Thus Austria-Hungary hesitated between two alternative schemes. The German element in Austria was for pushing towards Salonica over the Sanjak. The idea had come from Berlin, and had been carefully suggested to Austrian diplomatists by the Emperor’s advisers. Aehrenthal announced it publicly at the Delegations, and waited to see what effect his audacious move would have upon Europe. The Greeks sitting in the café in the Fleischmarkt in Vienna were the first on that memorable night of the Delegations’ meeting to catch up the words, “To Salonica.” “Salonica is Greek,” they said. “If it is wrested from the Turks, it must fall to Greece.” Twenty-four hours later Europe said what it thought of Austria’s plans of expansion. The old Emperor, Francis Joseph, who had probably listened in a semi-comatose condition, as he frequently did, to the report made by his Foreign Minister on the Sanjak railway, summoned him to Schönbrunn in haste. There, in his characteristic way, in language so plain that there was no mistaking it, and that would have done credit to a Vienna cabby, the Emperor forbade any thoughts of a forward policy. He had had misfortunes enough in his long reign, he said. If any innovation was to be made it could be undertaken by his successor; for the rest of his life there would be quiet. He understood that Russia was aghast at Austria’s plans of aggression, England was furious, and France asking what it all meant. The announcement made at the Delegations might be regarded as unspoken.
Baron Aehrenthal.
Strange to say, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, agreed with the Emperor. He considered that the forward movement in the Balkans planned by Aehrenthal was ill-judged. He was aware that Kaiser Wilhelm and the “German” party in Austria desired to open the road to the East. The Archduke, however, took a much clearer view of the political situation than the Kaiser and his advisers. He grasped the very obvious fact that Italy was not a willing member of the Triple Alliance. She was only waiting for an excuse that would sound at all plausible to break loose from her bonds. Why the Archduke should be keenly aware of a fact that was never even suspected by Kaiser Wilhelm is not easy to say. Perhaps the intensity of his hatred enabled him to read the national character aright, for the Archduke hated Italy with a bitter hatred. He possessed estates in Italy, and considered that the Italian Courts of Justice had treated him unfairly in a series of law suits he had had about his property there. Moreover, there were differences of temperament between the Austrians and Italians. Francis Ferdinand was essentially a “German” Austrian—that is to say, an Austrian with leanings towards Prussian methods, who wished to have the Austrian army reorganised on Prussian methods. There was something in the Italian character that roused the Archduke’s anger; both he and Kaiser Wilhelm felt the rage, often manifested by the savage for things he cannot understand, at Italy and Italy’s methods. This common dislike for Italy which possessed both men was doubtless due to a remarkable and startling change in the Italian character. During the last twenty years the Italians have organised themselves on German lines; the Italian of to-day has all the efficiency of the Prussian without his cumbersome methods. When Kaiser Wilhelm went to Italy unexpectedly to visit his friends there, he found hydroplanes that excelled those at home moving about in the limpid waters of the Adriatic. He went to Miramare, swelling with anger. Both he and Francis Ferdinand were sufficiently intelligent to take in the position at a glance. Italy was like a child that had stolen a march upon the world in a night by attaining to her full stature while the others slept. Both raged at the unexpected turn things had taken. While Kaiser Wilhelm was anxious to keep Italy as an ally, because Germany and Austria-Hungary had so small a coast-line, Francis Ferdinand, with much truer insight into the interests of his country, said, “Fall upon Italy unexpectedly and crush her.” Kaiser Wilhelm realised that the Austro-Hungarian fleet would only be of use if it could emerge from the Adriatic. Bottled up in the inland sea by the Italian fleet it was a negligible quantity. He did not comprehend the bitter hatred felt by every Italian for the ancient oppressor, the Austrian. He probably knew little of the ways in which Italians in Austria were persecuted, in spite of the existence of the Triple Alliance. The Government went about its work in a very wary manner, and incidents which would have opened his eyes were carefully hushed up. It is probable, too, that the Austrians deceived the Kaiser as to the attitude of the Italians. Every Austrian knew in his heart that there could never be anything but war between the two countries. The manner in which they habitually alluded to the Italians was sufficient to prove their intense hate. The Italian subjects living in Austria reciprocated this sentiment in full. Whenever they found an opportunity of paying back some of the Austrian hate for them, they availed themselves of the chance. Archduke Francis Ferdinand always used his influence to prevent Austro-Italians rising to power. He had officials in Trieste removed from their posts merely because they were “Italians.” Their places were taken by Slavs, who regarded the Archduke as their protector. As a matter of fact, the Slavs were the only people in Austria-Hungary who respected and liked the heir to the throne. The Germans despised him. The Hungarians frankly detested him, and the Italians execrated him. The Bohemians, the Croats, and the Serbs, all Slav races, regarded him as their representative. In the racial contests for place and power in Dalmatia, in Istria, the Slavs who wished to oust the Italians from their places appealed to the Archduke, and immediately got what they wanted, while the Czechs, who were in deadly antagonism with the Germans in Bohemia, had a powerful advocate in Countess Chotek. When the German officials tried to introduce the teaching in German instead of the Czech language into elementary schools in Bohemia in Czech districts, the Archduke stood by them and prevented any encroachment by the German element.
