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Show G0RB AUSTRI Conditions in That Country Described by Fugitive Member Mem-ber of Parliament. I The tragedy of the Austrian empire is not that it is on the point of col- i lapse, but that it is simply and solely an annex of the German empire today, says Professor T. J. Massaryk. Bohemian Bo-hemian member of the Austro-Hungar-ian parliament, now a political refugee in London. To escape arrest because of publishing publish-ing certain political pamphlets, Profes- a sor Masaryk a year ago left the dual g monarchy, walked all the way to the g Swiss frontier, and, after a short stay In Paris, went to London. i His daughter, Miss Alice Masaryk, was recently released by the Austro- Hunganan government after being imprisoned im-prisoned for months oh the charge of high treason, because she had been found In possession of her father's writings. Professor Masaryk married a daughter of Rodolpho Garrigue, a New York banker. (By Professor T. J. Masaryk.) Austria is by no means on the point of collapse. She may have lost four and a half million men, but that still leaves her with three million, not perhaps per-haps as good fighters as the men employed em-ployed in tho first year of war, but certainly not so poor as the people in England think. Alone Austria might soon succumb, but her army under the control of Germany, led by able German Ger-man commanders and stiffened by German troops, becomes a strong military mili-tary machine again, as we see by the stubborn defense of Halicz, the recovery recov-ery of Transylvania and the onslaught against the Rumanian passes. Austrian Empire Annex. Tho tragedy of the Austrian empire is not that it is on the point of collapse, col-lapse, but that It is solely an annex of the German empire today. However humiliating the admission may be to the leaders of the dual monarchy, they are content to have the position so, perceiving that unless Germany held the reins the empire would go to pieces. Germany might have wished to see a stronger and more self-reliant Austria for military reasons, but for political reasons she does not find it at all disagreeable to have reduced her neighbor to a degree of submission which to all intents and purposes amounts to abdication. Tho military plans for Austria are not fashioned in Vienna, but in Berlin; tho role of the Austrian capital is merely that of an echoing board. The Magyars, who are tho only virile militants left in the Austrian empire, prefer the direction of affairs to come from Berlin rather than from Vienna, for they have a. sublime faith in the. prowess of German arms and the efficiency of German organization. organiza-tion. Tho real leader of the empire is the Hungarian premier, Count Tlsza, who Is a great admirer of Berlin. The military history of Austria In the war has been so pitiable that, even If she wanted to, she cpuld not reasonably rea-sonably complain of German domination". domina-tion". She utterly failed at the outset out-set of the war to achieve expectation, and, instead, was soundly beaten. The Austrian court consists of a number of archducal hangers-on, some poor, some rich, but all actuated by one motive: how much they can make out of the different appointments to which they are called. No fewer than 40 archdukes and their families are battening on an Austrian civil list. A third delusion which It is necessary neces-sary to sweep away from the minds of the people is that Austria-Hungary is on the verge of starvation. No such thing. Have Little Meat. A real source of trouble is that the soldier, who requires meat, finds himself him-self faced with one or two meatless days, and he does not like It at all. Still his discontent is not yet serious enough to be counted as an important factor. If the war ends without the Berlin-Bagdad Berlin-Bagdad plans of ihe Germans being shattered by the cutting of tho Berlin-Stamboul Berlin-Stamboul railway, Germany will have overy cause for satisfaction, for not only will she have seen the Balkans brought under Germanic domination, but -Austria made an annex of Germany Ger-many to such an extent as almost to be Indistinguishable. Now that Germany has Austria absolutely ab-solutely in her power, she will not let .her go, if only for the reason, that if Austria were smashed she would be isolated and doomed. . Nevertheless, Austria is tho weakest weak-est Joint in the German armor, and a fierce thrust at Austria might have in- j calculable consequences. The people of Austria-Hungary dont share Germany's hatred for England. Eng-land. The Bohemians, the Serbs, the Croats and the Rumanians in Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary have no animosity toward Great Britain, but the Austro-Germans and the Magyars are violent enough in their dislike of the British. Count Tisza the Magyar prime minister of Hungary Is a rough sort of man, quite willing to obey Berlin's wishes. Baron Burian, tho Austro-Hungarian Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, has been violently attacked as a weak man of no particular gifts, and the agitation of both Count Andrassy and Count Karolyl Is merely to serve personal aims neither counts. |