CHAPTER XVIIEMIGRATION PROMOTED BY GERMANY—SOCIAL QUESTIONS IN THE DUAL MONARCHY
Thenumbers 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 manincreased 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 tofight 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 freeholdland, 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 ageviâBremen or Hamburg. The wives and children wentviâTrieste 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 lifeemigrated, 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. Germanyhad 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 towatch 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 uponthe 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.