AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AS A MILITARY AND NAVAL POWER
In 1907 Austria-Hungary, where conscription is in force, had an army
of about three million men when fully mobilised. These men were of
excellent physique, since they were selected as the most promising
material among a number of men fit for service. Every year when the
annual contingent of recruits came up for service, a larger number were
passed as “fit” than could be put into training. About a third of the
“fit” were sent home; they were selected by lot, and although they were
not called upon to serve immediately, they were under the obligation to
do so when required. Thus there was a large second line of untrained
men fit for service and ready to be called up when necessary. The high
standard of efficiency resulted in only the very best material being
selected; there were many among the rejected who could be called to
the colours in time of necessity.
Besides this, the military authorities pursued a definite policy. They
were willing to grant exemption to the city man who could be usefully
employed in clerical work in war time, and devoted their energies to
training the peasant for actual fighting.
All this resulted in the official figures of the available men giving
no real estimate of the numbers that were actually available.
Much money and attention were devoted to the minor branches of
the service. Armament factories were increased and flying fields
established in connection with all the army corps headquarters. The
preparations for a possible war, while being carried on with great
energy and at great expense, were somewhat delayed by an incurable
habit, peculiar to the Austrians, of giving great attention to branches
of the service that were anything but essential. Experiments were made
in ski-running on the Alps in winter. Small companies of men were
frequently lost in the Tyrol while trying to cross difficult ground.
It was felt in the country generally that the attempts to get over the
glaciers and snowfields might just as well have been made in summer,
when there was not the same danger from avalanches, and even if war
with Italy were inevitable, ski-running practised within view of the
Italian frontier was not likely to calm Italian susceptibilities.
Aviation, which had long been recognised as the war weapon of the
future, was quite neglected. The Government refused to purchase the
necessary airships. The Austrians, with all their mechanical genius,
were not able to make the motors for aeroplanes. Austrian inventors
had to obtain motors from France before their airships could fly. The
conservatism of thought and methods which made the Austro-Hungarian
Government neglect the air service, led them to misread the signs of
the times, and to allow the fleet to sink to a mere nothing. Although
they were building up the fortifications along the Austro-Hungarian
frontier, a queer optimism made them count upon Italy’s help in the
Mediterranean. Meanwhile they worked up their land fortifications.
The Austro-Hungarian naval ports are models of what Nature can do in
the way of natural defences. Cattaro is practically impregnable from
the sea side. The gulf winds in and out, and the approach to the city
can be defended at every turn. The military and naval authorities
felt quite secure of Cattaro, and it was only in the Annexation year,
when there was trouble with Montenegro, that it was discovered that
the cannon on the summit of Mount Lovcen could be fired right into
Cattaro. The boundary line between Austria-Hungary and Montenegro runs
close to the summit of the mountain. The Austrians considered that
it would be very easy to capture the top of the precipitous mountain
should war break out between the small country and themselves, but it
was a very serious offset to the value of Cattaro. There was a large
choice of suitable naval ports along the coast besides Cattaro. The
only consideration that made a selection difficult was the question of
railway communications with the interior.
Sebenico was also built out as a naval base, but, like Cattaro, there
was no railway to connect it with the interior, as the narrow gauge
Bosnian railways were of little practical use for military purposes.
They were either light mountain railways or narrow gauge. This meant
that all transports must be unloaded at the Hungarian frontier. Neither
Cattaro nor Sebenico could thus be utilised as first-class naval bases
until the Bosno-Herzegowinan railway system had been changed. Plans for
this project were made and the money was voted, but the work had not
been begun at the outbreak of the Great War. The naval authorities
established excellent wireless stations and repairing shops at these
ports. The Government was disinclined to spend money on these ports,
because the population was either Italian or Serb, and not easy to cow
into subjection, like inland peoples. A seafaring people were always
able to make good their escape should danger threaten. If the sea coast
were watched too carefully for them to get away by boat, there was a
wild mountainous district behind, where a man could hide among the
rocky crags undisturbed until the hue and cry after him had died down.
Just as the Bohemians near the German frontier were always inclined to
be restive, and the Government more or less obliged to take a lenient
view of their offences, so the Dalmatians were seldom subjected to
persecution. Austria-Hungary never let off her wrath on those able to
defend themselves.
