannot obtain leadership . By not suppressing Germans , but educating their minds to democratic con s cience, the Czechs will show them a new path of po litical evolution . The dismemb e r ment of Austria is completed

an by the creation of Jugoslavia , independent

r Hungary and Bohemia . But there remain Ge man provinces which were in the past the heart of E the mpire . What shall we do with five and

' a half million German s o f Lower and U pper A T ustria, Salsburg, German yrol, Vorarlberg ,

h M d l e t ? Nort ern and i d e S tyr ia, North rn Carin hia These countries are so connected that they can

' - be self sufficie nt from the economic point of view .

152 DYING EMPIRE alone can save Vienna from‘ certain economic

' The G r man w ill decay . economic strength of e y not be increased to a dangerous degree if five million passive and e asy - going Southern Germans are added t o her . GENERAL O UTLI NES

I T is not easy to answer the question, what is the public opinion of E urope with regard to the Hapsburg Monarchy ? I t is a commonplace to assert that Austria is under the heel of Prussian

T s militari s m . here i no longer an independent

A — A s ustro Hungarian rmy, and Germany interfere in all questions of Austrian foreign and domestic

T w s . policy . hat a already so before the war There were always complaints coming from the Slavonic camp that Austria was slavishly obedient to the political precepts of Germany . But the war put an end to the real political sovereignty of the Dual Monarchy . I t should be the most natural thing in the world to draw from this fact a clear conclusion . The most logical thing to say to Austria - Hungary

Yo u s would be urrendered to Germany, you

Y in are really a part of Germany . o u have famou s ly betrayed your Slavonic nations ; they were faithful to you, but you did not care for mere faithfulness, and handed them over to their 153 154 A DYING EMPIRE w orst enemies . We will treat you as a part of

has Germany which been unrighteously, against

the principle of nationality, incorporated with the A German E mpire . fter our victory we will give these countries to the nations which have been T A ’ enslaved by Germany . hat should be ustria s doom . A \ But the llied countries are severe against A s . h Germany, indulgent toward ustria W at is the reason of that indulgence ? There are super

fi ia The A an - c l motives perhaps . ustri German

n - has better ma ners, he is a sort of easy going A gentleman who does not harm anybody . ustria was seduced by Prussian militarism to make war, { he is an innocent victim of a much strong er

v Le iathan . Austria is in certain quarters not considered

The to be an enemy who should be crushed . j Austrian problem in all its mighty complexity T is not yet envisaged . here is a lack of know Th ledge about this composite monarchy . e true danger which exists in the anarchical State of A A ustria was never duly appreciated . fter two years of war we could dis cover some progres s in

A s s the judgment of u trian political condition , but the Allied countries have not yet reached the same s tandard o f a r eal estimate of the element of disruption .

156 A DYING EMPIRE ce tio n p of I taly as a neighbour of France . But his conception was too artificial, he did not suc o c b e d, and his am iguous policy embittered I taly and caused her aloofness in 1 8 7 0 in the darkest hour of modern France .

A E War and writer, ugenio Rignano , in his the S e ttte ment , is not at all in favour of the

i c A n pol tical con eption of Prince Regent lexa der,

s the l . Go podin Pasic, and Jugos av Committee

no t e u A H e is for the d str ction of ustria, he wishes

r e s an d to rese v the Catholic S lavs , S lovene ,

i A s an d A Croat ans to u tria , ustria, in granting ff E autonomy to these di erent parts of the mpire,

' would easily succeed in gaining their fidelity . That is a solution incompatible with the Southern

Slav point of view . What does national autonomy u mean to a co ntry controlled by Germany, since Austria has no longer the vitality to remain mistress of herself ? E ven a defeated Germany would be strong enough to control Austrian A political autonomies . ustrian Jugoslavs are no more to be lured by autonomie s . Professor Ramsay Muir wrote a critical introduction to

’ Ri n ano s a is g p mphlet, and he anxious to know why Rignano would not allow the Southern Slav s of the Coas tland to declare by plebiscite whether they would join I taly or not . An d finally England ? E ngland is the country GENERAL OUTLINES 157

of political traditions . In no other country has

E n political civilization reached s o high a level . g

s T land is the classic land of politic . herefore we must not be astonis hed that old political co n ce t io n s 51 E p do not so ea ly disappear . very high

s standard is somewhat conservative . We mu t

not be impatient, but endeavour to root out

s - inveterate obnoxious political idea of to day . M ag yar o philism an d Aus trophilism are alive in

The certain s trata of E nglish society . principal cause why old impressions and political notions

s is do not di appear, as they do in other nations, the solidity with which every s trong historical O ld movement is rooted in the hearts of men . political notions are not so easily displaced by new impressions created by new political situa

r tions . Hungary once st uggled hard for her r political existence, and her ma tyrs for liberty won the sympathies of liberal E ngland . But Hungary did not march to the final goal ; s he concluded a compromise which gave her no true

An s lib erty . d that pirit of compromise with A ustria killed her love for freedom, and on the outbreak of the World - War she disclosed her admiration of German atrocities and German

s political methods, and followed enthusia tically the path leadin g to German world power .

