From ‘The Crumbling of Austria-Hungary‘, The Spectator, 10 July 1915:
SUPERFICIALLY Austria-Hungary may seem to have “come again.” Compared with the position a few months ago, when the Russians were bursting through the Carpathians, when Przemysl had just fallen, and when the major portion of Hungary was seething with distrust and discontent, the Empire of the Hapsburgs appears to have passed out of its period of earthquake and eclipse and to be renewing its powers. Galicia and Bukowina are clear of the enemy, and very soon the Dual Monarchy will be able to say that not merely are there no Russians in her Polish provinces, but that a great slice of Russia is occupied by her soldiers. Nevertheless, and in spite of these favourable signs, Austria-Hungary as a State is crumbling away. Nothing can save her. Even if Germany were to win, she would not recover. The inhabitants of her Serbian, Croatian, Czech, and Italian provinces hated her before the war, but that hatred was to some extent passive. It has now become active and intensified a thousandfold. It will never be extinguished till the oppressed nationalities are free from their Teutonic, or Magyar, yoke. Austria-Hungary is being “nibbled at” not only from outside but from inside.
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