THE QUARTERLIES.
"ITALY and the Adriatic" in the new Quarterly Review is partly an historical survey from the time of the colonizing efforts of the Greeks and the invasions of the Romans downwards, partly an examination of the present situation in the Adriatic and the lands bordering it, which, again, resolves itself largely into a, discussion of the South Slav problem. The writer discusses the double policy of the Austrian Government of encouraging the Slav movement in Dalmatia as an instrument against the Italians while oppressing the Slays in Croatia-Slavonia ; the growth of the alter- native policy of " Trialism "; and the movement in favour of a Greater Serbia, to counteract which Austria annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, resorted to the methods of the notorious Agram trial, and finally declared war on Serbia last year. In spite of the claims and aspirations of the Magyars and Germans, the writer ventures to forecast that the Adriatic will one day be divided between the Italians and the South Slays, who, in the main, have the same interests and the same enemies.— These problems are also touched on in Lord Cromer'e dispas- sionate paper on "Modern Austria," in which he takes for his text the writings of Signor Gayda, Mr. Steed, and Dr. Seton- Watson. Lord Cromer contrasts the methods by which England and Austria have sought to harmonize the interests of various races under one Imperial rule. We have never pursued a polioy of thorough Anglicization, while Austria has always been a consistent Germanizer. He readily acknow- ledges that there has been a certain nobility and idealism in Austria's programme, while condemning the " somewhat sinister elasticity displayed in the adaptation of means to this end." This elasticity is illustrated by the strange anomaly presented in the treatment of the Slays of Dalmatia on the one hand, and the Bohemians and Serbs on the other. In short, "where, as in the case of the Slays and Italians, no racial affinity exists, the national element which appears to constitute the least local danger has been used to overwhelm the rival and more menacing nationality .. . where, on the other hand, racial affini- ties [as in the case of the Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats] threaten an amalgamation of semi.conflicting interests, the aim of the Government has been to foment rivalries in order to keep the separate nationalities apart. . . . Moreover, in the very singular instance of the Ruthenes Austrian statesmen, in spite of their strong anti-national proclivities, have not hesi- tated to throw aside their most cherished principles, and to encourage local national aspirations in order to combat the attractions of the more dangerous and more potentially absorbent nationalism of Russia." In the Trentino, where Germanization has been carried out in its most rigorous form, the policy has been a complete failure. The immense majority of the inhabitants are and remain wholly Italian. The case of Trieste and its immediate neighbourhood is more complex, owing to the balance of races, and Lord Cromer favours the policy "of making Trieste a free port, and the adoption by Italy of a liberal customs and trade policy which would encourage her northern neighbours to make commercial use of the Adriatic ports." He holds with the writer of the -article noticed above that a cordial understanding between Italy and the South Slays is necessary, "not merely in deference to the principle of nationality, but also because it is enormously in the interests of both races to hold together in the face of Teutonic aggression." As regards the future of Austria Lord Cromer abstains from dogmatizing, pointing out that the impracticable, and of " Trialism" may well prove to be now mpracticable, and that nothing short of a wholly independent South Slav State will meet the requirements of the situation—a solution which would almost necessarily involve the acknowledgment of the independence of the Northern Slays, the gravitation towards Germany of the Austrian Germans, and the disintegration of Austria.—Oolonel Blood, writing on the war, takes the view that while the conception of the Dardanelles expedition was fundamentally sound, it has been marred in the execution—notably by the premature attempt to force the Straits without military assistance—but that the suggestion of abandonment is misguided and even fatuous.—The writer of an unsigned article on National Service regrets the dilatory deliberations of the Government, and urges that, if legal compulsion is to be adopted, no time should be lost in evolving the necessary organization.--Other features of interest in the number are Mr. Lascelles Aber- crombie's paper on "The War and the Poets"; Professor W. J. Ashley's examination of Germany's food supply; Mr. W. Morton Fullerton's study of the regeneration of France ; and Mr. T. E. Page's delightful essay on "Greek Poetry in English 'Verse."
The Edinburgh Review gives prominence to a striking paper by Mr. H. Wickham Steed on "The Quintessence of Austria." He starts with the observation that even after more than a year's war Englishmen are still very much in the dark as to Austria-Hungary e-e "Their general idea has been that Austria is a motley country ruled over by a Sovereign whom age and misfortune have rendered venerable and worthy of sympathetic regard, a Sovereign much harassed by the perpetual strife among his mosaic of peoples,' a sort of crowned president of a crazy republic which was destined to collapse at the first shock from outside. The truth that Austria is a country, or rather an Imperial Estate, more Eastern than Western in character; that Francis Joseph is more nearly a Sultan than a true constitutional monarch ; and that his action is less the action of a passive, equilibrating moderator than that of a consciously and positively governing dynast, could hardly be appreciated in this country, where knowledge of Central Africa, Polynesia, and the Far East is loss rare than know- ledge of Central Europe."
