Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/284

 the Monarchy was even prepared to offer their services to the Entente in so far as they were able to bring pressure to bear upon Germany to adapt herself to the new conditions.

In my opinion the calculations upon which Karolyi's policy was founded were erroneous. He believed that the war would be substituted immediately by a world revolution, which Karolyi expressed in the October delegation: "Pacifism will suppress all the military parties of the Entente." I was of opinion that a considerable time would follow the war during which the danger of revolution would be threatening, but I never seriously accepted the prophecy that the revolution would gain the mastery before the conclusion of peace in the victorious countries. I regarded the statement of Marshal Foch that a victory would be a guarantee against the Bolshevik danger as an exaggeration. Nevertheless, it is indubitable that victory must render an outbreak of revolution more difficult, and that the fate of a nation could not be based on such volatile prophecies, which would facilitate an outbreak of revolution at any moment. It was not for us to indulge in prophecies, but to come to an agreement in a humble spirit with the dominating powers. One cannot attempt to solve the questions of to-day with the possible possessors of power of to-morrow. A policy based on such principles is a gamble which may not be risked at the expense of a nation's existence. It would, moreover, have been a revolutionary measure to disarm the Hungarian troops immediately, because