The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1914. THE AUSTRIAN TRAGEDY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20115, 30 June 1914, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1914. THE AUSTRIAN TRAGEDY.

The shocking tragedy reported in our cable news this morning adds another link to the chain of misfortunes which have befallen the Imperial and Royal House of Habsburg during the long reign of the Emperor Francis Joseph. Throughout his life Francis Joseph has stood forth as the champion of tradition, and if he has not himself been always scrupulous in respecting it, at least lie lias insisted on others doing go. The tragedies and misfortunes of his house, although a great part of the responsibility for them rests upon him, have <nassed over him almost without touching him. But to the scandals which has tarnished the fair fame of the HaHsburgs he could not be indifferent, for, where the honour of his name wae damaged the old Emperor's violent pride land haulgtay arrogance were grievously hurt. And hurt, in this sense, ho has been not once, but many times. The fierce light •which beats upon a throne has revealed in the conditions of life existing at and in connection with the Austrian Court many things which must make the humble plebian thankful for his lot. The record of the life of Francis Joseph is, from the domestic point of view especially, a record of unhappiness, due largely to the Emperor's refusal to consent to any compromise regarding what he proudly called "the laws, of the House of Habsburg." In virtue of these laws he retained such rights, in particular, as that of choosing husbands for the Princesses, and brides for the Princes of his house. In spite of the mournful examples furnished by his system of mar.ria.ges between close.kinsfolk, he would not consent to abandon it, but continued to impoverish th«? race in the cause of tradition. To this principle the Emperor clung until 1890 (when he had not yet reached, as ha has .to-day, the period of physical weakness), but in that year it was shattered for him by Iris favourite granddaughter, the Princess Elisabeth, who set- his wishes at defiance and married the husband of her choice, the Baron Yon Seefried, a lieutenant in the Bavarian army, who was nott only not ft. Prince, but -whose disqualification for alliance, with the Habsbuirgs wae enhanced by the fact that he was a Protestant. From that time onward, encouraged by the courageous example of Elizabeth, other members of the royal family have married "without the law," either, with the enforced consent or witliout it, of the ancient monarch.* Such a marriage was that of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the Countess Chotek, whose sad and tragic fate is announced this morning. The Archduke Francis Ferdinand, a nephew of th-3 Emperor, became heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary upon the death 'of the Crown Prince Rudolf early in 1889. The death of Rudolf, which was enshrouded in what came to be known as the "mystery of Mayerling," constitutes one of the most sordid incidents in the hsitory of the Austrian Court. Rudolf had, all his life, given way to excess, ami he was, moreover, a confirmed morphinisit. He had consistently treated his wife, the Princess Stephanie, improperly, and the culminating folly of his life came with his infatuation for the Baroness Maria Vetschera, the granddaughter of a commoner, a Greek financier, who, starting life with nothing, died a millionaire. Vetschera, who when she met Rudolf was the young widow of an Austrian diplomatist, was a beautiful adventuress, and it was her ambition to take Stephanie's place tlie prospectivo Empress. To that end six; succeeded in persuading Rudolf to endeavour to procure a divorce, and' it was the revelation of Rudolf's attempt to persuade the Pope-to oblige hut by iii'terveninrj; in the manner requested, that led to the final tragedy. Franc-is Jo-pph insisted on his son putting an end to the scandalous alliance, a-.hi extracted a promise from his son's enfeebled will that ho would have : o more to do with the beautiful adventurops. Immediately after the stormy interview with his father he despatched a inn;; letter to the Baroness, telling her of his. enforced determination. That evening, as lie was driving to MaycrJin:r. the IBiwoncsis, who had armed herself with a razor, joined him and proceeded with him to the Prince's huntirr; box. Next morning, in Rudolf's bedroom two dead bodies were found ci a disordc.'ed bed —Rudolf with his head blown off, and Marie Vetschora strangled. The sorry story concludes with the official record: "His Imperial an,! Royal Highness Rudolf, Archduke of Austria, l>orn at Vienna on August 21, 1858, died at Mayerling on the night of January 29-30, 1889. in consequence, of having blown his brains out with a sporting rifle." Thus ended the heirapparen't, and now the new heir apparent has been done to death, together with his morganatic wife, the Countess Ghotek. The ti'agedy is fraught with the possibility of far more than per- j eonal consequences: it involves the peril '

