Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/427

 APPENDIX. 397 Additional Article to the Offensice and Defensive Alliance between Austria and Prussia of April 20, 1854. (Translation. ) According to the couditioiis of Article II. of the Treaty concluded this day between His Imperial Majesty the Em- peror of Austria, and His Majesty tlio King of Prussia, for the establishment of an offensive and defensive alliance, a more intimate understanding Avith respect to the eventu- ality when an active advance of one of the High Contract- ing Parties may impose on the other the obligation of a mutual protection of the territory of both, was to form the svibject of a special agreement to be considered as an integral part of the Treaty. Their Majesties have not been able to divest themselves of the consideration, that the indefinite continuance of the occupation of the territories on the Lower Danube, under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Porte, by Imperial Eussian troops, would endanger the political, moral, and material interests of the whole German Confederation, as also of their own States, and the more so in proportion as Russia extends her warlike operations on Turkish territory. The Courts of Austria and Prussia are united in the desire to avoid every participation in the war Mdiich has broken out between Russia on the one hand, and Turkey, Prance, and Great Britain on the other, and at the same time to contribute to the restoration of general peace. They more especially consider the declarations lately made at Berlin by the Court of St Petersburg to be an important element of pacification, the failure of the practical influ- ence of which they would view with regret. According to these declarations, Russia appears to regard the original motive for the occupation of the Principalities as removed by the concessions now granted to the Christian subjects