' Far more dangerous is England s ancient tie 158 A DYING EMPIRE

w h A T of friendship it us tria . his is a product of E A past generations . ngland and ustria, before

r e b in the outbreak of the G eat War, had nev r een E arm ed conflict . ngland in her insularity did not

A Kfi r e n heed the ustrian killing of souls, as E berger characterized it . In ngland the Monarchy T has always been rightly defined . he average E nglis hman could find no interest in what was

- Th going on in this semi oriental country . e inner causes of the internal disruption of Austria have been carefully veiled from the E nglish public . German propaganda gave to the Austrian problem a satisfactory and cheerful appearance . I t was the Great War that r udely shattered this idyll . T But the old tendencies are still alive . here is not yet in E nglish public op in i on a strong unalterable will to dismember Austria in the event A of the victory of the Allies . determined will O w of that kind is absolutely necessary . ther ise there is the danger that a weak decision on the part of the Allies w ill save Austria from dis

E is E ruption . ngland the strongest mpire of

A is the llies, and as she financially and politically

- A the true corner stone of the lliance, so she should take the lead in the future s ettlement . England was always the champion of non - inter

n - ? ve nt io . I s that principle to day a Shibboleth The absolute authority of State sovereignty has

160 A DYING E MPIRE who are the creators of a period of reform and s s b . s s tres D iplomatic radicali m, as profes ed y

s s Napoleon I , would intimidate diplomati t of to

- s day . What E urope of to day want s is a ju t

e o ld policy, which will thoroughly cl ar away the rubbish . M e n are wanted who are deeply convinced that it is necessary to lay the foundations of a tru e

E s new urope . Without radical changes that i impo ssible . Professional diplomati s ts see in the creation of f new States a turmoil of new di fi culties . With out previou s knowledge o f geography an d statistics they have now to deal with Jugoslavia and

Bohemia . Nothing but new troubles , they think .

s s However, diplomati ts were made for the nation , not nations for the diplomatists .

E s If the Hapsburg mpire ceases to exi t, what will be created in its place ? We confess the problem is complex and difficult it is the liqui dation of an old world which has ruled so many T diffi generations for centuries . here will be cult ie s l , there will be struggles , but the result wil l be useful . We can only say emphatica ly that there will not be the calamity which will arise A s A if the llies ave ustria and give to her, or

m A s - rather to Ger any, the seven u tro Hungarian

s nation . GENERAL OUTLINES

Ar e you afraid that the new States will be a centre of revolutionary unres t ? That is not prob

— o u s able the contrary, the new nation will be energetic supporters of progressive ideas , of a political ideal of free democracy and social equality .

The reciprocal relations between Bohemia,

s s . Hungary, and Jugo lavia require careful tudy We cannot here do more than make a few s ug g e s tions . It is a commonplace to assert that the Great War has its intrin sic cause in the fact that Germany had des troyed the balance of power in T E urope . here are two reasons why the balance

Th s of power in E urope went to piece s . e fir t was the domination of Germany in Aus tria and the renovation of the Holy German E mpire in

On cluding Italy in the Triple Alliance . the e v e of the new century Prus sia controlled

o t wo u i s he r p litically co ntr e , t Ge man federa

o A s e I I O ti n and u tria, in all mo r than million

w s . a men , Germany the leading continental

s Power . Secondly, Germany de troyed the further condition for a balance of power in E urope by E invading Belgium . That gave the uropean balance of power the final blow . Is balance of power a factor of modern

? is a statesmanship at all No , it relic of an old 11 162 A DYING EMP IRE

régime . It has too artificial a character, it is

- too old fashioned, and has grown up in the prejudices of past generations . The student of d iplomatic history may

u e a a en merat instances of b l nce of power, invented

' T a by various statesmen . here was once a bal nce

n an d of power in Germa y Italy, and we used to speak of a balance of pow er in the Balkans . These are combinations of diplomatic engineers who believe that State life is as easily counter f balanced as the forces o a machine . But the reciprocal relations of States are in our time of far too compl ex a nature to b e compared in that manner . O nly diplomatists of the old school can have such a simple concept ion of State life . I am convinced that there are at present in Italy many shrewd men who think' they know how to find the balance of power between Serbia,

s independent Croatia, and perhap republican

Slovenia . Guesswork of that k ind is always done with a certain purpo se . D iplomacy is not the blind game of Cabinet

s intrigue , its foundations are, rather, experimental politic s . It is what the first Slavonic po litical

K r iz an ic 1 66 theorist , the Croatian , called it in 3 The knowledge o f the nature of nation s of

s . these countrie , of the life, of the laws Scientific politics are the g reat antagonist of

164 A DYING EMPIRE

. Th e commonwealths Western Powers , Great

n l s B ritain and Fra ce, wi l have to furni h to the new States capital an d all the necessities required

o i by ec nomic organizat ons . The po licy of these new States will be

- n s ff necessarily anti Germa , and trenuous e orts will be wanted until the emancipation from Th German influence is thoroughly realized . e help of the Western Powers w ill be far more the expres s ion of a precious f riendship and not

s of an odiou domination .

T f s hrough economic e ficiency, through ocial

a reciprocity in all branches of hum n activity, it wi ll be far eas ier to realize a counterbalance against all ambitio ns of G e rmany than by the me ans of the purely political and s trategical balance of power that h as existed hitherto .

an A and n Germ ustrian, Bohemian, Hu garian

- continental countries being without any sea coast , it is absolutely necessary that these new State features s hall have oppo rtunities of expo rt . Internationalization of places of economic inter course s hould be a s ine qua no n in any s olid

s settlement . It would be a policy of foo l to place any State in a condition of economic

s s decay . Having e tabli hed the principle of

- s economic inter State life, of variou economic

s regulations beyond the State frontier , we have GENERAL OUTLINES 165

T to consider a new trend of State evolution . his — inter mixture of economic relation s and regula tions will fo s ter a new conception of sovereignty . Syndicalism has already weakened the late idea

T s s s of State sovereignty . hi economic proce will considerably influence these various State

The bodies . relations between the new States wi will be less cut and dried, there ll be a greater

e flexibility, a pr paredness to act for common Th ' purposes . e old system of sovereignty will

N s be altered . e w experience in these new State

T e features will also influence the old world . h Great Powers will soon follow the example of

M s a the iddle State , prep ring a better under s tanding between the i ndependent political bodies

‘ ' through the medium of economics .

s e - B etween them will be perhap a p ace breaker,

s tatus uo Hungary, who will try to restore the q t an e .

