SALONICA
Aehrenthal sketched a programme of commercial extension in the Near
East. The first step to be taken was the building of the Sanjak
railway. The Sanjak is a narrow strip of barren land which was at that
period occupied by Austrian troops. Aehrenthal now proposed to build
a railway through the Sanjak, with the terminus at Salonica. This
railway would give Austria-Hungary the control of the Balkans as far
as trade questions were concerned. Salonica would virtually become
Austrian property, not by the force of conquest, but by the natural
sequence of events. It had long been plain that the Turkish Empire was
crumbling. None knew better than the Austrians that the hour for the
final dissolution of the Turkish Empire had come. It therefore behoved
Austria-Hungary to anticipate her rivals and to secure the most
important port--Salonica. The building of the Sanjak railway would
have shortened the route to the East by many hours. Many statesmen in
Austria-Hungary did not approve of the Sanjak project. There was an
alternative and much quicker route over Albania. If a railway could be
built from Durazzo or Vallona across to Salonica, two days could be
saved on the route to the East. Many statesmen favoured this plan. The
Sanjak was a death-trap, they said; the line would run through gullies
among mountains where enemies could command it. Besides the danger of
enemy forces in case of war, the wild bands of half-civilised folk
in the Balkans must be considered too. They might plunder the train
at any time; it would be very easy to hold it up between the steep
defiles. In Albania there was flat, fertile country that would be
vastly more suited for railway building; it could, besides, be opened
up with advantage. The only trouble with regard to Albania was that
there was a treaty between Austria and Italy regarding any occupation
of that country. If Austria took northern Albania, as she hoped to do,
Italy was to have the southern part. Vallona, the best harbour on the
Adriatic, lay in the part claimed by Italy.
Thus Austria-Hungary hesitated between two alternative schemes. The
German element in Austria was for pushing towards Salonica over the
Sanjak. The idea had come from Berlin, and had been carefully suggested
to Austrian diplomatists by the Emperor’s advisers. Aehrenthal
announced it publicly at the Delegations, and waited to see what effect
his audacious move would have upon Europe. The Greeks sitting in the
café in the Fleischmarkt in Vienna were the first on that memorable
night of the Delegations’ meeting to catch up the words, “To Salonica.”
“Salonica is Greek,” they said. “If it is wrested from the Turks, it
must fall to Greece.” Twenty-four hours later Europe said what it
thought of Austria’s plans of expansion. The old Emperor, Francis
Joseph, who had probably listened in a semi-comatose condition, as
he frequently did, to the report made by his Foreign Minister on the
Sanjak railway, summoned him to Schönbrunn in haste. There, in his
characteristic way, in language so plain that there was no mistaking
it, and that would have done credit to a Vienna cabby, the Emperor
forbade any thoughts of a forward policy. He had had misfortunes enough
in his long reign, he said. If any innovation was to be made it could
be undertaken by his successor; for the rest of his life there would
be quiet. He understood that Russia was aghast at Austria’s plans of
aggression, England was furious, and France asking what it all meant.
The announcement made at the Delegations might be regarded as unspoken.
[Illustration: BARON AEHRENTHAL.]
Strange to say, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne,
agreed with the Emperor. He considered that the forward movement in
the Balkans planned by Aehrenthal was ill-judged. He was aware that
Kaiser Wilhelm and the “German” party in Austria desired to open the
road to the East. The Archduke, however, took a much clearer view of
the political situation than the Kaiser and his advisers. He grasped
the very obvious fact that Italy was not a willing member of the Triple
Alliance. She was only waiting for an excuse that would sound at all
plausible to break loose from her bonds. Why the Archduke should be
keenly aware of a fact that was never even suspected by Kaiser Wilhelm
is not easy to say. Perhaps the intensity of his hatred enabled him to
read the national character aright, for the Archduke hated Italy with
a bitter hatred. He possessed estates in Italy, and considered that
the Italian Courts of Justice had treated him unfairly in a series of
law suits he had had about his property there. Moreover, there were
differences of temperament between the Austrians and Italians. Francis
Ferdinand was essentially a “German” Austrian--that is to say, an
Austrian with leanings towards Prussian methods, who wished to have
the Austrian army reorganised on Prussian methods. There was something
in the Italian character that roused the Archduke’s anger; both he and
Kaiser Wilhelm felt the rage, often manifested by the savage for things
he cannot understand, at Italy and Italy’s methods. This common dislike
for Italy which possessed both men was doubtless due to a remarkable
and startling change in the Italian character. During the last twenty
years the Italians have organised themselves on German lines; the
Italian of to-day has all the efficiency of the Prussian without his
cumbersome methods. When Kaiser Wilhelm went to Italy unexpectedly
to visit his friends there, he found hydroplanes that excelled those
at home moving about in the limpid waters of the Adriatic. He went
to Miramare, swelling with anger. Both he and Francis Ferdinand were
sufficiently intelligent to take in the position at a glance. Italy
was like a child that had stolen a march upon the world in a night by
attaining to her full stature while the others slept. Both raged at the
unexpected turn things had taken. While Kaiser Wilhelm was anxious
to keep Italy as an ally, because Germany and Austria-Hungary had so
small a coast-line, Francis Ferdinand, with much truer insight into
the interests of his country, said, “Fall upon Italy unexpectedly and
crush her.” Kaiser Wilhelm realised that the Austro-Hungarian fleet
would only be of use if it could emerge from the Adriatic. Bottled up
in the inland sea by the Italian fleet it was a negligible quantity.
