Page:The New Europe, volume 1.pdf/102

 absorption and control of the Dual Monarchy is one of the first essentials for the success of that project. The true significance of Austria in her relationship to Germany has been woefully misunderstood both in France and in England. M. Chéradame gives a particularly interesting account of the way in which Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest have deluded Western Europe as to their real intentions, and have thus prepared the way for the present final bid for Pangermanism, which, he believes, has been definitely engineered by the Kaiser himself. Finally, the author sounds a grave note of warning against the danger of German peace talk. Germany, he says, may well be ready to acquiesce in a "drawn game," which in the words of the sub-title to the book constitutes a "formidable trap." It would mean, indeed, a complete victory for the German cause. If Austria-Hungary and Turkey were now to be left intact, the Central Europe of Tannenberg would be an accomplished fact, and the realisation of the full programme of "Berlin-Bagdad" would be merely a question of time. Moreover, even the recovery of Alsace-Lorraine by France would in that case mean nothing more than a temporary and precarious gain, and the Allies would be unable to redeem their promise of restoring Serbia to her birthright.

The coming settlement must, therefore, rest fundamentally upon the rights of nationality, and the first step in that direction must be the dismemberment of the heterogeneous conglomeration of nations which we call Austria. Among the liberated States—the embryo, as he calls them, of the United States of Europe—M. Chéradame assigns a position of supreme importance to Bohemia, the buffer State between Germany and Austria. He speaks very highly of M. Briand's statesmanship, which led him, before any other Allied statesman, to grasp the real significance of Bohemia in its relationship to Pangermanism and to the whole of Europe.

Author:Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. 



M. Protopopov, to whose appointment as Minister of the Interior we referred briefly last week, has given a fitting answer to all German peace intrigues. After returning from Headquarters, he gave an interview to representatives of the press, and though he did not