CHAPTER XXXVII.
The Last Peace Proposals.
I was writing the last pages of this work when the surprising news was flashed over the cable that Austria-Hungary had taken the initiative of suggesting peace discussion, which proposition she had communicated to all the belligerents, to the neutral governments and even to the Holy See. Without delay the rumour proved to be true. The very next day the full text of Austria's communication was published all over the world.
I have read it with great care and, I confess, with profound amazement.
From several stand-points, this document is astonishing and weighty: astonishing as it reveals more than ever before the astuteness of the inspiration which dictated it; weighty because it derives its importance from one of the most serious situation of the world's affairs ever recorded in History.
It is difficult to suppose that the Austrian Government really expected that their move would be considered as the outcome of their own initiative. Not the hand, but the sword—the dominating sword—behind the Throne is clearly visible.
The carefully drafted document, issued from Vienna, was evidently dictated from Berlin. It is stamped with the Teutonic seal.
After the experience of the last four years—I can safely say of the last half century as well—over credulous is he who believes that, swayed as she has been by her overpowering northern neighbour, Austria would have dared to address such a proposition to the Allies if she had not been asked by Germany to do so.
It is rather amusing to read the news cabled from Amsterdam, Holland, on the 20th of September, that an official communication issued in Berlin said that the German Ambassador in Vienna that day presented Germany's reply to the recent Austro-Hungarian peace note. The purport of the note was that Germany agreed to participate in the proposed exchange of views. This is indeed high class cynicism.
The document would certainly call for somewhat lengthy and strong comments, but they can be dispensed with after the curt, sharp and decisive reply it has elicited from those it was intended to seduce and deceive.