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 .