[ of serious international complications. | The veteran ruler Francis Joseph, now in his eighty-fourth year, cannot in the natural course of events hold the throne much longer. By the terms of ■$& Austrian constitution the young son of Francis Ferdiniand, by reason of the fact that his mother is not a Princess or the blood-royal, is excluded; from the right to succeed to the throne of Austria. But side by side with the Austrian constitution there is the Hungarian, " which recognises the wife of the King ! of Hungary as Queen of Hungary. whati ever her origin, and the children of the ! said King (or heir apparent), whatever their mothers might be, as heirs, by the very fact of their birth, to the Apostolic throne of Hungary." Thus, had Francis Ferdinand been spared to succeed his uncle (provided he did not abdicate in favour of his brother Otho, whom, it is said, the entire .Empire would reject with disgust), he would have become Emperor and King, while his wife at the same time would have assumed the Hungarian crown, but not the Austrian. Further, if at the time of his death Francis Ferdinand had occupied the dual throne, his eldest son would ascend by right the royal throne of Hungary, while the Imperial throne of Austria could never be his. The marriage of Francis Ferdinand and the Countess Chotek was attribiited to the influence of the Jesuits, and the object they had in view in bringing the marriage to pass has since been clearly revealed in the ultra-clerical proceedings of the princely couple. The Oountess, who should have been induced to efface herself fry her position of morganatic wife, nevertheless put herself at the head of several religious societies. She even persuaded her husr band to accept the title of Patron of the Catholic School League, which was founded by the Jesuits as a counterpoise to the Deutscher-iSchulverein, whose objects were the establishment of undenominational German, schools and the defence of the law concerning schools against the attacks of the clericals. All through, his life Francis Joseph tos "manoeuvred so as not to take any part in the quaa-rels which rent the Empire. The Czechs on the one side, and the Gei mans on the other/ have been constantly at variance, without the Emperor ever betraying his preference for one or the other. But Francis Ferdinand—described as a man of limited* brain-power and narrow mind, and very clerical in hie sympathies.—by becoming Patron of the Katbolischer-Scbul-verein, ranged himself definitely under tji3 flag of the Czechs (his wife is a Czech by birth), and declared war against the entire German section of the Empire. When giving his consent to the marriage, the Emperor insisted that the Crown Prince's renunciation of rights for his wife and children should " be ratified by the Hungarian Diet. The majority, at that time very devoted to tbeir Sovereign, voted as Francis Joseph wished. The majority haa einoe j changed its views, and at any tinW the i Hungarian Diet might by a new vote I expunge from ;*a cr institution this | special law What, then, is to be the outcome of th© sudden and violent death of Francis Ferdinand? Will the dead Archduke's younger brother succeed him as heir apparent, or will the honouir @v to one of the two othei* nephews of the Emperor, cons of the late Archduke Otho? There is, too, at least one other aspirant, th© Archduke diaries, son of the sister of the King of Saxo#v (the Archduchess Maria Josepha), while an element of romance is added to the situation by the possibility that the long-lost " Johann Orth" (Archduke John) may at *he psychological moment turn up and claim the crown, though in all human probability he wen-5 down with his ship and his pretty actress-wife when on a voyage from Vahoaraiso to some unknown destination early in 1890. For the time being it would seem that the peace of Austria-Hungary hangs on the slender thread of an old man's life, and

doubtless, as the result of this latest tragedy, the venerable monasrch once more sees before his brightened eyes the threefold menace of a possible revolution, a foreign invasion and a dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.