directly at Prussia: to crush Prussian militarism means, in effect, to liberate the two nations which are its primary object. The reunion of the Poles means, of course, the liberation of Posnania and Prussian Silesia from Prussian rule, and the liberation of Galicia and Bukovina from Austrian rule. This Slav barrier is not to be understood in the sense of the so-called Buffer-States. A buffer-State presupposes continuous antagonism between two neighbours; whereas the Allies’ programme aims at the reconstruction and regeneration of the whole of Europe.
The liberation of the Roumanians and Italians, as demanded by the Allies, requires a further dismemberment of Austria-Hungary, with which indeed the programme of the Allies is synonymous. “Lasting Peace!” means the break-up of this a-national, mediæval State.
The Magyars will also have their own State, being, of course, reduced to the bounds of their own nationality, and German Austria will remain under the Habsburgs.
The plan of the Allies implies the creation of only one or at most two new States—Bohemia and Poland; the other changes will either extend or reduce States already existing. Austria and Hungary will be reduced; Roumania, Serbia, Italy will be enlarged. Nations will be liberated; the oppressive dynasty—the Habsburgs—and the oppressive nations—the Germans and Magyars—will be forced to rely on their own forces.
Mr. Balfour is right when he emphasises the fact that the programme of the Allies will weaken the German lust of domination, and secure freedom and independence for the oppressed races; for Austria in its present form is not less German than Prussia.
Its geographical position in the centre of Europe, and its historical antagonism to oppressive Germanism and Pangermanism secures to Bohemia that great political significance expressed in the Allies’ Note to President Wilson, which demanded the liberation of the Czecho-Slovaks. And it is in the interest of the Allies to liberate Bohemia, if Prussian militarism and German lust of dominion are to be crushed, and the Pangerman plan of Berlin-Cairo and Berlin-Bagdad frustrated. The Allies’ plan, like that of the enemy, is a far-reaching programme of creative politics. The war and its consequences is the greatest event in human
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