Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/137



adhered to the idea that without Italy, no result could be had. Meanwhile, the unsuccessful Ital- ian offensive of July, 1917, had supervened, and the war had to go on for another sixteen months, although the acceptance of the proposals of the Emperor would undoubtedly have brought it to an early end.

Count Czernin has given in his book, In the World War, an unimpassioned and coldly-bal- anced view of the diplomacy of the time. He does not relate the details of the secret negotiations of 1917, but he evidently did not approve of the man- ner in which they were carried out because their effect was to suggest to the Entente a willingness of Austria-Hungary to separate from her allies, without strengthening her position in any way. In a letter written to Count Tisza in the summer of 1917, Czernin said: "It is possible to turn and steer the Entente course if thought feasible; but then courage would be needed to make the turn fully. Nothing is more stupid than trifling with treachery and not carrying it out; we should lose all ground in Berlin and gain nothing either in London or Paris. ' '

The policy pursued by Japan throughout the war made use of all the devices of secret diplo- macy for the attainment of ends narrowly na-