Page:Secrets of Crewe House.djvu/76

46 propaganda situation, which, in their turn, had sprung from the exigencies of the military situation and, in particular, from the necessity of utilising the established principles of the alliance for the purpose of impeding or hampering the Austro-Hungarian offensive against Italy. Subsequent acts and declarations on the part of Allied Governments and of the Government of the United States made it clear that the joint policy of the Allies was tending increasingly towards the constructive liberation of the subject Austro-Hungarian races. The main task of the Committee in relation to propaganda in Austria-Hungary seemed, therefore, to be one of unifying for propaganda purposes these various acts and declarations, and of preparing, if possible, the way for a joint Allied declaration that might complete and render more effective the work of Allied propaganda both in the interior of Austria-Hungary and among Austro-Hungarian troops at the front. The Committee resolved to suggest that the Italian Government take the initiative in promoting a joint and unanimous public declaration that all the Allies regard the establishment of a free and united Jugo-Slav State, embracing Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, as one of the conditions of a just