Prussia answered this note on April 15, that the charge was untrue; but she was obliged to persist in asserting that Austria had really made preparations on the frontier; and on this she founded the justification of her own preparations. If Austria were in earnest about not attacking she would first disarm.
To this the Vienna Cabinet replied: “We will disarm on the 25th of this month, if Prussia promises to do the same on the following day”.
Prussia declared herself ready.
What a breathing again! So then, in spite of all threatening signs, peace will be preserved! I noted this change joyfully in the red book.
But prematurely. New complications arose. Austria declared that she could only disarm in the north, but not in the south at the same time, since she was threatened in that quarter by Italy.
To which Prussia replied: “If Austria does not disarm altogether, we shall also remain in a state of preparation”.
Now Italy expressed herself to the effect that it had never, in the faintest way, entered into her mind to attack Austria, but that after this last declaration she was under the necessity of at least making counter preparations.
And so this charming song of defence was now sung by three voices.
I allowed myself to be again in a measure lulled to sleep by this melody. After such loud and repeated protestations, neither surely can attack, and unless one of them attack, there can be no war. The principle that it is only defensive wars that can be justified has now taken such firm possession of the public conscience that surely no Government can any more undertake an invasion of a neighbouring country; and if none but mere defensive troops are ranged opposite each other, however threatening their armies are, however determined they may be to defend themselves to the knife, still they cannot actually break the peace.
What a delusion! Beside “the offensive” there are, I find, many other ways of commencing hostilities. There are demands and interventions regarding some small third country, and which have to be resisted as unfair; there are old treaties which are declared to be violated, and for the upholding of which recourse must be had to arms; and, finally, there is “the European equilibrium,” which would be endangered by the acquisition of power by one state or the other. And so energetic steps are demanded to prevent such acquisition. It is not avowed; but one of the most violent impulses to fight is the hate which has long been stirred up, and which at last presses on to the death-dealing combat, as ardently and with the same natural force as long-cherished love to the life-giving embrace.