Reviews
this book. Mr. Macdonald is aware that open diplomacy will not remove the causes of war, but believes “that it will enable these causes to dissipate themselves without an explosion.” This is probably true, but it entirely depends upon the spirit which animates Europe in the future. The change of heart prescribed by President Wilson is, indeed, the root of the matter.A. F. W.
The collation of President Wilson’s various statements on the war (America and Freedom, pp, xv + 76. Allen and Unwin, 1s, net) appears opportunely. At a moment when the question of mobilising our war aims for a political offensive has been brought into prominence by Lord Lansdowne, one may well be grateful for this handy conspectus of America’s lucid expositions of the Allied ideal. It contains the sanest and truest presentment of our cause which has yet been given. Its value, however, would have been greatly enhanced by the inclusion of the Allies’ answer to President Wilson’s Note last December, although an admirable introduction by Viscount Grey and two speeches by Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Asquith respectively reproduce the sense, if not the details, of that document. G. G.
“The New Austria”
Slovene papers from Ljublana report that Slovene text-books for elementary schools have been confiscated by the Austrian censorship because of patriotic points in which the censorship saw an “overrating of the Slovenes and of their mother-tongue.” Similarly many Czech school text-books were confiscated. In one primer the sentence, “The lion is the king of the animal world” was changed into “Austria is my fatherland” [the lion is the national emblem of Bohemia]. The sentence “The Czechs are Slavs” was changed into “The Czechs are Austrians.” These are but two instances taken at random from the Austrian press to show that the old methods of the Police State still prevail in what some would have us believe is a “new Austria.”
The Vatican and Church Lands
An interesting sidelight comes from Hungary upon one possible reason for the Vatican’s anxiety for peace. The organ of that genuinely devout and clerical minister. Count Apponyi, announced on 9 September that a scheme was in preparation for regulating all the vast episcopal domains of Hungary, pooling their revenues, and after the assignment of fixed salaries to the hierarchy, using the balance for opening schools and augmenting the stipends of the lower clergy. Under such a scheme the Primate would receive an annual income of £12,000 (instead of £125,000!), and archbishops and bishops £7,500 and £5,000 respectively. This is intended to forestall the demand of secularisation of church lands, which is one of the main
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