Political considerations hampered the Austro-Hungarian Government in
her choice of ports and in her shipbuilding. Austria wished to get all
the shipbuilding orders, and was willing to make concessions to Hungary
in agricultural affairs in order to secure them. Hungary, however, was
not disposed to accept these.
Austria-Hungary only settled upon a definite naval policy after the
Annexation crisis. It was decided then that the new boats should
be built in Trieste, and then tugged round to Pola for fitting.
The Hungarians complained bitterly, and insisted upon some orders
being placed at Fiume also. Slips for Dreadnoughts were prepared in
Hungarian dockyards. The first Dreadnoughts, however, were built at the
Stablimento Tecnico, in Trieste. This caused a storm of indignation all
along the Adriatic. Austria had fostered Trieste at the expense of all
other ports--both Hungarian and Italian--on the sea coast. Two railways
carried goods from Trieste to Vienna. Preference tariffs were given to
goods shipped over the Austrian ports. Italian firms found it cheaper
to get their goods via Trieste than via Venice. Every form of ruse
and trickery for magnifying the importance of Trieste and decreasing
that of Venice was used. In some cases, Austrian firms received large
State subventions to enable them to undersell Italian firms. Thus
Trieste absorbed much of the trade that formerly went _via_ Genoa to
Switzerland and Germany. In bolstering up Trieste and its trade the
Government was not actuated by commercial considerations only. The
mercantile fleet proved an excellent training-school for sailors;
the population was composed mostly of Italians and Slavs, seafaring
people who had been accustomed to earn their living on the water for
generations and generations. Austria-Hungary, when contemplating her
failures in many parts of the country, could always point to Trieste
as a complete success. Unfortunately, Kaiser Wilhelm also regarded the
seaport as an entire success. The splendid docks, stretching miles
inland, where light boats could be built, the yards at Montfalcone,
all stirred a feeling of covetousness in the monarch, who was never
satisfied. He actually commenced negotiations to get possession of
Trieste. He needed a port in the Mediterranean or in the Adriatic for
the re-fitting, re-fuelling, and provisioning of German ships in times
of peace. Austria-Hungary refused on one occasion to cede her best port
to Kaiser Wilhelm, but an agreement that Germany could use it as a
coaling-station was entered into.
The first Dreadnoughts built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy just after
the Annexation crisis were laid down secretly. Although permission to
build Dreadnoughts had been given at the Delegations, many Members
of Parliament opposed the granting of the money, on the ground that
Austria-Hungary could not afford to embark on a policy that might
embroil her with other nations. Her army was sufficiently large to
protect her and assure her that respect among the Great Powers that
she had a right to demand. The Government, to save argument, thus laid
down the Dreadnoughts without announcing the fact. When the news that
the first ship was partially ready and the second had already been
laid down was made public, the other nations of Europe naturally felt
that Austria-Hungary had stolen a march upon them. She specialised in
building submarines and torpedoes at this time. The necessary expense
was provided for by a special species of book-keeping. Money voted
for education and similar purposes was devoted to the construction of
submarines, and the public and Europe were kept in ignorance of the
true uses to which it was put.
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the late heir to the throne of
Austria-Hungary, was especially interested in shipbuilding. He had a
valid excuse for remaining far from the capital. The fine dust from
the limestone with which Vienna is built injured his lungs, which were
already delicate. He therefore stayed for the greater part of the year
at Miramare, a beautiful castle close to Trieste, or at Brioni, farther
along the coast. The Duchess and the children enjoyed the stay near
the sea. He ran to and fro in a swift yacht, visited Pola and Fiume,
and assisted at the experiments which were being carried on there.
Kaiser Wilhelm frequently came to visit Corfu, and stayed at Miramare
_en route_. The two men who were plotting for world-empire spent many
hours together. The Kaiser was frequently accompanied by experts, who
travelled _incognito_ at the command of the Emperor.
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, brought up, like all the Austro-Hungarian
Imperial family, in an atmosphere of unreality, suspected nothing of
the Kaiser’s ulterior motives in coming to Trieste. He even followed
his suggestions for the gradual removal of all Italians employed in
Government service.