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Germany should have handed in precise declarations which should meet their views in the questions of Belgium and Alsace- Lorraine. It was, then, very opportune for the Court of Vienna when President Wilson, in his message to Congress of Jan. 8 1918, defined the Fourteen Points, in which he perceived a suit- able basis for the establishment of a lasting peace. It is true that several of these points involved considerable damage to Austro-Hungarian interests: but in their entirety they seemed to afford Czernin the possibility of initiating peace negotiations.

He endeavoured in divers ways, and especially Czernla's through the mediation of the King of Spain, to enter /ortst 1918 m t negotiations with President Wilson, but failed

to attain his end. Equally fruitless were the informal conversations carried on by Austro-Hungarian representatives, in intelligence with their Government, with French delegates in Switzerland and other places. Czernin firmly refused the demand of the Western Powers for the conclusion of a separate peace;, but he continued his efforts at negotiation, though he knew that German headquarters had prepared a new campaign in the West which was intended to be decisive.

At the beginning of April 1918, shortly after this German offensive had successfully begun, Czernin emphasized, in an . address to a delegation of the Viennese town coun-

axaia cil, his loyalty to Germany, as proved by his rejec-

Foreiga tion of the French peace offers, which were con- ter ' ditional on the recognition of France's claims to Alsace-Lorraine. Clemenceau, the French prime minister, de- clared this assertion to be a lie, and, in the course of the pub- licist feud that followed, published among other things the letter of the Emperor Charles to Prince Sixtus of March 24 1917, in which he alluded to his willingness to advocate with his Allies France's " just claims " to Alsace-Lorraine. The Austro-Hungarian monarch's loyalty to his alliance was thus placed in an equivocal light, and Czernin's refusal to accept full responsibility for the Emperor Charles's proceedings led to his resignation, Count Burian being reappointed as his successor. In order to calm the agitation of the Emperor William and the German statesmen and generals, the Emperor Charles had to make another "journey to Canossa" at Spa, and there, on May 12 1918,' he set his signature to agreements for a closer political and military union between the two coun- tries, the coming into force of which would have meant heavy damage to the independence of Austria-Hungary. But since the condition of the validity of this treaty, namely an under- standing between the two Powers on the Polish question, broke down, the Spa agreement, too, remained a scrap of paper.

Meanwhile Germany was putting forth her last strength in the hope of achieving a decisive success. But her initial successes

were followed by reverses. Austria-Hungary had Last taken part in the battles on the western front, but

only within modest limits. In June 1918 she attempted

a sudden attack on Italy with the principal body of her troops. But here, too, the decisive victory which had been expected was not achieved. These failures, together with the ever-increasing lack of effective soldiers, arms, munitions and foodstuffs, deepened the longing of the peoples of the Habs- burg Monarchy for peace. In addition, the Emperor Charles became alive to the more and more open opposition of the non-German and non-Magyar peoples of his dominions, and likewise to the revolutionary spirit which was becoming con- spicuous among the working-classes in many places, and he began to tremble for his crown and the fate of the dynasty. In proportion as the German hope of extorting peace by force of arms diminished, a more favourable prospect seemed to open up for the efforts of Austro-Hungarian statesmen to put an end to the war by way of diplomatic negotiations. At the end

of July 1918, Baron KUhlmann, the German Secretary

of State for Foreign Affairs, had been compelled to Peace. resign in consequence of his saying in the Reichstag that

an end of the war through a purely military decision could not be expected. But by Aug. 14 Ludendorff himself, who had played a prominent part in bringing about Kiihl-

mann's fall, declared at headquarters in Spa that they could no longer hope to break the military spirit of the foe by force of arms. Thus when Burian again approached the German Government, he no longer met with any opposition on prin- ciple. Yet great differences presented themselves in the course of the deliberations as to the course to be adopted. The Ger- mans wanted to wait for an improvement of the military situa- tion in the West and then begin negotiations with the enemy through a neutral Power Holland or Spain while Austro- Hungarian statesmen advocated an immediate and open appeal to all the combatant Powers. At the beginning of Sept. 1918 the German Minister Hintze spent some time in Vienna in order to arrive at an agreed course of action. But since this could not be achieved, Burian determined, without regard to Germany's opposition, to have an appeal sent out to all the combatant States for the opening of peace negotiations. Presi- dent W'ilson answered, however, after a few days' interval, that he had repeatedly and in the 'plainest terms made known the conditions on which he was prepared to consider the con- clusion of peace; hence the Government of the United States could not and would not accept a proposal for the holding of a conference concerning a matter in which it had already clearly made known its attitude and aims. And the Cabinets of Paris and London were equally cold. The sole result of Burian's new effort for peace was the increase of the Entente's hopes of victor}'. On Sept. 15 ensued a violent attack against the Bul- garian army, in the ranks of which war-weariness had for long past made serious inroads. The Bulgarian troops offered but little resistance; great bodies of them laid down their arms, and returned to their homes. The Sofia Government, at the head of which Malinov, who was friendly to the Entente, had for some months taken the place of Radoslavov, resolved to propose an armistice, which was granted on Sept. 29 under conditions which signified for the Central Powers the loss of the Balkans. King Ferdinand abdicated. These events, and the great successes of the English troops in Palestine, pro- duced their effect upon Turkey. At the beginning of October the fall of Enver and Tal'at took place at Constantinople, and thus the way was opened here too for a separate peace. An armistice was concluded between Turkey and the Entente on Oct. 31 1918, which brought the Dardanelles and the Bosporus under their power, and pledged the Turks to break off all rela- tions with the Central Powers.

Meanwhile the catastrophe had taken place in Austria- Hungary as well. Encouraged by the repeated pronouncements of President Wilson as to the right of nations to self-determina- tion, the separatist ideas of those peoples of the monarchy which did not acknowledge German or Hungarian nationality became more and more articulate. There were disturb- ances in various parts of the monarchy, and these ^ e ^ e ' u " disruptive influences made it month by month Monarchy. increasingly difficult to keep the army efficient for war. Both Austria-Hungary and Germany now decided to- address to President W'ilson the offer of an armistice, to be fol- lowed by negotiations for peace. To this offer the President at first made no reply; and thereupon the Emperor Charles, in order to save the dynasty, issued on Oct. 16 a manifesto in which he proclaimed that Austria, in accordance with' the will of her peoples, was to be erected into a Federal State, in which every race would be free to establish its own form of body politic on the territory occupied by it. But the union of the Austrian Poles with an independent Polish State was not to be antici- pated by this. The imperial manifesto was only to apply to- Austria. For Hungary, where they were already working for a personal union and for a complete separation from Austria, the manifesto laid stress upon the integrity of the Hungarian kingdom. It thus became clear to the Southern Slavs that they must no longer hope for a realization of their national aspirations within the bounds of the monarchy. But the Emperor Charles's expectation of conciliating the opinion of the Austrian Slavs by means of the manifesto met with no success. President Wilson, too, rejected the Vienna Cabinet's peace offer. He declared