Edvard Beneš

“ Germany and Habsburg Problem.
By Edward Beneš.
The political situation in Austria-Hungary is singularly critical. The monarchy is economically on the edge of the abyss; the working classes are reduced to absolute want; the lower middle class (officials, employees, etc., particularly) are starving; whilst the upper middle class, manufacturers and tradespeople, are ruined. From the intellectual point of view there is complete demoralization: the nation is exhausted, its resistance broken; it is as incapable of moral elevation as of rebellion. ”

“ The role of Germany in this impasse is worth watching. German tactics are curious and very skillful. Germany sees that two eventualities must be excluded: (1) In the first place, the present state of affairs, in which the oppressed nationalities make too much noise, which the Entente exploits against the Central Empires, and in which the Polish question no longer admits of adjournment, has become intolerable, and Germany, therefore, desires a modification of the present state with a view of bringing nearer a speedy and advantageous peace ”

“ In the Czech countries a genuine revolutionary movement, supported by all the political, economic, literary, and artistic organizations, by town and village, by the workmen and intellectuals, in a word, by the whole nation, threatens the deputies with pitiless severity if they do not state the full popular demand. ”

“ It is for that reason that they will try their utmost to hinder this federation, for it is less difficult to dismember the Empire than to federalize it in the Slav sense: for so long as it is a question of federalizing it, it is they who will have a voice in the matter, and having the power in their hands they will use it to prevent these changes. ”

“ And the most serious factor of all is the wide popular support which the movement receives. In Galicia enthusiastic demonstrations have forced the Polish deputies to abjure their traditional Austrophil policy. ”