Page:Two Architects of New Europe – Masaryk and Beneš.pdf/13

Rh Count Czernin, the Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, in his memoirs, In the World War, now frankly tells us that there could be no such separate peace because Austria was not free to act alone. Austria was virtually a vassal of Germany’s and would have been invaded by German armies if she attempted a separate peace. While this was long apparent to close observers, the idea of a separate peace bewitched more than one leading statesman in the Entente who should have known better.

It was Beneš' task to point out the illusion under which the "separate-peace" negotiations suffered. Backed by the achievements of the Czechoslovak armies in France and in Russia, and confident of the inevitable failure of the "separate-peace" plans, Dr. Beneš negotiated in the spring and summer of 1918 perhaps the most notable diplomatic victory of the whole war. He obtained the final consent of Balfour, British Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Clemenceau, Premier of France, to the complete break-up of Austria by having them recognize the Czechoslovaks as an allied and belligerent nation. It was for that reason that the French publicist, Fournol, declared: "Beneš has destroyed Austria-Hungary."

Baron Sonino, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, did his best at the June (1918) Inter-Allied Conference at Versailles and later on to prevent such a special diplomatic recognition for the Czechoslovaks. This meant not only the break-up of that part of Austria-Hungary, but, so far as Baron Sonino was concerned, it meant that a similar recognition might have to be given eventually to the Jugoslavs. Baron Sonino failed. And it remained for President Masaryk to win from President Wilson and Secretary Lansing the recognition that the