Page:The New Europe - Volume 4.djvu/27

 situation. But the restraint with which the Reichsrat treated matters of finance disappeared whenever national questions were under consideration. The Czechs and Jugoslavs in particular interpreted the right of self-determination in the sense of their national independence and unity, and went on quite logically to demand the abolition of the Dual System as forming the main obstacle to such a programme. When the Poles, abandoning the aloofness with which they had regarded their fellow Slavs for nearly two generations, definitely joined the opposition to the Clam Cabinet, the Premier had no alternative but resignation. Their action was, it is true, dictated in part by personal motives and by anger at his indifference to ravaged Galicia’s claims for compensation; but, as the Germans of Vienna themselves admit, the determining factor was the rapid growth of Slav national feeling among all classes in Austrian Poland which forced their leaders to come to the aid of the other Slav parties in distress.

The Emperor made no secret of his reluctance to part with Clam and entrusted him with the reconstruction of the Cabinet. For two days the Premier made desperate efforts to secure a majority in Parliament, and even the scanty information at our disposal clearly indicates the growing confusion and perplexity in Viennese political circles. Incredible as it may seem, he appears to have put forward in this brief period several absolutely contradictory proposals for a solution of the crisis. He began by rejecting the demand of the Czechs and Jugoslavs for a new division of Austria on a racial basis. He then tried to bribe them by offering to create seven new portfolios in his Cabinet, to be filled by representatives of each of the non-German nationalities. And when this suggestion proved equally unacceptable to Slavs and Germans he appears to have actually come forward with a project for dividing Austria into four-presumably the German, Czech and Jugoslav districts and Galicia. Of this project we know nothing beyond the bare fact, but it is probably safe to connect it with the action of the Emperor in summoning Father Korošec, the leader of the Southern Slav Club, in audience. It is of course not known what passed between them, but Korošec, who before going consulted his Czech and Ruthene colleagues, was evidently not prepared to modify the Slav claims. Count Clam Martinic had to go after