EXCUSES OF COUNT CZERNIN

Evening Star, Issue 16987, 8 March 1919, Page 11

EXCUSES OF COUNT CZERNIN

■ » WHITEWASHING THE KAISER. A correspondent of the American Associated Press of Vienna a few weeks ago had an interview with Count. Czernin, formerly Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs, who stated that Austria, in 1917, made desperate efforts to get out of the war, even to the extent of offering to Germany the Austro-Hungarian province of. Galicia, the richest coal and oil province of the empire, if Germany would agree to surrender Alsace-Lorraine. The offer was rejected. General Ludendorff was oven willing to declare war upon Austria' if the latter made a separate poace. In discussing the position in general,Count Ozernin said : "I never thought it possible to beat the Entente, particularly after America entered the war. There were, ib was said, two ways to arrange peace—on, by a separate peace with tme Entente, the second, by a general peace together with Germany. A separate peace would have meant war with Germany, since, owing to our geographical position, Germany would have been cut of! from her Turkish and Bulgarian allies. THE KAISER'S ALLEGATION. " As to the second possibility of making peace in accord with Germany, it is true that the German people wanted peace long ago. Even tihe German Emperor wanted peace, but, as he once said to me: ' How can it be done with England declaring that we must be destroyed ? " The Foreign Office, too, wanted pfeace. There was only one group for a victorious peace, who insisted that England must bo crushed. This was the military party, headed by Ludendorff, who is a remarkable military man; but it was our misfortune that he was too strong and too popular with the soldiers, the result being that tiho Emperor needed him, and could not send him away. He had saved Germany in a hundred military situations. Also, there was no man strong enough to resist him, like Bismarck when the latter called ' Halt!' to Moltke. A 1917 PROPHECY. "I will now tell you facts of diplomacy unknown in Austria to anyone save _ the Emperor Charles and one or two Ministers. In April. 1917, I srent the Emperor Charles a*letter, of which I have a copy_at your disposal, saying that the submarine Warfare was certain to fail, that we could never win. and that we must force Germany to peace. " f told him that revolution was coming, that the Emperor William would lose his throne, as he also would himself, that every Government head must sed that wo were the los«rs, that we must try to ensure, before bein'jc crvshed, that Germany's situation should be the game as ours, that oniy military men believed it possibly to win the war, that America's entrance meant our ruin, and that her influence would be felt within a few months in spite of the belief in Germany that America would never bo able to arrive in time. "The Emperor Charles agreed, and we proposed to the Emperor William to give Germany the whole of Austrian Gahcia Mid to let her have Russian Poland if she would cede Alsace-Lorraine to France. I went to Kreizenach, on the French front, and put the matter before Herr Von Beth-mann-Hollweg, but he was obliged to decline. THE ERZBFJRGER. INTRIGUE.

"When I ©aw we could not arrange things becmis© Germany was obliged to obey the military party, I tried another way. I sent to Berlin, unknown to the Germans, the Austrian Socialist member of Parliament, Wassilko. who had a talk •with Kw.berger (Clerical) andj. Sudekum (Socialist), at -which he told them why the wav must be brought to an end. Both understood, and took action in the Reichstag, where they submitted peaco resolutions directed against the military party and abo against Pan-Gormanists. But the German victories began again, and the Reichstag did nothing; It was always so. " Once I sent Count Mcnsdorff to Switzerland' ; but never was it }»recisely said on what conditions Germany might be willing to make peace, nor did T recall that Mr Lloyd George Inst February named any conditions. Germany always flssoixed us that sho had never received any definite offers, and I believe this is true. England appeared to have the intention of crushing Germany, with Lloyd George, Clemenceau, and Ludendorff .-ilwayet maintaining the same attitude', and Wilson only differing from the rest, while the jEmperor William could not bring himself to give up Alsace-Lorraine. DESPAIR OF TUB KAISER. "Regarding the latter, I feel that he did not want war, but ho did not know how to get out of it, and in this respect I believe the heads of the Entente are wrong, though they probably really believed that he caused the war. " My impression is that neither the Emperor * Joseph, Count Berohtold, nor the German Emperor wanted it. 'fhe explanation of how the war started may be found in the fact that in the beginning there was too much diplomatic bluffing, with everyone looking for the other fellow to recede from his position." ALWAYS LUD.ENDORFF. Regarding tho Brest-Litovak Treaty, Count Ozernin said i "I signed it, but we took nothing from it, a fact which is worthy of mention. It was Ludendorff who forced ' Kuhlmann to that peace—always Ludendorff."