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Show 4- An Austrian Liberator By Frederic J. Haskin, -f f WASHINGTON", D. C, The dissolution of Austria-H ungary into its ntciaJ ele-.ments. ele-.ments. and the creation from the ruins of two great democracies founded on the national aspirations of their inhabitants, is the remedy ior the German dream of worid eonquest that Professor T. G. Masaryk, former member of the Austrian parliament, is devoting . his lire to bring ubou t. Professor Masaryk is now in Washint?-ton,-conferrins with officers of the newly organized Czeeho-Slovalc national council prior Lo starting" a nation-wide tour of the country lo arouse the enthusiasm of Austrian Aus-trian subjects in America for the jjreat project he has in mind. This consists simply in the unification of tho Slavic peoples of America in order to give all possible aid to their relatives in Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary In throwing off forever tho men-are men-are of the Haps bur?,' and Hohenzollem yoke. In this work he is being assisted 'by Keprusentative Sabath of Illinois, another an-other former Aurtrla.n subjeet. and a number of other prominent Americans who bWieve that tho most effective way of s'.rikin:? an the Pan-German idea is ihrouarb the tottering empire of Auatria-Kunurary. Auatria-Kunurary. Pro;Vri?or Masaryk is a Bohemian and tho oflieitl s;okesmnn in tli is country of tht) eleven million Czech o-Slova ks under Austrian domination, whose demands for Bohemhm independence are now being re-Meeied re-Meeied in the press dispatches. A member mem-ber of i lie Austrian pa rliament In sl and suee-' sivp years and again from 1?0T lo lb? outbreak ' the world war. he has devot ed a lifetime to fighting the doni-ua.1 doni-ua.1 ion of tho Slavi" Austrians by the German el em en i in vienna. It. was Professor Pro-fessor Masaryk who. at the time of the annexation of "Bosnia and Herzegovina, in I'.Mts. showed that the Austrian ambassador ambassa-dor a; Belgrade had forced documents to prove a widespread Serbian conspiracy against Austria, thus attemoting to justify jus-tify , ustricin annexation of the Serbian province. In 19M, when Austria offer-pri the in.osib'e ultimatum to Serbia whb'h npirgrn t'lc w-rifi imo war. ;he Bohemian '-i'.it labored driy find rdt;M to bri: i ai'out an undruirding be; ween the Serbian Ser-bian premier. Pasbilch, and Count Berch-!o!d. Berch-!o!d. the Austrian niinisr of foreign affair, af-fair, papidtch. ti: rough Professor Mi-sarylt. Mi-sarylt. offered Austria far-reaching con-rsion?, con-rsion?, but Count; Bereh'oKi. obcyinir or- 1 tiers iron Berlin, refused to enter into j u??'i iat 'or j Shnriiy after the outbreak rf war the ! Austrian covemiO'Vit sm eced Masaryk ' c ; i ; " i for hi: rr-voi ionary activities. ! fie tb-'d to Tx.'.'y and rhen ;o F-'aP'.-e. fr-, fr-, -1 ; v: i i r in Pari - ;;-;e Cze -ho-Slovak revo- " 1 1 tieu i ry corwri t. :-?e. L.ii e! y hr has upii i;i K'ii-sjK, " nere. throuch in? eft on. Bo- rcniiiin i : r i.-onvrs ri war ha .e heen or-'ani.d or-'ani.d :nl'i a 'i army '-orps over CO.'ie-j 1 -tron. P is r.'larrip.i to move t!;e?e men I to L'iip we-cicm and Italian front:- and ar-' ar-' rangenicnt.'s ;o lia'-c many of thern trans- ported tlirousrh America for this purpose is one of (he many activities engaging Professor Pro-fessor Masaryk in this country now. Knragred at the escape of this powerful power-ful enemy, tho Austrian government has eonliseated his home and all his property at Prague; his books and manuscripts have been burned by tho public hangman, hang-man, and exocp for the pre-war .nter-vention .nter-vention of American relief- societies, his daughter would be in prison In Austria today. The plan of campaign mapped out bv this patriot against the German policy of a Hohenzollem emoire of central Europe Eu-rope has been indorsed by the allied governments gov-ernments as one of the principal aims to be achieved by tiie war. It consists briefly in establishing the political and eeomonie freedom of the eleven million Csecho-Slovaks in an independent Bohemia, Bo-hemia, and recognizing in a simitar way the right of independence for the thirteen thir-teen million southern Slavs, or Jugoslavs, Jugo-slavs, -who inhabit the subject Austrian provinces along the Adriatic and Upper Danube and the states of Serbia and Montenegro, now under the German vok. Along with these two new nations, Professor Pro-fessor Masaryk would see an independent Poland, and .Rumania freed and enlarged by the inclusion of the eastern provinces of Hungary, which are Inhabited almost entirely by peoples of