He did not comprehend the bitter hatred felt by every Italian for the
ancient oppressor, the Austrian. He probably knew little of the ways in
which Italians in Austria were persecuted, in spite of the existence
of the Triple Alliance. The Government went about its work in a very
wary manner, and incidents which would have opened his eyes were
carefully hushed up. It is probable, too, that the Austrians deceived
the Kaiser as to the attitude of the Italians. Every Austrian knew in
his heart that there could never be anything but war between the two
countries. The manner in which they habitually alluded to the Italians
was sufficient to prove their intense hate. The Italian subjects living
in Austria reciprocated this sentiment in full. Whenever they found an
opportunity of paying back some of the Austrian hate for them, they
availed themselves of the chance. Archduke Francis Ferdinand always
used his influence to prevent Austro-Italians rising to power. He had
officials in Trieste removed from their posts merely because they were
“Italians.” Their places were taken by Slavs, who regarded the Archduke
as their protector. As a matter of fact, the Slavs were the only people
in Austria-Hungary who respected and liked the heir to the throne.
The Germans despised him. The Hungarians frankly detested him, and
the Italians execrated him. The Bohemians, the Croats, and the Serbs,
all Slav races, regarded him as their representative. In the racial
contests for place and power in Dalmatia, in Istria, the Slavs who
wished to oust the Italians from their places appealed to the Archduke,
and immediately got what they wanted, while the Czechs, who were in
deadly antagonism with the Germans in Bohemia, had a powerful advocate
in Countess Chotek. When the German officials tried to introduce the
teaching in German instead of the Czech language into elementary
schools in Bohemia in Czech districts, the Archduke stood by them and
prevented any encroachment by the German element.
Thus Emperor Francis Joseph and his heir agreed, although from
different motives, in preventing the plan of the building of the
Sanjak railway being pursued. Kaiser Wilhelm, who had taken no part
in the disputes that were raging in Vienna, was glad that the idea
of Austria-Hungary’s embarking on an aggressive policy should be
ventilated, but did not wish her to take any course that might lead to
war either in the Balkans or with Italy. Neither country was prepared
to embark on an aggressive world-war. Kaiser Wilhelm encouraged
Austro-Hungarian statesmen to contemplate a series of wars with poor
and helpless neighbours, such as Italy, Montenegro, and Servia, but
he was really thinking of executing his projects, of placing Germany
“über alles!” He knew that this idea of aggressive warfare would render
it easier for the German party to obtain the armaments required for
the coming struggle, while public opinion in the country would become
accustomed to the idea of a policy of expansion. He cared little
that the Archduke was preparing for a _coup_ upon Italy when he was
contemplating a blow in the opposite direction. The necessity for
realising his plans made Kaiser Wilhelm regard all means justifiable,
even the deception of his allies.
The storm raised by the Sanjak railway project gradually calmed down,
and Count Aehrenthal, baulked in his plans, retired to the background
to work out fresh plans for Austro-Hungarian aggrandisement; while
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, still sore at the Court Ball incident,
sulked upon his magnificent estate at Konospischt, in Bohemia, where he
superintended his wonderful collection of exotic plants and tried to
forget Vienna the dusty, that was so bad for his lungs.
Kaiser Wilhelm became increasingly aware that the immediate necessities
of the situation rendered it important to gain Archduke Francis
Ferdinand to his side. The Kaiser was painfully conscious that neither
the aged Emperor nor his heir had any real regard for him. They were
inclined to look upon him as an upstart in many ways. The Kaiser’s
sudden excursions into realms that they regarded as distinctly not
regal annoyed them. What need had the Emperor of Germany to seek
distinction as a writer of plays? By such tricks he brought down the
whole level of royalty. All the Habsburgs are eminently dignified, and
Kaiser Wilhelm always seemed something of a royal mountebank to them,
with his strange longings after artistic fame, his childish wish for
popularity--a matter of the most complete indifference to his brother
monarch in Vienna.