There is no danger that economic help will change into economic and, later, into political dependence . With economic and financial means at their di s po s al the Western Powers w ill create a far more favourable s tate of things than the

s old cheme of Balance of Power . The s ceptic s do not believe in the vitality of hi s t new State feature, in the untroubled civic life o f B o hemia and Jugoslavia . I will not 166 A DYING EMPIRE

s touch upon the p ychological, historical , and political reason s which w ill make pe aceful progres s certain ; but will proceed to dispo s e of other argument s . The sociologist finds some pleasure in guessing what society will be like after the war . While we are reluctant to pre s ent any phant as t ic estimate we can at any rate predict with certainty that t he war w ill have brought about a change in

‘ political thought s uch as h as never before occurred in history E very field o f human efficiency will be aff ected by this general upheaval of the relations between

Th e the nations and men . strategical decision will bring to maturity a new settlement of social Th and economic fact s . e old edifice will fall to pieces , and humanity will have the task of building up a new one . N o stone will remain Th in its place . e relations between State and

s individual , between labour and capital , the tie of fami ly and authority w ill undergo essential changes . Th e new States will have to envi s age a new

s world of ocial revival . Perhap s in that general metamorphosis of the s ocial forces of the pas t it will be far easier to lay corner - s ton e s for the building of a national commonwealth .

TH E LORD OF THE MANOR

A E M N . . FREE A was shrewd enough to give a fine prognostication about Austria . H e wrote at the end of September 1 8 7 8 to O lga N o viko va I live in hope s of an explosion of the whole

Ko e n i lich e Kaiserlich g concern, of which this T Bosnian business is the beginning . hen we T ' may get rid of the Ogre as well as the urk . An d again But the Austrian impo sture cannot reform , it can only be split in pieces . ' an d Freeman , one of the best historical political E writers ngland knows , was able to search deeply into the problems of State life . H e was quite right in thinking that the Bosnian business

o n A - H And w uld be omi ous for ustria ungary . later it was determined by fate that Sarajevo should give the sign al for the general E uropean cataclysm . Freeman does not argue about the future of A ustria, because she has no future . Olga No viko va is a little more indulgent to war ds 168 THE LORD OF THE MANOR 169

1 2 h H Austria . In 8 8 s e quotes egel, who thus

s A s A is characterize u tria ustria not a nation, it is an E mpire and s he adds : If it is E a Federated mpire it may survive, but if it repres ent s the ascendancy of a minority it is ' T of doomed . he quint e ssence the problem is Was a Federated Slavonic Austria possible after the foundation of the German E mpire ? Were not Austria ’s internal problems decided by the French defeat in 1 8 7 0 ? The central question of Slavonic policy in the Hapsburg E mpire was the dilemma : Can Au s tria - Hungary be just to her subject s ? Is a con s titutional reform‘ in the spirit of the aims

? a s of the Slavs possible Statesmen, such

an e in f and Kramar, have swer d the a firmative,

c u gave to their poli y an adeq ate direction . Is a peaceful re construction of Austria - Hungary ? T possible hat was the question . Czechs w ere on this point always no les s pessimi s tic than

Jugoslavs . O n e of the most revolutionary Jugoslavs of

Imb r o T the past generation , kalec, in reviewing

' this problem’ in his Aus tr ian ' ues tio n (wr itten

1 8 66 in and published in Paris) , reaches an embarrassing conclusion . He wishes for t he

A s disruption of u tria, but he is for a federation B o f S M i nd . lavs, agyars, Ruman ans , a Po les ut 17 0 A DYING EMPIRE

e h a n ? It s a what do s t at mou t to i , in fact, co mmonwealth without the Hapsburg dyn asty .

A u w is m comm nity, ithout the H apsburg, no ore A f n . ustria, but a very di fere t commonwealth I quote this opinion of the Croatian r e vo lu t io n ar h f o f A y only to show t at all re ormers ustria, who would make of her a democratic common i t u t s unt . Sin u wealth, have been , in fact, rebels , , a t s A u no n uni . ustria cannot change into a democratic commonwealth . m A Nationalis and democracy were for ustria, and no less for Hungary, the forces of dis

T . solution . here was no compromise possible Whoever claimed a democratic nationalist

A - w as ustria Hun gary claimed her dissolution . It a struggle of political principles, and the Hapsburgs repr esented the dark elements of a miserable past . Al l progress in Europe an foreign policy to a more satisfactory settlement of a better

co n the. E u n w as mmu ity of ropea nations, made only by defeating Austrian political con

r ce pt io n s . If Austrian statesmanship had p e vailed in the course of the nineteenth century, T there would have been no united Italy, urkey

s would dominate the Balkan , and there would not be a united German nation . We can hate

r as we b t w b e n id P ussianism will, u e mu st ca d

17 2 A DYING EMPIRE

in the heart of the citizen , but a bad spirit

s s of authority, the wor hip of the dyna ty and the

Th e h as ruling bodies of the E mpire . citizen not to obey the law of the commonwealth , but

s the dyna ty and her servants . Public opinion

h - Th e T e . doe s not exist . court is all powerful courtier may express himself but not the people . Austria - Hungary is to - day a horrible an achr o n s ism, ab olutely alien to modern political con

s E ce pt io n . It is a country les free than ngland was in the dark days of the E nglish civic martyrdom against the misrule of her kings . It

