ABSTRACT
Austria-Hungary is a state, but not a nation. It has no natural bond to hold its populations together and it continues its political existence by force and fraud, by the connivance and the self-interest of other states, rather than by any inherent principle of vitality. It is in relation to the Balkan States that this instability is most marked and dangerous. Since the kingdom of Serbia acquires its independent existence which is a centre drawing to itself the discontent and the ambitions of the Slav populations under the Dual Monarchy. The realization of those ambitions implies the disruption of the Austro-Hungarian state. This political rivalry accentuates the racial antagonism between German and Slav, and it is the immediate origin of the war which presents itself to Englishmen as between Germany and the Western Powers. On the position of Italy it suspects that Italy is a doubtful factor in the Triple Alliance and proves that the suspicion is correct.
