months after the beginning of the war advertisements were to be read in all the papers, in which English and French people offered to teach languages or instruct children even in English and French, stating their nationality and address a proof that the authorities did not put any particular difficulties in the way of these foreign- ers, and that the people did not take advantage of knowing their addresses to molest them. .
The political impotence of the prime minister was plainly evident in the military proceedings against Kramarz, in which Sturgkh shook hands with the accused and gave evidence in his favour, but without being able to avert the death sentence passed by the military court, though he did at least prevent the execution of the sentence.
During the later part of the Stiirgkh Ministry it is no longer possible to speak of an internal policy, for the military alone ruled. Towards the end, however, Stiirgkh was actually en- deavouring to bring about a reassembly of the Reichsrat, when he was shot by the Independent Socialist Dr. Friedrich Adler (Oct. 21 1916).
Korber Ministry. The object of the murder of Stiirgkh, namely, to lead to a powerful demonstration in favour of the summoning of the Reichsrat, was not attained; at a meeting held between some deputies and members of the Upper House (Oct. 23 1916) no definite proposal to this effect was brought forward, and the Korber Ministry, which was summoned on Nov. i, ruled during its eight weeks' period of activity without Parliament. On Nov. 14 Korber set up an office for food control (Volksernahrungsamt) which later became the Ministry of Food (Jan. 1917). Little else was done; the approaching death of Francis Joseph (Nov. 21) prevented any far-reaching plans. When the worn-out old Emperor was succeeded by an immature boy, the serious, positive and somewhat " schoolmasterish " Korber did not strike the right note with him. Charles I. could not forgive Korber for prevailing upon him to promise to take the oath to the constitution, since the constitution was no longer tenable and Sturgkh had already prepared constitutional amendments; on the other hand Charles's assumption of the supreme command of the army was opposed to Korber's taste. When Korber declined to carry through the Ausglcich with Hungary without consulting Parliament, and made it a question of confidence the young Emperor on Dec. 20 1916 lightly dis- missed his best adviser.
Clam-Martinitz Ministry. Korber's successor, Clam-Martinitz, 1 who belonged to the violently Czech feudal nobility, tried to form a national coalition Cabinet, including two German politicians. The political event of the moment was President Wilson's note (Dec. n 1916) and the Entente's answer (Jan. 12 1917) as to the liberation of the " oppressed " peoples of Austria. It called forth sharp counter manifestoes on the part of those who were to be " liberated." A resolution adopted unanimously on Jan. 17 1917 by the Croatian representatives proclaimed, as a condition of the national existence and the cultural and economic development of the Southern Slavs, that they should remain under the House of Habsburg. The Czech Union rejected, by a unanimous resolution of its governing committee, the suggestions of the Entente, as being insinuations based on erroneous premises, and deprecated by a reference to their secular allegiance " the interference of the Entente Powers " (Jan. 23 1917). Koroschek, the Slovene leader, wrote to the minister in the name of his party that " these hypocritical assurances have called forth nothing but indignation among the Southern Slavs " (Jan. i 1917). The Rumanian Club made a similar declaration on Jan. 24.
The hope df achieving parliamentary cooperation on the basis of such loyal declarations as these soon vanished. The Germans demanded, as a condition precedent to the effective participation of their nationality in the affairs of the state, an alteration of the constitution by imperial ordinance (Oktroi), which should define
1 Count Clam-Martinitz (b. 1863), an hereditary member of the House of Lords, and chairman of the Committee of Privileges in it, had been head of the Ministry of Agriculture from Oct. 31 1916; up to June 23 1917 he was Prime Minister, then Governor of Montenegro till 1918.
the boundaries between the nationalities in Bohemia, rearrange the districts (Kreise) accordingly, declare German to be the language in which the business of the Reichsrat was to be con- ducted, and lay down more stringent rules of procedure. The Slavs, on the other hand, demanded the " unconditional " summoning of Parliament. The Germans yielded, and the Reichsrat met on May 31. Both the Southern Slavs and Czechs immediately made constitutional declarations; the former demanded a national union of the Southern Slavs, the latter a territorial union of the lands S. of the Sudetic Mountains, while the Germans opposed any transformation of the monarchy into a federal state. In the face of this uncompromising display of opposition there could be no hope for the Coalition planned by Clam-Martinitz for the creation of a new Austria, and on June 19 he resigned.
Seidler Ministry. On June 24 1917 the Emperor appointed as prime minister his former tutor, the Ritter von Seidler, 2 who summoned a Ministry of mere officials, just to carry on business for the time being; any constitutional reorganization was still postponed. On July 2, on the occasion of the Crown Prince's birthday, the Emperor proclaimed a wide measure of amnesty, in which on July 10 even Kramarz and his confederates were included. This precipitate action aroused the mistrust of the Germans, and, in view of the ambiguous attitude of the prime minister towards the Czechs, led to a vote of censure being passed at a meeting of the German national council at Prague on July IS-
Seidler now resolved to undertake the reconstruction of the crumbling body politic, with a reorganized Cabinet (Aug. 31 1917). A great economic and social programme was announced, including the extension of waterways, the exploitation of electricity, an improved system of communication, industrial insurance, and a department for public health. Politically the organization of the state on the fundamental principle of national autonomy was to follow; he hoped to get round the nationalist obstacles in Bohemia by a rearrangement of districts with local delimitation according to nationality. This bold plan met with no success; the economic programme in particular did not come into force; it was an empty promise, which was not taken serious- ly. But the political programme, on the other hand, let loose a violent attack of the Slav nationalities on the state. The Polish committee, which had been formed on a political basis, was dissolved after unprecedentedly stormy negotiations, due to discontent at the cession of Chelm (Kholm) to the Ukraine; the Poles threatened the rest of Austria with a boycott of food, and abstained from voting on the budget. The action of the Czechs was even more dangerous to the state; on Jan. 12 1918 a meeting of their deputies at Prague unanimously accepted a resolution to the effect that the Bohemian question was to receive an inter- national solution at the Peace Congress. Seidler regretfully pointed out in Parliament on Jan. 22 that this resolution was totally opposed to that of May 1917, which could still be recon- ciled with the fundamental conceptions of patriotism. The Germans rejoined with a demand for a province of their own, German Bohemia, separate from Czech-Bohemia (Jan. 22). Similarly the Ruthenians demanded that East Galicia should be erected into a separate Crown land under the name of the Ukraine (March 3). Since the Northern and Southern Slavs had absented themselves and the Poles were in opposition, the Reichsrat was adjourned (May 3), and the Germans now again demanded the grant of a revised constitution, with German as the language of State, a special status for Galicia and Dalmatia, access for the Germans to the Adriatic, and the partition of Bohemia. Seidler granted indeed a rearrangement of districts in Bohemia (seven Czech, four German and two mixed); but he could not make up his mind to go further, and tried the expedient of summoning a fresh Parliament on June 16. But the day before
2 Ritter Ernst von Seidler (b. 1862 at Schwechat, near Vienna) was secretary to the Chamber of Commerce in the mountain town of Leoben; then an official in the Ministry of Agriculture, and from June i 1917 Minister of Agriculture; he was also a university reader in constitutional law.