M d A s is a relic of the id le ge , placed in the E heart of E urope . urope will never be ruled by a true democratic public s pirit if this scandal E of an mpire is not destroyed . It w as remarked that Au s tria - Hun gary is an

E s mpire, not a State . But what a currilous E ' mpire It has a certain Imperialism, but not l of the occidenta type . It is of a type that — is thoroughly oriental an oriental conception of

an State life, amalgamation of provinces which have no internal tie, and must be held together

s an by brutal compelling force . It s e ems to be

E e n i z E r ha s mpire of J g Khan, an mpi e which in its body the poison of di s solution . Here is an archy, not organization, serfdom, not fre e THE LORD OF THE MANOR 17 3

T evolution of individuality . hat is the reverse of all that marvellous E nglish political philo E sophy, the true foundation of nglish civic freedom .

.We can imagine an E mpire as a supe rstate

- at the head of self governing nations , like the

s E E u B riti h mpire . But an mpire which r les more than fifty millions of various racial elements as a farmer rules his cattle, cannot claim to be E a uropean Power . An d remember the sentence of Metternich that “ the O rient begins at the gates of Vienna . It is perhaps true to assert that the boundaries of the O rient are on the

s - A Swis ustrian frontier . The type of the German E mpire is one which

s f cannot be u ficiently d e precated . But the German E mpire in comparis on with Austria Hungary is as a modern up - to - date s teamer compared with an old - fashioned sailing - boat

s launched on the e a to perish with the crew .

The E w it s German mpire , ith discipline, order,

is th e s and o rganization, true oppo ite of

A s - s s ustrian ea y going di order, di organization,

A s - an d s . muddle , chao In u tria Hungary is no more civic freedom than in Germany . But here even s lavery is reconciled by internal order ; while the Au s trian subject is twice deceived ;

s ' he has no freedom, and al o no order If 17 4 A DYING EMPIRE

E uro pean diplomacy in her conservative spirit

s Au - it is bent on p re erving stria Hungary, would be far be tter for her peoples to be given up to . Ge rmany Th e pre servation of the empire woul d be a far worse expedient . Gladstone said once that there was no spot on the earth where Austria did good . Personally T we find this sentence too euphemistic . here

no es is spot, pecially in Jugoslav Lands , where Austria has not committed crimes . People

’ the h who would, after war, patc up again the

E . pieces of that mpire, should remember one fact

The old Austrian idyll is gone . Between the Jugoslavs and the Hapsb urgs is now a river h' l . T e of b ood, a forest of gallows riddle to be solved is ho w the Jugoslavs could ever be

r reconciled with Austria . O nly opp ession can save the unity of the E mpire . — There is only one solution the break - up of the E mpire . Th e other is German rule from Th Bohemia to the Adriatic . e great war simplifies everythin g . The Hapsburg dynasty looks on the nations as on children who have no right to determine

- their own fate . National self government is a s acrilege agains t the divine right of kings ' E ' ' uropean democracy has a great task to perform . If she wishes to root out the conception of the

176 A DYING EMPIRE

‘ w ill never be reconciled with modern political ideas . A book might well be written on the subject of the political psychology of the Hapsburgs . The curse of the Hapsburgs is far more dangerous E for urope than the crimes of the Hohenzollerns . Thi s Swiss family has never ma de hers elf truly

s at home in the countries where he has ruled . It has b rought no love f o r lib e’ rty into the new country, only a selfishness that has no bounds . The nations exist only to be exploited by the T dynas ty . hat is the ruling principle of the

Hapsburgs . But it is a strange way to treat people .

.The greatest and most dan gerous foe of a people is not the individual who treats them with Th severity . e gloved han d can do far more

o de mo r al harm , can be far less c rrupting and — izing ; fo r it teaches humiliating submission a miserabl e obe dience .

The Hapsburgs were of the Spanish school, and for that reason they developed marvellous resource in undermining the energies and the self

T wn full help of the nations . he do of the Spanish colonial E mpire did not reform their taste and aff ection for absolutism and suppression of all that originates strong citizenship . Horror of free dom and self - determination and self -government THE LORD OF THE MANOR 17 7 of the nations became the leading characteristic of that dynasty . The alliance with conservat i sm s trengthened

s s m all thes e tendencie s . Con ervati and the

s u s l A i w the s Hap b rg , valuab e ll es ith ame s pirit at the bo ttom of the soul ' U ltra mo ntane conservatis m and H apsburgs l S e lfi sh ness tried its hardes t to nullify the product of the French Revolution, the new moral force,

— s the maker of n e w commonwealths nationali m .

ff The s But all its e orts were in vain . Hap burgs lo s t in the nineteenth century all the battles waged

she against nationalism . We are convinced will lose also the las t battle against Jugos lav national

ism, and that will be the last epoch of her

T s Tk l . i a ac activity rue, indeed the saying of , who wrote in 1 8 66 : Better that a man or a family should perish than one entire country and nation 1 There is a poisonous kindness which can corrupt individuals and nations far more than open

To hostility . seduce nations and their rulers,

to incite one against the other, to flatter a nation

s with the purpo e of exploiting her, to profit by common mis understanding and reciprocal hatred — — this was the bus ines s of the Hap s burgs a bus i ness which they performed with truly masterly

To E is s cunning . break up that mpire the ta k 12 17 8 A DYING EMPIRE

— it E of all social morality is a necessity, if a uro pean Commonwealth is ever to flourish .

