Page:The New Europe - Volume 3.djvu/196

 presence in Russia will strengthen the anti-war tendencies there. As, however, the signatories are convinced that their comrades by going to Russia will further the cause of the proletariat in all countries, and particularly the German and Austrian proletariats, they consider them not merely justified, but under an obligation to accept the opportunity offered them of travelling through Germany.

The Berne correspondent of the Journal de Genève recently interviewed a distinguished American on his way from Vienna to the United States and supplied his paper with a column from which we take the following paragraph describing the state of affairs in Austria:—“While the food problem is causing the Government serious anxiety, there is no immediate danger in this connection, for supplies will last to the beginning of winter. Discontent with the Government is on the decrease. The Emperor is very popular and has the ear of the masses. The war with Italy is more popular than ever, both with the masses and the Army. Austria-Hungary is ready for une paix blanche, provided that the Karageorgevitch dynasty is replaced by another in Serbia. A solution on these lines is confidently hoped for in Vienna. The recent British successes in France have not had a depressing effect, rather the reverse, as making Austria-Hungary more independent of Germany. Hindenburg is avoiding offending the Austro-Hungarian staff as much as possible. Complete confidence is felt in Bulgaria, but Turkey’s attitude is the cause of anxiety. Russia is no longer regarded as a serious adversary.”

Last autumn, when the food-prospect in Germany looked anything but bright, the Kölnische Volkszeitung spoke thus:—

“Germans will still be persons of weight, of consideration, though a continuance of the war-rationing may reduce their physical proportions by many degrees. The big and fat, as a rule, are not to be found among the most distinguished of mankind. Hindenburg is perhaps a shining exception to that rule. Let us be thankful, then, that the very privations which the scurrilous English foe has forced on us must, by reducing the superabundant weight of the average German, and giving his mental and psychic nature more moving space, render even more formidable those endowments by the exercise of which he will in the future, as he has done in the past, defeat, overthrow, and confound the foe.”

We regret that, in error, M. Jean Longuet was stated in, to be editor of L’Humanité. The responsible editor is M. Renaudel.