Page:Secrets of Crewe House.djvu/47

Rh of the Hapsburg peoples were actually or potentially well disposed to the Allies, and it was towards this majority that Lord Northcliffe decided that propaganda must be directed with two objectives, one constructive and one destructive:—

(1) The moral and active support of the national desires of these races for independence, with the ultimate aim of forming a strong non-German chain of Central European and Danubian States.

(2) The encouragement of their disinclination to fight on behalf of the Central Empires, thus greatly handicapping the Austro-Hungarian Armies as a fighting force, and seriously embarrassing the German military leaders.

It will be seen with what success each object was secured.

The nationalities chiefly affected were the Czechs and the Southern Slavs. There were also lesser numbers of Italians, Poles and Rumanes, whom it was intended to place under their own national Governments of Italy, the State of Poland (then projected and now established), and Rumania, which countries marched with the districts of