I hear the objection But other dynasties ,

T b e s h . too , have done the e t ings hat may , but the chance of doing harm is far greater in the case of an E mpire ruling s o many s trugg ling

l An d h e n - nationalities . contempt for t dow trodden

s s people i a real Haps burg trait . When Franz Joseph calls the Croatian s Scum when he advi s es the Governor of Styria with regard to

s Yo u must cr us h this e o le the Slovene p p , and imitates with his fingers the action of scrunch

is ing a fly, he only following the old Hapsburg

s Spani h tradition, in whose eyes national indi v iduality does not exist .

Patriarchism , which treats the nations as

as children or contemptible rubbish, often veils it s true purposes ; and even the best spokes men o f E nglish public opinion have been often

s beg uiled accordingly . So wrote one of the be t

E o und reviews of the B ritish mpire, the R

1 : Th k Table in No . 7 e most bac ward of her nationalities has come to enjoy a freedom

s of movement and po sibilities of culture . But the wr iter forgot to mention that poor Slovenes

' and other backward people paid for the in

b e ar struction out of their own pockets . We 8 . 1 with astonishment in No , that Czechs, Poles,

180 A DYING EMPIRE

o wr lish p litical iter, expresses a true opinion which holds good also with regard to the French con no is s e ur s of Austria in the past : Il a s uppo s e

’ a la D nas tie une s a a te e nne ' l a e x lu y g ci moy . c

‘ ’ ’ ’ ’ ' le co u de té te e car te l a r e n es ie a u r o b l eme p , f p

lit e A - s po i qu . ustria Hungary w a imagined by E uropean political authors to be far stronger than s he really is, and the dynasty to be far more

A - clever than it is . I t is true that ustria Hungary did not b reak into revolution in the first days

B t r of war . u in what country simila ly placed was there a revolution ? The wea kness of Austria is proved by the facility with which Ger many

A i co nce nt r at destroyed real ustr an sovereignty,

ing all fo reign and milita r y matt e rs at Berlin . Th e members o f the Jugoslav Commi ttee are impeached in Austria and Hungary for high h ? . W treason, and their property confiscated y Becau s e for them duty and responsibility to their own nation was higher than attachment to a dynasty prepared to sacrifice the national exist

ence of the Jugoslavs . Felony was committed E in reality by the dynasty . For an mpire to be

a h nded over ruthlessly to a foreign ruler, as the Hapsb urgs delivered fifty-one million men to Ger

a many, is crime which has no precedence in i t h s ory. TH E B REAKD OWN

THE forces of dissolution are strongly impressing thems elves upon the minds of the oppressed E T Slavonic nations of the mpire . here are economic , political, and moral reasons for which the disruption of the Monarchy is a natural con

o f sequence a natural process .

A - ustria Hungary was, before the outbreak of

To the Great War, already bankrupt . candid thinkers it seemed impo ssible that Austria would ever cause a war, she had neither money nor credit T o . e k . for the purp se hey w re mista en She was, in the year before the war, in great financial di stress ; a big economic crisis ravaged the country . Industry and commerce had collapsed the Monarchy had a formidable budget ; ex pe nditur e s were bigger than those of Great

‘ Britain ; on every Austro - Hungarian inhabitant

w s a 1 2 fr . there an expenditure of 3 , but on every

0 Th s A s Briton only 1 1 fr . e debt of u tria Hungary were enormous the deficit was steadily 181 182 A DYING EMPIRE

s increa ing , and amounted the last year before 6 the war to 7 5 million francs . We can imagine what an effect the war expenditure had on so rotten a State economy as this . Stronger economic

A s systems have been shattered, and ustrian finance must have totally collapsed, if there had not been

German help . The World -War found Austria - Hun gary ex haus t e d an d , incapable of a strong economical l

financial effort . And now imagine how the ex pe n ditur e of the World - War will influence

s thi bankrupt country . Paper is circulating diffi abundantly, and people are without much culty enjoying life . But catastrophe is not far

o ff .

Imag ine the formidable irnpr e s sio n that the truth about the financial consequences of the war will have upon the restless and unsatisfied Austrian Th ' nationalities . e general bankruptcy will l enormou s ly influence public opinion . It wi l be the melinite which wil l destroy the old building . People who have lo s t their money and property

n are incli ed to rebellion and revolution, and the general financial and economical collapse will immen s ely s trengthen all tho s e element s which are contributing to the downfall of the E mpire .

T is An d now another argument . here no doubt that the party which loses this gigantic game,

184 A DYING EMPIRE try more backward in the conception of public

s an Th right d duties . e ideals of the modern

s s - State, the ta k of a true State Society were f unknown to the o ficial world in that old E mpire .

All s was mouldy, decayed, of no use for vigorou life But under the o fficial surface were the

in nations, the real living forces, obstinate and domitable in their nature, strong in a fanatical nationalis m so alien to the bogu s world of official

s Austria . But the nations were feared as force of disintegration .

T - he s s . monarchy lie to day, politically, in ruin

’ Germany s supremacy has des troyed all political ties . Germany has taken away real political self determin ation . Where such a fate has overtaken a political body, where, as here, the will to exist w as an independent unity has been taken a ay, ' T yo u cannot r e co n s t mct the fallen buil ding . here are thing s which canno t be restored if taken away . N 0 one can restore virginity to a person who has

Th A is . lost it . e old ustrian spirit gone

Prussianism alone can replace it, for the only other alternative is disruption .

s s Can you imagine after all that has pa ed, a Parliament of the famou s F r an z e n s r ing e s s aying to di s cuss the s ituation of the E mpire ? If before the World - War thi s Parliament was similar to a lunatic asylum, we cannot find an expression to THE BREAKDOWN 185 define an Austrian Parliament after the Congres s

Al s s . l of Peace the political per ecution , the death s s s entence , internments, ruthless execution , the s s s hooting of u pect regiments , the incredible political terror introduced by the advice of Ger — many all t hes e make o rdina ry Austrian political life an impossibility .

