Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/118



of the encouragement given to Austria in the first place, to persist in an irreconcilable attitude toward Servia. The documentary material which has so far been published, shows that Berchtold insinuated to the Russian and British embas- sies that he was favorable to mediation; mean- while, he did not answer the proposals to that effect made from Berlin, but in fact stubbornly pursued his stern policy against Servia. In turn- ing a deaf ear to all proposals of mediation at this time, Berchtold gave the militarists at Berlin and Petrograd the control of the situation.

Berchtold had inherited the Balkan policy of Aehrenthal, who had in 1909 carried out the am- bition of laying the two Slavic Provinces, Bosnia and Herzegovina, "at the feet of Emperor Fran- cis Joseph at his Sixtieth Jubilee." Count Berchtold himself was not considered a man of strong initiative; he vacillated and was unde- cided upon questions of great moment; he, how- ever, displayed great stubbornness on the fatal point that the " honor" of Austria-Hungary did not permit of any mediation with Servia. Count Forgach, who was his chief adviser, hated Rus- sia and Servia intensely, and it is believed that he was very influential in spurring Count Berch- told to aggressive action. Countess Leutrum