elves into a little freedom.

When I came to England early in the war from Austria-Hungary and
Germany I heard many expressions of hope that the discontented
races in the Empire of Francis Joseph would rebel, and later
expressions of surprise that they did not. Englishmen held the
opinion that such races would be decidedly averse from fighting for
the Hapsburgs. The opinion was correct, and nobody knew this
better than the Hapsburgs themselves.

Like the German Government in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, the
Austrian Government has endeavoured to mislead public opinion in
foreign countries as to the state of mind of the Czechs by false
information and to conceal the true military and political
situation from the population at home. Austria's first problem at
the outbreak of war--a problem which has been worked out to the
last detail--was rapidly to move the soldiers of the subjugated
races from their native lands. Since the Bosnians, for example,
are of the Serbian race, they were mobilised secretly in the middle
of July and sent out of Bosnia. I saw 30,000 moved through Trieste
several days before war was declared on Serbia. A German
acquaintance, with great shipping interests, enthusiastically
indiscreet at sight of them, exclaimed to the little group of which
I was one: "A wonderful system--a wonderful system! The Bosnians
could not be trusted to fight the Serbs. But we Germans can use
them if they prove troublesome to Austria," he continued excitedly.
"We can send them against the French. We will tell them that if
they do not shoot the French, we will shoot _them_." I thought
this a rather curious conversation for July 25th, 1914.

Less than fortnight later I saw two Bohemian regiments arrive at
Prasso, Transylvania, the province farthest removed from their
homes, to be garrisoned in a region, the population of which is
Rumanian, Hungarian and Saxon. I was told later that the Rumanians
who had left the garrisons at Prasso had gone to Bohemia. As I
observed these initial steps in the great smooth-running
Austro-Hungarian military machine, I was impressed with the
impossibility of revolution. With the soldier element
scientifically broken up and scattered all over the country, who
could revolt--the women and children?

The Slav soldiers of Austria-Hungary desert to Russia at every
opportunity. The fact that she now has upwards of 1,200,000
Austro-Hungarian prisoners is sufficient refutation of the