Thus Emperor Francis Joseph and his heir agreed, although from different motives, in preventing the plan of the building of the Sanjak railway being pursued. Kaiser Wilhelm, who had taken no part in the disputes that were raging in Vienna, was glad that the idea of Austria-Hungary’s embarking on an aggressive policy should be ventilated, but did not wish her to take any course that might lead to war either in the Balkans or with Italy. Neither country was prepared to embark on an aggressive world-war. Kaiser Wilhelm encouraged Austro-Hungarian statesmen to contemplate a series of wars with poor and helpless neighbours, such as Italy, Montenegro, and Servia, but he was really thinking of executing his projects, of placing Germany “über alles!” He knew that this idea of aggressive warfare would render it easier for the German party to obtain the armaments required for the coming struggle, while public opinion in the country would become accustomed to the idea of a policy of expansion. He cared little that the Archduke was preparing for a coup upon Italy when he was contemplating a blow in the opposite direction. The necessity for realising his plans made Kaiser Wilhelm regard all means justifiable, even the deception of his allies.
The storm raised by the Sanjak railway project gradually calmed down, and Count Aehrenthal, baulked in his plans, retired to the background to work out fresh plans for Austro-Hungarian aggrandisement; while Archduke Francis Ferdinand, still sore at the Court Ball incident, sulked upon his magnificent estate at Konospischt, in Bohemia, where he superintended his wonderful collection of exotic plants and tried to forget Vienna the dusty, that was so bad for his lungs.
Kaiser Wilhelm became increasingly aware that the immediate necessities of the situation rendered it important to gain Archduke Francis Ferdinand to his side. The Kaiser was painfully conscious that neither the aged Emperor nor his heir had any real regard for him. They were inclined to look upon him as an upstart in many ways. The Kaiser’s sudden excursions into realms that they regarded as distinctly not regal annoyed them. What need had the Emperor of Germany to seek distinction as a writer of plays? By such tricks he brought down the whole level of royalty. All the Habsburgs are eminently dignified, and Kaiser Wilhelm always seemed something of a royal mountebank to them, with his strange longings after artistic fame, his childish wish for popularity—a matter of the most complete indifference to his brother monarch in Vienna.
CHAPTER VII
KAISER WILHELM IN VIENNA
Vienna, startled for an instant by the events connected with the meeting of the Austro-Hungarian Delegations, soon sank back again into complete apathy as regards foreign politics. The Sanjak railway was forgotten and everyone was thinking of how the short time between Easter and the “Derby,” the final event of the Vienna summer season, was to be spent, when news came that Kaiser Wilhelm was about to visit Vienna. He proposed to come to celebrate the aged Emperor’s jubilee and to bring his whole family with him. The Viennese considered this most tactless. Emperor Francis Joseph had lost his only son in a drunken brawl, and now his professed friend wished to remind him of the fact by bringing a family of handsome young men to accentuate the contrast between the lonely old man and the Kaiser in the prime of life, surrounded by his six sons. The Kaiser secretly planned another “honour” for the Emperor. All the Federal Princes were to arrive in Vienna before the Kaiser and to await him on the platform. The Kaiser arranged for them and their retinue to reach Vienna separately and almost in secrecy. No receptions were to be given them on arrival. He only broke the news to the Emperor privately when all the arrangements were complete and some of the Princes already on their way to Vienna. The Emperor thereupon lost his temper, which had already been sorely tried by the proposal to bring so many Imperial Princes. He sent a message to say that his health would not allow of him receiving anyone excepting the Kaiser. The Kaiser had to abandon his plan, which was to have the Emperor of Austria and the German Federal Princes grouped together on the little platform at Penzing, awaiting his arrival “like the rising sun,” as the Vienna papers put it, and allow the Emperor to do homage to him among his vassals, thus recognising him as overlord of all the German-speaking peoples.
The Press said what it thought of the Kaiser’s overweening ambition, and he was very surprised. The Austrians were not so stupid as he had thought. They had grasped his plan to make himself the man of the hour instead of leaving the first place to the monarch whose jubilee was being celebrated.