EMIGRATION PROMOTED BY GERMANY--SOCIAL QUESTIONS IN THE DUAL MONARCHY
The numbers of emigrants to Canada, the States, and South America
had been increasing in an alarming manner for many years. The large
band of men who left their country might be divided into two classes.
The larger class was composed of men who, weary of living under
Austro-Hungarian administration, left the country for good, worked for
money to build up a new home beyond the seas, and subsequently sent
money to pay the fares of their wives and children, or other relatives
to the new country.
The second class of emigrant that swelled the returns was the “season
emigrant.” He left for one, two, or three years, supported his family
at home while working abroad, and returned with his savings at the
end of the time to enrich the country of his birth. This class of
man increased the prosperity of the country. The American Government
encouraged the permanent emigrant and objected to the “season”
emigrant, who refused to become naturalised, and formed part of a large
foreign element that it always regarded as potentially dangerous. The
Austro-Hungarian Government, on the contrary, naturally encouraged
the “season” emigrant, and did everything possible to deter men from
agricultural countries from emigrating permanently.
During the Balkan wars the subject-races, always oppressed by the
Central Government, were subjected to much harsh treatment because
disorders were feared. Repressive measures were carried out very
cruelly; no allowance was made for race and natural sympathy with
their relatives across the border. The governors cared nothing if
they could cow the population into obedience. The more independent
spirits naturally escaped beyond the seas to avoid persecution. The
mobilisation and the long time that the army remained on the frontiers
made the Slavs fear that a war was coming. They did not desire to fight
against the Serbs nor the Russians. The Austro-Italians who inhabit the
southern coast-line and man the Austro-Hungarian fleet did not wish to
be called upon to fight against Italy. Thus almost all the inhabitants
near the coast considered it better to get away while they could, and
emigration on a vast scale began. Whole regions were depopulated. It
was impossible to move off the main route of travel in Austria-Hungary
at this period without being literally besieged by would-be emigrants.
How could they learn English? Could it be done by correspondence? What
other qualifications were necessary for emigrants to the States? It
seemed as if the whole agricultural population was packing up to leave.
The Emperor once wished to send some rare game to New Zealand, and
asked for a couple of men to accompany them. The entire country-side
offered to travel with them to the far-off land, intending never
to return. Istria, Hungary, Galicia, and the Bukowina swarmed with
emigration agents. These agents were quite unscrupulous in their
methods. They simply desired to make money quickly. They got the
usual bonus from the companies on each emigrant induced to travel by
their line, and besides were subsidised by big companies who wished
to populate large tracts of land abroad. These companies promised the
emigrants free holdings. The peasant, who was greedy for freehold
land, naturally jumped at the offer, and left his village without much
persuasion. The agents, knowing full well that the Austro-Hungarian
Government must not get information as to the way in which the country
was being literally bled of its best military material, shipped the
young men of military age _viâ_ Bremen or Hamburg. The wives and
children went _viâ_ Trieste or Fiume. Thus the figures sent in to the
Austro-Hungarian Government gave no indication of what was going on.
This business went on undetected for about ten years.
Suddenly the explosion came. Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to
the throne, discovered that a hundred thousand recruits fit for service
had got away in a single year. An inquiry was held into the matter. A
ramification of frauds, such as could only exist where the officials
were in sympathy with the population, was discovered. In many cases
boys were registered as girls with female names. When they grew up they
left the country or remained in some remote village where no one had
any interest to reveal their presence. Their employers did not want to
spare them for the army. Others whose mothers had not been sufficiently
far-seeing to arrange matters early in life emigrated, with documents
borrowed from a friend for the occasion. The documents were then sent
back by messenger over the frontier to the rightful owner. When either
of these methods was impracticable, medical certificates testifying
unfitness were procured. Certificates of this kind were cheap. The
demand was so great that there was a keen competition, and military
doctors were not able to stand out for large bribes, especially in
out-of-the-way places. The feeling of the whole country was with the
man who refused to fight for the German and Magyar overlords.
A number of emigration agents were hastily clapped into prison,
travelling offices were closed, and a minute investigation was begun.
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, who undertook the task himself, soon
discovered that Austria-Hungary had been drained of its best fighting
material by Germany. Cheap passages had been offered to emigrants
by the Hamburg and Bremen lines. They were no doubt anxious to make
substantial profits. He went into the figures and was startled to find
that the heavy Government subsidies enabled them to carry emigrants at
a loss. He immediately detected the hand of Kaiser Wilhelm behind this.
Germany had robbed her Poles of their land in order to colonise German
Poland with Teutons. The Kaiser was now trying to drain Austria-Hungary
of its Slav population and to replace them by German emigrants. That
was the meaning of the great emigrant traffic and of the secrecy with
which it had been carried on.
Francis Ferdinand was furious when he discovered the truth. Men of
military age were not allowed to cross the frontier without explaining
where they were going.
The emigrants, however, got away in hundreds every week, in spite of
all restrictions. The trouble that had been made about recruits leaving
the country convinced people on the frontiers and at the sea coast that
a great war was coming. The Slavs and the Italians, who were determined
not to be involved, took train to the nearest frontier station and
simply walked across without passports. It was soon discovered that
as the German emigration figures fell, the numbers of young men of
military age leaving Russia and Italy for the States increased.
Emigration had not been stopped; it had only been diverted to other
channels. This discovery enraged the Austrian Government.
Sentinels were posted on the frontiers to watch for young men, but as
the sentinels belonged to the disaffected races the men got past all
the same.
The restriction upon emigration pressed particularly hardly upon
the Bosnian Slavs. The seething discontent that had increased every
year since the annexation would never have become dangerous had the
restless spirits been allowed to leave for the States. Families would
have felt that their sons were safe from the bad treatment in the
army and would have waited patiently until they had enough money to
join them in the States. The sudden checking of all these hopes,
the shutting of the only door of escape, brought the discontent to
a head. There were rumours of disaffection among the subject-races
everywhere. Sure of a warm welcome from their fellow-countrymen on the
other side should trouble force them to leave, the people along the
frontiers became very restless. There was every indication that the
Austro-Hungarian conglomeration of nationalities and States could not
be kept together much longer. Archduke Francis Ferdinand was pleased
at these indications. He, in common with the remainder of the military
party, was looking for an excuse for a war. Thus he and the army put
more pressure upon the Serbs in Hungary instead of relieving them from
some of the grosser forms of oppression. Kaiser Wilhelm encouraged the
Archduke in this policy. He wished Austria-Hungary to realise that it
had reached a crisis in its history that could only be solved by a war.