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 the King, in his capacity as Emperor of Austria, could not have permitted such a procedure. Karolyi and his supporters did not abide by this demand of theirs up to the end. They regarded the cause of the breach of the negotiations between myself and them as the preservation of the joint Ministry for Foreign Affairs. But it was not for me to give way in this matter either. The Constitution recognized only one common Minister for Foreign Affairs. Such a separation would have led immediately to revolution in Austria, because this country could not permit that the legal ties between both countries could suddenly be dissolved without its consent. Moreover, it would not have been suitable to demolish a common diplomacy at a moment when this very diplomacy had to take instant action in the interests of the conclusion of peace. It is much easier to destroy connections that we possess in foreign countries than to create new ones. Moreover, I had arrived at the conclusion that we could only secure bearable conditions if the support of the Entente could be obtained for some form of Danube federation, and if we were able to convince the Entente that it was both possible and desirable to form a group of states which accepted whatever peace had been decided upon without further thought, and which was willing and able to pursue a new policy. My main motive, however, was the conviction that the Entente would identify themselves with the most far-reaching aspirations of our small neighbours if they had to choose between an antagonistic Hungarian nation and a new friendly state.