Unfortunately the notions held about Austria-Hungary in France, and above all, in England, have far too long been of a very vague nature. Public opinion in France and England was totally unable to grasp the situation, when war broke out. It was incapable of seeing the important part played during the war, and to be played after the war, by the populations living in the Hapsburg Monarchy. The vast majority of these peoples devoutly pray for the victory of the Triple Entente, for they only fight against it because they are forcibly constrained to do so. At heart they look to the victory of the Allies for deliverance from a hateful yoke which has weighed on them heavily for centuries. That is why it is of the utmost importance to educate public opinion in the allied countries as to the actual racial facts in Austria-Hungary. Then it will be clearly understood of what abominable treason Francis Joseph was guilty against his peoples; then it will be clearly understood also that as these peoples were more and more inclined, before the war, to lean to the side of France and England, quite as much as to that of Russia, William II. had a strong additional motive for precipitating hostilities. [Illustration: THE NATIONALITIES IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.] The nine different nationalities who live in the Hapsburg Monarchy can be divided into four races: _Germanic._ _Magyar._ Germans 12,000,000 Magyars 10,000,000 (peculiar race of Asiatic origin) _Latin._ _Slav._ Italians 1,000,000 { Czecks and Slovak 8,500,000 Roumanian 3,000,000 { Poles 5,000,000 { Ruthenes 3,500,000 { Slovenes 1,000,000 { Serbo-Croats 6,000,000 --------- ---------- 4,000,000 24,000,000 In a political sense the Germans and Magyars, forming a total of 22 millions, have agreed since 1867 to exercise and maintain for their own profit the supremacy over the Slavs and Latins, although these latter form the majority of the subjects of the Monarchy, since they constitute a group of 28 million inhabitants.