P alack Clever political people like y, moreover, did not doubt that the compromise of 1 8 67 meant

The s the real death of the E mpire . la t half century has been the death - agony of the oldest

E An A - E uropean E mpire . ustro Hungarian mpire w as officially abolished after the first year of

T — A - the Great War . o day ustria Hungary only f Th E . e exists o ficially, not as an mpire old

E s e d l - mpire, the cheri h d dream of ri l sergeants

H r — and o f ate IS gone it b elongs to the past . There is no longer an Au s tro - Hungarian State it was always denied in every Magyar quarter . But what is this Au s tria - Hungary ? It is no more

s — a than an anachroni m cruel anachronism, which

s an doe not spare life anachronism full of pain,

- . A H death, and blood Perhaps ustria ungary is

s n a Government . I f it i nothing else but a Gover m n A s - e t , the Government called u tria Hungary can fall, and eight nations will emerge from prison w alls . Who w ill complain of that ? A few thousands 186 A DYING E MPIRE

M s ' of the leading agyar and German clas , a few A old ustrian families, a parasitic court, several

s s archdukes and their footmen and mi tre ses , a

’H o fr at e an d hundert Geheim and , a few

T s thou s ands of Amtsdiener and sergea nts . he e people will follow the funeral of black and yellow A ustria .

- But twenty eight million Slavs, the German and

M M s ag yar democracy, German and agyar ocial Th is m . e , will be delivered from a nightmare wall which s eparated these new social forces from E A w . urope ill fall new life, new political con ce t io n s p , will rise from the ruins of a bogus T e . he Great Pow r fruits of political persecution, the hatred of races in their reciprocal struggle, will cease ; rejuvenated, the nations will build new and better houses for a better national life .

Paul de Lagarde is the rival of Bismarck . E Both laid the foundations of the mpire, the first with word and ideas, the second with sword and

‘ the D e t lze S hr i te n f r acts . In u s c c f o Laga de we will find a pronouncement about Austria which is as true as life is true : No Aus trian states man and no Au s trian prince has s hown a clear intelligence in the political situation because they

, , would not recognize , that, for a State ideas

an d principles, acts, duty must be one and the

188 A DYING EMPIRE

s s s have no le right, empha izing the interests of “ Al d s u the lies , to advocate the i r ption of that mon s ter . O nce before in the past a monster a E of that kind collapsed, the Holy Germ n mpire, an d 1 8 0 6 did not leave much impres s ion in the

' e s e memory of men . P rhap the world p ace will witness a similar disappearance fmo r e than a M hundred years later . aybe, that in the big

an E turmoil of the general settlement, old mpire will fall without causing much excitement in the s T ouls of men . hat will be the best thing it

'

r . can do , that will be the best wo k it has done But we are convinced that the liquidation of Austria - Hungary is the mo st serious item in the T E ‘ general settlement . his mpire has existed through long centuries . It is the force of traditions , of customs , of the dark elements of reaction which are backing Austria— the last bulwark of feudal ideas and of retrograde sentiments in the world . It is easier to destroy a new State than to 'cru s h an old edifice of social and national injustice . That spring of 1 9 1 4 in Vienna was a remark

The able one . intellectual world with its almost s uperficial culture w as imbued with a boundless Al l pe s s imi s m about the future of the E mpi re .

s were ceptical , doubting if that commonwealth

An a was able to exist . d destiny prep red the THE BREAKDOWN 189

T great co nflag r atio n . hat was the feeling before ? the catastrophe , what will be after Is a s ociety of that kind capable of hindering the collap s e without German help ? Why does Austria - Hungary exist to - day ? T Only for the sake of German y . hat is her

s pre ent historic mission . We will not delude our

t he selves with fancy, as does the imaginative

’ ‘A s N eumann , that u tria s task is to cultivate a

t E e . new type, the ype of the Central urop an

T s hat type exi ts already in the Viennese , a man

no t who does know what he is, who wanders

n s through the world as a pitiable i quirer, a cur e

s E to ever y ociety . Central uropean civilization would be a questionable civilization w ithout a z national bas i s . It was a civili ation of that kind

A s in that u tria endeavoured to create Bukovina, but it was a miserable failure —no Central E uropean civilization for the sake of humanity, z but a pure Jugoslav and pure C ech civilization . The storm of th e Great War is scattering A the seeds of disintegration . rmy, bureaucracy, aristocracy and Church were the pillars of the old Austrian régime . Look how these pillars i l e now destroyed on the earth .

Can you imagine in our days an army, which has no attachment to the nation, but only to the prince ? A mercenary army can be the instrument 190 A DYING EMPIRE

e . o of the prince, but never a nation It is p ssibl to form a corps of o ffi cers which wil l be un conditionally obedient to the highest co mfn an de r .

s s But an army which repre ent the nation,

’ organized on patrimonial political ideas , is a E po rtentous failure . very soldier must know

- An A to day why h e is fighting . ustrian soldier does not know it ' If there is no stimulus to chase men into battle, one must be invented . In the barracks of Croatian regiments officers harangued the soldiers bidding them first beat the Serbians , and then to go all together to

Hun gary and beat the Hungarian s . A fter the war, the tragedy of the nations , coerced to serve in so wretched an army, will f be fully appreciated . It is di ficult to find in the life of man a more tragical situation than is that of a Slavonic patriot in th e army under

- - the black and yellow flag . Wh at humiliation it is to have to keep dumb the voice of conscience and of the heart, fearing that every incautious

An d ma . word y mean death or prison in battle , the man is exposed to the most cruel dilemma . He would fain s ur r ender to the army which fights

o wn s i against his enemie , but beh nd him waits the German and Magyar soldier to shoot him T h ' down . ruly a orrible position Germans endeavo ured to reform the Austro

192 A DYING EMPIRE

Austria being a country where the reverse of

E s w t he o the nglish ystem, here title g es only to I s s o n . n A s the elde t , exists u tria there are plenty of noblemen , but they are poor and lazy .

