Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/11

 to supplement his original argument by a second contribution, entitled “How to Break Austria.” Dr. Barry is a well-known Roman Catholic theologian, as well as an essayist and novelist. He lived in Rome for many years, knows the principal European languages and has been interested in foreign politics for nearly fifty years. When one remembers that the Austrian Empire has been looked upon by the Catholic Church as the only Great Power faithful to the Church, it is remarkable to find a Catholic scholar advocating the destruction of Austria.

Dr. Barry’s arguments are put together with the skill of a gifted man of letters and the wisdom of an experienced man of affairs. We quote at length:

“If the defeat of Germany is the military problem, the dissolution of Austria remains the head and front of the political problem.

“There was a widespread anticipation, almost reaching the height of prophecy, that whenever the Emperor-King Francis Joseph should die, the Austrian Empire would be no more—like the baseless fabric for a vision it would vanish. The prophets, their gaze fixed on a lonely figure, the Fate of the Hofburg, so to speak, were oblivious as prophets often have been of that which lay beyond the stage and behind the scenes. Francis Joseph would never have kept this great bundle of hissing snakes together himself. He was no magician. The snake-charmer was, first of all, BismarkBismarck [sic]. I confine my view to the treaty of Nikolsburg in 1866 which is the fountainhead of European war and peace down to our own day. Bismarck, a political genius of the highest rank, had not only beaten Austria, he had subdued her. She lost at his bidding her very self. She was henceforth, in the strict sense of the word, hypnotized. And like the victim of that pernicious influence, she could do nothing except as she was bidden. The ‘old and haughty nation, proud in arms,’ disappeared, to leave room for a vassal most obedient to the word and command of Potsdam. This utter and complete transformation of a great European Power, always in time past friendly to England, has never yet made itself a palpable determining fact to our Foreign Office. Never, I say. The proof lies at hand, unfortunately too near, and with blood and tears and treasure we are paying its price. In those lamentable days of July 1914, to whom did Sir Edward Grey direct his letters of fateful issue, on the supposition that there must be a decision sought? To the Chancery of Vienna. Since Vienna had flung its ultimatum to Belgrade, surely the party to be convinced was Austria. The Kaiser, I think, laughed. He knew where the thunder came from. The master-magician had thrown Austria-Hungary into a trance with taking dreams of supremacy in the Balkans. What he intended was the German idea realized—Middle-Europe, Berlin to Bagdad, the British Empire cut through at the centre. But Sir Edward Grey treated Austria-Hungary as though she were the principal and Germany a dispassionate neutral. There was no Austria; nothing but a spell-bound subject of commands which dictated as a foregone conclusion that now the hour had struck for war, unless by its mere shadow the spoils of war could be secured.

“Therefore let Francis Joseph die when he might, the Austrian Empire was clamped together with hoops of German steel. Did the Slavs, Italians of the Trentino, Roumanians of the Bukovina, break out in revolt, German forces would have smitten them back into servitude, if the Imperial, Royal and Apostolic troops had fled before them. The Dual Monarchy was, and is at this day, simply a province of the German Empire. If it is anything else, what is it? I cannot discover that it does more, than like a beaten hound, whimper and behave as the whipper-in tells it. With strong insistence, and surely as a British subject in duty bound, I put it to the English friends of Austria, that they are required to show in what sphere of diplomacy or war the Dual Empire has not been governed by its German master. Since the disasters of those early campaigns have not Teutonic generals swept aside the native, planned the marchings and fightings, handled Austrian battalions as their own? And was not Herr von Tchirsky the real author of the war by his action during the so-called negotiations with unlucky Serbia?”

There are still men in America, as well as in England, who urge a considerate treatment for the Austrian government on the ground that Austria-Hungary may yet be detached from Germany and conclude a separate peace with the Allies. They imagine that the tranformationtransformation [sic] of Austria from a belligerent into a neutral would be a tremendous blow to Germany. The fact is that since Russia has ceased to be a danger to GermayGermany [sic], Kaiser Wilhelm would