If the Austrian Emperor thought that this proposed experiment in
" self-determination " would placate the Allies, he must have been rudely undeceived by President Wilson's reply—published on Saturday last--to the Austrian Peace Note. The President told the Emperor in effect that he was too late. When the President on January 8th said that " the peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and &mired, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous develop- ment," the Czecho-Slovaks and Southern Slays might have accepted autonomy within Austria, if it had been offered to them. The German and Magyar ruling caste ridiculed the idea at that time, and now the opportunity has passed. America and the Allies have recognized the Czecho-Slovaks and Southern Slays as independent nations fighting for freedom against Germany and Austria-Hungary. The President " is therefore no longer at liberty to accept a mere autonomy' of these peoples as a basis of peace." The Czecho- Slovaks and Southern Slays must decide their own future in relation to Austria-Hungary. America has raised her terms—an admirable method of procedure. which ought to be announced as our regular policy in the face of German delay in surrendering.
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