Rumanian blood and affiliations. A gJu-nce at tho map will show that the establishment of these four nations Poland, Bohemia, Rumania and Jugoslavia Jugo-slavia along the natural lines of racial solidarity, would form a, solid and enduring endur-ing barrier to Prussian designs of domination dom-ination from Berlin to .Bagdad. The yearnings of these peoples for independence indepen-dence in exactly similar to the discontent discon-tent and oppression which prompted the American colonists to battle for eight years for freedom. Indeed, as Professor iUasaryk points out, on the twentieth of last July , the Jugo-Slavs issued then-declaration then-declaration of independence. Meeting on the Mediterranean island of Corfu, representatives rep-resentatives of the Serbian government, speaking for 5, 000, 000 conquered Serbs, and tho Jugo-Sla.v national committee, in the name of 7,000,000 Slavs In southern Austria and another million emigrants from these provinces, the majority uf them now In America, declared tho indomitable in-domitable will of these IS, 000,000 peoule of one race to live as one united nation, with equal rights for all. Dr. Masaryk quotes the censored press dispatches to tihow that the action o( tho Austrian government in suspending' parliament has fanned to the verge of outbreak tho smoldering resentment among the bitterly oppressed Slavs, who for four years have been forced to give their lives for a cause which is death to all their aspirations. "The southern Slavs," he says, "are furious over the proclamation of Premier von Seydler that stern measures will be taken to auppr-ms revolutionary disturbances in the south, ' He says he has information that serious attacks on German troops have occurred In Croatia and Slavonia, and that the Bohemians are disposed to regard 'he proposed . - internal--.reforms- for that district dis-trict as no more than a sop to keep them quiet until German troops aro available avail-able to entorce a sterner policy of repression. repres-sion. Nevertheless, this representative of Bohemia Bo-hemia does not believe that any adequate resistance to the Pan-German program can come from within Austria. He points out that every able-bodied man is at the front and that Slav units are brigaded with German troops in a way which means immediate death for any attempt at armed revolt. At home are left only the aged, the crippled and the very young, their stamina sapped by starvation starva-tion and poverty and their spirit weakened weak-ened by the knowledge that Germany maintains' picked battalions in Austria for the sole purpose of ruthlessly crushing any revolutionary .movement- He explains ex-plains that whenever possible the Slavic troops surrender to the allied armies, but says that this "passive revolt" Is all that these downtrodden peoples can do at present in their own behalf. "Nevertheless.'' he says,- "we have an organization and we have means whereby every move the allies take in behalf of the subject Slavs is promptly made known within Austria-Hungary. It is this knowledge and particularly tho hope of what America will do to further ideals, which are the same as those on which your event coumry was founded, that still keeps the spirit of revolt alive in miserable Austria." In Professor Masaryk' s room in a Washington hotel bangs an official map, "made in Germany," showing the trade routes to the far east that nation expects to control when the war is over. A row of green dots traces the route from Berlin Ber-lin to Vienna, P.udapest. Belgrade, Constantinople Con-stantinople and Asia Minor. "In addition to t'nl?.'' hp. hi' Professor Masaryk, "the downfall of Russia has given Germany another rich trade route from Berlin to Warsaw, to Kiev, Odessa and over the Black sea to TreMzond. The world must not think that Germany is staking her hone on the western front. There she ho', ris off her enemies while she hoid ! Austria subje.-t ami establishes her.su-; her.su-; prenucy in the east through fallen Rua-! Rua-! sia. Oriy a blt of free nations such as I have explained i'an ehei'k this ambition,'' ! py a rninfeiron of populations Dr. Ma-; Ma-; saryk no;nis out the menace lo civjHza-i civjHza-i tio?) of this -German plan. Were it put I through, Germany would control her own 1 population of seventy mil: ions, fifty-one 1 million Austrians, sixty million Russia ":a, i twenty-one million Tu-ks nnd fifteen million mil-lion more in Rumania. Bulgaria and the ! Palkans. a total ot :il7 million for the : ProScan - planned empire of Mitteleuropa. ; Ilnglaud. France and Italy together hae ' a popuiation of hardly half this total. |