Th e h as it s title of nobleman lost value, and

s s ff the ma s of titled persons ru h into State a airs ,

s The and claim commis ions in the army . high aristocracy of Bohemia does not like Prussian A ism, and sees in German influence in ustrian ff ’ T a airs nothing but the Monarchy s shame . his rich an d powerful section of Austrian aristocracy

s s s n will not ea ily be reconciled to P r u ia rule . But

‘ o w ing to the hist oric fact t hat it received it s

s a e at r e tates , fter the Cz ch defeat Bela Ho a, from

s o f s s it the hand the Hap burg , is very attached

T s to the dynas ty . he danger exi ts that this aristocracy will back the dynasty when the crisi s really comes .

The d thir factor is bureaucracy, one of the elements from whi ch the Austrian E mpire is moulded . Bureaucracy was always German,

- though in the past a foe of Pan Germanism . T hat changed later, and in the latter years l f before the war, in the governmenta o fices , there were Pan - Germanists side by side w ith Slav nationalists .

s Nationalism penetrated even into the mini tries , and every nationality g rouped it s pa rtisans in THE BREAKDOWN 193

f the central o fices , where they might help the A cau s e of their o wn countrymen . ustrian bureau

The cracy is no longer what it was . dynasty can no longer claim strict obedience from' that

A s class . reverse will disperse that social ca te, and every m an will return to his o wn nation . What about the Church ? Catholicism in t he past has been o n e o f t he bulwarks of Aus tria . Th e German highe r clergy has always been

- - e e u black and yellow, b ing partially d pendent pon

who ha d w r . the monarch, the po e of nomination The lower clergy in Austria ha ve always been a promoter of national feeling among the Slav nationalities . In political matters in Austria the soldiers have always been stupid to the highest degree .

’ But the dynas ty s stupid behavio ur w ith regard

ho us m to the Cat lic clergy, did enormo da age th to its inte rests . Since e outbreak of the war the military autho rities have raged against

s the clergy of the Slovene and Croatian countrie .

Catholic priests have been imprisoned, sentenced

v s to hea y fine , even to death . High treason has become a speciality of Catholic Slav priests .

h l s s In Carint ia and South Styria, Catho ic prie t are severely persecuted, and the prisons are crowded with them . In Ljublj ana (Laibach) ,

i a r o f the leader of the cler c l pa ty, . Carinthia, 13 A DYING E MPIRE

s Gr afe n aue r w as a member of the Reich rat, ,

’ s sentenced to five years impris onment . In thi way Au s tria is drivin g the Catholic clergy into

the arms of Jugoslavia . What stronger indication could there be of her impending de s truction ? Who remain s if the Church betrays the Hapsburgs ? There is no doubt that the forces of dis At integration in the E mpire are very s trong . the s ame time we mus t not be too sanguine

in our prognostication . Conservatism will defend to the last drop of

a ll A . s blood that ustria stands for Con ervative, autocratic Germany will try to save her at any Th A i . e i cost sav our of ustria is not w thin , but

without . 1 Germany kn ows what Austria means to her . The master o f Austria is master also of the road to the E ast and it is a fact of very significant

A s import that in ustria all German partie ,

- an st fo r including the Pan Germ i s , are the pre T s ervation of Austria . hey all know how

easily Austria is controlled in favour of Germany .

The dan i ger that Germany w ll try, when

c es M na a ll peace omes , to pr erve the o rchy at

w is o s costs, and avoid its breakdo n , the m t

al armin g danger which the Allie s have to face . How shall we obviate it ? Only by the

196 A DYING EMPIRE

s s . s con equence Violent convul ions, bloodshed, and civil war will be perpe tuated until the s ame re s ult be reached w ith far greater s acrifices than i if the operation s pe rformed at once . People will be s acrificed only becau s e the rulers of E urope were blind to a clear s ociological fact . Th e moment to act is no w . The German point of view is that the Great War is for German s a fig ht against the ideas

R s of the French evolution , again t Liberté ,

E s galité , Fraternité . German con titutional doc trine endeavours to give to the individual only

— c s internal liberty liberty of on cience, but no

s political liberty, no free citizen hip in the

A — s The s ng lo Saxon en s e . German want no

s T s s . i right , but only dutie hat the German Th s . e go pel Great War , as the defender of the old An glo - Saxon and French conception of

h as s - human freedom, the mo t far reaching con

- s equences for all down trodden nationalities . The French Revolution gave life to Jugo s lav s and Czechs ; if her work should be des troyed their exi s tence wi ll al so be underm ined .

There is ~ a general need for a wider platform fo r s The all demo cratic nation . great movements of these terrible times must bring all men of s imilar political conceptions into far closer w communal s ympathy . We ant a wo rld THE BREAKDOWN 197

s platform of idea . No occasion could be more s uitable for a fight for great huma n ideals .

