But, of course, during the war an open fight with Budapest was impossible.

Whether the nations that once composed the Habsburg Empire will ever be reunited is an open question; should it come to pass, may a kind fate preserve us from a return of dualism.

2

On December 26, 1916—­four days after entering upon office—­I received a letter from Tisza in which he imparted to me his views on the tactics to be observed: 

All the European neutrals feel that they are more seriously threatened by England than by us.  The events in Greece, Roumania, etc., as well as England’s commercial tyranny, act in our favour, and the difference of our attitude to the peace plans as compared with that of the Entente—­if consistently and cleverly carried out—­will secure neutral sympathy for our group of Powers.

From this point of view I see that the chief danger will be that our necessarily cautious attitude as regards revealing our war aims may give rise to the idea that we are merely trifling with a plan for peace for tactical reasons and do not really earnestly desire peace.

We must therefore furnish our representatives accredited to neutrals (the most important being Spain and Holland) with the necessary instructions, so that they may be able to account for our cautious attitude and explain the reasons that keep us from making a premature or one-sided announcement of our conditions.

An announcement of the conditions on both sides would expose the belligerent parties in both camps to unfavourable criticism and might easily make the situation more strained; a one-sided announcement of the war aims would simply afford the leader of the belligerent enemy group the opportunity of undoing everything.

It is therefore in the interests of peace that a communication of the peace terms should only be made mutually and confidentially, but we might be able to give the individual neutral various hints concerning it, to show that our war aims coincide with the lasting interests of humanity and the peace of the world, that our chief aim, the prevention of Russian world dominion on land and of the English at sea, is in the interests of the entire world, and that our peace terms would not include anything that would endanger the future peace of the world or could be objected to on the neutral side.

  I offer these views for your consideration, and remain in truest
  friendship, your devoted

  TISZA.

My predecessor, Burian, shortly before he left, had drawn up a peace proposal together with Bethmann.  The Entente’s scornful refusal is still fresh in everyone’s memory.  Since hostilities have ceased and there have been opportunities of talking to members of the Entente, I have often heard the reproach made that the offer of peace could not have been accepted by the Entente, as it was couched in