Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/123



discussed. In practice, when applied to human affairs of the utmost importance, it cannot be dis- tinguished from the character of the personal duel, in which the conception of justice was. en- tirely subordinate. When it was said that Aus- tria-Hungary found arbitration " beneath its dig- nity," there was speaking the mentality of the Feudal junker who considers himself too noble to appeal to a court against a peasant neighbor, but prefers to send his servants to give him a thrashing. The honor of Austria-Hungary is of such a special kind in the mind of these men that it does not suffer arbitration, but sees in war the only possible satisfaction. In this as in many other points, secret diplomacy is a superstition of the past. As late as May, 1916, the Pester Lloyd, a semi-official paper, declared: "Even if the Russian Government had stopt its mobiliza- tion, which it had secretly begun notwithstanding all its hypocritical assurances, nevertheless Aus- tria-Hungary would not have gone to any con- ference but would have insisted without interfer- ence from third parties to settle its affairs with Servia in consonance with the future security of Austria-Hungary." It would appear plain that the Austrian leaders wanted war, but with Servia alone; trusting that the formidable power of their