Th e o a w rld wants wo rld community of equal,

a . legally org nized, free, civilized nations World democracy has before it to - day a tremendous — tas k that of organizing and preparing a better

- commonwealth for to morrow .

The A s n s is u tria que tion not an exotic problem,

E The it has a uropean and world character . des tiny and the free unhindered evolutio n of the w orld democracy depends on the dismemberment

A is s of ustria . It the mo t complicated problem which the s ociety of the Great War has to

T is — envi s age . here only one solution break it up . The down trodden nationalities of the Hap s burg E mpire a ppeal to the world

s democracy , but the latter mu t never allow the Au s trian sick man to survive the congre s s of

s f peace, for thi is a matter that a fects the

s s E s intere t of urope a a whole . Would it not be

‘ s s c a hame if that clas i race of political freedom,

A - s s s the ng lo Saxon , hould be coerced into ign ing a peace which meant the preservation of Austria - Hungary ? Civic freedom and democracy have no greater foe than the Au s tro - Hungarian M onarchy . Like an e arthquake two years o f World -War 198 A DYI NG EMPIRE have s hattered the old building Al l that is now needed is a la st strong blow from a Briti sh fi Th s t . e ancient and mo s t venerable tradition of freedom is the justification of that deed . We all hope that worn - out political conceptions

- All s are dead to day . life hould be in future — better worth living fuller, more sig nificant , truer

s s Let clo ed epulchres be, and do not touch dead Th bodies . e nation s have a right to live and — to exist let them , then , be delivered from foreign — yok e let them desert the s ad black - and - yellow

s T . epulchre . hey , too , deserve a B ill of Rights They bear in their hearts the s pirit of John

s Lilburne, of the B ill of Right and of the

M ar s e ill ais e s . Despise, then, the poi on of Prus s ianism and the more contemptible Austrian ism . Help the nations to live but , remember,

is to help them there only one way, and that is by the destruction of an old world, which must dis appear for the sake of all free nations .

No h MS w as co m e e i n 1 16 w h the te : T e . pl t July 9 , it x f h r e ce pti o n o C apte I' .

P ri nted i n Grea t B rita i n by

NWIN ROTHERS LI MITE D 7 11 2 G RE SHAM P RESS WO ING D LON O U B , , 1 , K AN D N

To w ar ds a Last in g Se t tle m e nt W . O E S I C KI S O B By G , H . . R FO R D . . L D N N N AILS , I A H OB S ON VE O L E E I I S N VV N O D E M . P M , R N N , PH L P , . , A . AU D

Y E H . O , S I D E B O THAM and o t e r s . E i te b R D N , h d d y C H A R LE S E ' ROD N BU TON .

SE CO D I MP RE O . Cr o w n 8vo C o t 2 3 . 6d. n o s e d. N SSI N , l h , e t. P tag 5 Th e e s s ays ar e co ntr ibuti o ns Of r e al he lp to war ds the s olutio n Of gr e at — and nev t e r o e ms . ROF. LB ERT MURRAY in The Na ti on i i abl p bl P GI .

To w ar ds In t e r nat io n l Go r n m B H B ve e n . A O SON. a t y 1 .

H RD I MP RE O . C r o n 8 vo C o t 2 3 6d n t o st e . e . d. T I SSI N w , l h , . P ag 4

w s o e nt an d nfl n n i n his r me nt and Al ay lucid , c g , u i chi g a gu , le ads us ste p by s te p to war ds th e co nclus i o n that the b o lde st ' — s o t o n is s e s t and s e st . Ma ncheste r Guar di a n lu i af impl .

Th Fut ur f e M Y D M . e o D e m o cr ac . y By H . H N AN

C r o w n 8vo 2 3 . 6d. ne t . o s t e d. , P ag 5 — e w o r th r d n . Ma nches ter C ur i r W ll e a i g o e .

' r e n w th his o ld o r e and d t —Yo r kshi r Post W itt i all f c luci i y. e .

Th H lin B E N e e a g o f Nat io n s y DWA R D C A R PE T E R .

t . r 2 3 n o s d TH E D T O Cr . 8vo C o t 2 3 . 6d. ne e . e t. t e . 4 I I N . , l h , Pap , P ag 4 “ o r s r n — bs r ver r o nd nte r e st n e o t o t e tte o n . o e . P f u ly i i g . W ll w h m ca ful a ti ' — ’ n T P s Weekl . w se a d nde r s t nd n o o k . . A i u a i g b . y

Ab o ve t he Bat tle

D K M . A M I LATE B Y . . E O RA C . By RO A N R LLAND . T NS OGD N ,

R I MP E o t 2 3 . 6d n e . o s H D R O . C r n 8 vo C o . t t e d. T I SSI N w , l h , P ag 4 We mus t l e ave u nno tice d many fi ne and p e n e tr atin g tho ughts and

n s t r r n s s e s in t e se o e n e s . In t e le t us sa o nce ma y i i g pa ag h g ld pag h m , y, — fo r s e ks the fi ne st s r t Of o e r n r n e . The Times Lite r ar all , p a pi i m d F a c y Su l m n pp e e t.

The War and t he Balkans ' E B ' M P and E S E U . O . C By NO L U T N , , H A R L ROD N B TON

. t e d. E D T O r 8 v t . 6d. u t e r 13 . ne . os t RD . C . o C o 2 5 e 3 I I N , l h , Pap P ag , 4 Far and away th e b e s t s ta te me n t that has ye t app e ar e d o f the attitude — f h k n S t Sir E D W EAR in th e D a i l Chr o ni cl e . o t e Bal a ta e s . IN P S y

LON DON : G EORGE ALLE N U NWI N LI MI TE D