Francis Joseph the Monarch, 'according to Mr. Steed, is an unknown quantity, even to those who have worked with him for a quarter of s, century. As for racial strife, be agrees thibstantially with Signor Gayda, whose work was recently reviewed in these columns, that it is the outcome of a deliberate system of State "which aims at setting off one race against the other, favouring those which behave well towards the dynasty, curbing those whose pover seems dangerous, and creating an equilibrium of moderate discontent in which no one race is over entirely satisfied, never without jealousy of its neighbours, but in which each and all are taught to look to the Crown as the solo dispenser of benefits." This system is most care- fully worked with the help of the police by a powerful bureaucracy, and this governing class in turn depends entirely on the Crown. The Austrian atmosphere Mr. Steed describes as Asiatic; Austria is loose-jointed, but not therefore weak ; there has been a relentless persistence in her anti-South-Slav policy. In this she has had the support of Hungary, which has long abandoned the concilia- tory policy of Defile towards the non-Magyar races for a policy of complete political subjugation, and which has been strongly pro-Austrian, and even more pro-German, throughout the war. Mr. Steed scouts the notion of Hungary's breaking away from Austria. The Magyars are " ruled by an oligarchy of nobles and bureaucrats, who have mortgaged their souls to the Anstro-German cause in order to purchase a free hand for the oppression of the non-Magyars." Ever since 1878 the monarchy has been committed to a forward Balkan policy, in the carrying out of which Serbia has been the chief stumbling-block. In the concluding pages of his article Mr. Steed deals fully with the part played in the last ten years'or so by the late Crown Prince, showing how his adop- tion of a more conciliatory policy towards the South Slave was neutralized by his Ultramontanisin and by the personal ascendancy of the German Kaiser, brought about during a visit in 1908. The picture he gives of Francis Ferdinand is that of an unstable character, inspired by genuine Austrian patriotism, but impaired by mental disease ; and in discussing the final tragedy of Serajevo he holds that the balance of evidence not only acquits the Serbian Government, but warrants grave suspicion of an Austrian origin of the assassina- tion plot. He reminds ns, moreover, that while it was in part at least organized at Belgrade, so were most of the bogus anti-Austrian manifestations of 1908 and the majority of the anti-Serbian forgeries exposed during the Friedjung trial. Mr. Steed concludes by declaring that Europe cannot be reconstituted on a stable basis without the dismemberment of the Hapsburg Monarchy.—Mr. Harold Cox, writing on " Cabinet Government," condemns the present system as unwieldy, dilatory, expensive, and inefficient. He accord. ingly recommends the appointment of a Committee so constituted that it shall have a reasonable chance of being able to do the work entrusted to it. "There is," he maintains, "nothing to prevent the Prime Minister, with the approval of the King, from limiting the Cabinet to five Privy Councillors, none of whom should bold Ministerial office. The double effect of this change would be to relieve the members of the Cabinet of departmental duties, and at the same time to reduce the departments to effective subordination to the Cabinet." The proposed system is not unlike that which prevails or prevailed in Japan when the Council of Elder Statesmen held supreme command. We doubt, however, whether it would suit the genius of the British people, and prefer the simpler scheme outlined by us last week for a reduced Cabinet.—Amongst other articles in an interesting number, we may note Sir Charles Bruce's survey of the services rendered by the Crown Colonies in the war ; Mr. Edmund Gosse's review of the desecration of French monuments ; Mr. Wright's plea for Greek athletics as an integral part of military training ; Mr. Rowland Prothero's informing paper on "Patriotism and Agriculture " ; a brilliantly written study of Voltaire and Frederick the Great by Mr. Lytton Strachey ; and an anonymous article on " The Workshops and the War," which predicts that "if Trade Unionism is allowed to interfere with the successful prosecn- tion of the war, the result will be to smash it up. There are very largo numbers of Trade Unionists in the Army—as we have been told. They are not offering their lives to maintain Trade Union rules ; and if their lives and the cause to which they have dedicated them are sacrificed on that altar, there will certainly be an industrial revolution, but not the one predicted by Mr. J. H. Thomas."
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