To this the German Emperor replied as follows:
Accept my heartiest thanks for the letter in which you repudiate the assertion of the French Premier regarding your attitude toward the French claims on Alsace-Lorraine as entirely baseless and once again accentuate the solidarity of the interests which exist between us and our empires. I hasten to tell you that in my eyes there is no need whatever for such assurance on your part, for I have not for a moment been in doubt. You have made our cause your own; in like measure we stand for the rights of your monarchy.
The heavy battles in these years clearly demonstrate this for every one who will see. They have only drawn the bond closer. Our enemies, who are unable to do anything against us in honorable battle, do not recoil from the most sordid and lowest means. We must put up with that, but all the more it is our duty ruthlessly to grapple with and beat the enemy in all the war theatres.
After the publication of the letter the Austrian Government announced that it was "garbled" and intimated that portions of it were forged before it reached Prince Sixtus. The German press accepted the letter as genuine with caustic and hostile criticism. It was announced April 18 that the original letter of the Emperor was in the possession of Prince Sixtus, who sent a copy of it to President Poincaré.
When Austria Ruled Prussia
Emperor Karl's effort to make a separate peace recalls the period, beginning with the Summer of 1849, when Austria and Prussia were literally at daggers drawn. Twenty-eight North German States had just formed a Prussian League, under the leadership of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. of Prussia. Austria, under the leadership of Franz Josef, organized a counterleague of South German States, and had the support of Nicholas I. of Russia, who had helped Austria to subdue Hungary. Schwarzenberg, the fighting man of the Austrian Confederation, announced his policy: "First humiliate Prussia, then destroy her." The practical collision between Prussian North Germany and Austrian South Germany came when the Elector of Hesse quarreled with his people. The Hessians appealed to the Council of the Prussian League, of which Hesse was a member, while the Elector of Hesse appealed to the Emperor of Austria. Austria and Prussia both set armies in movement, the Austrian force being mainly composed of Bavarian troops, and a kind of half-battle was fought on the frontier of Bavaria. But the Prussian Army was weak and inefficient, while Nicholas I. of Russia was open in his support of Austria. Friedrich Wilhelm IV. of Prussia met Schwarzenberg in a conference at Olmütz on Nov. 28, 1850, and offered Prussia's submission to Austria. Austria then restored the old Diet and reorganized the German Confederation upon the basis of 1815, the Federal act creating this confederation having actually antedated the battle of Waterloo by a week. In this confederation, which was composed of sovereigns, not of peoples, (thirty-four sovereign Princes and the four "free cities" of Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck, and Frankfort,) and which met in the Federal Diet at Frankfort, the Austrian representatives presided, and Austria's pre-eminence lasted until the battle of Sadowa, in 1866, when the simultaneous attacks of Prussia and Italy brought about Austria's defeat.
A Union of the Jugo-Slavs
A public meeting held at Rome March 14, 1918, was addressed by Professor Salvemini, a distinguished historian, who advocated the policy of Mazzini that the Italians should ally themselves with the Balkan peoples in order to free them from Austrian and Turkish domination. The speaker opposed the teaching of Cesare Balbo, who advocated a free hand for Austria in the Balkans in return for the cession of the Italian provinces. The leading Serbians and numerous influential Jugo-Slav exiles from Austria-Hungary have indorsed Professor Salvemini's proposition, and a number of Italian Deputies and publicists have joined the movement.
A conference under the auspices of the Serbian Society of Great Britain was held in London March 13, 1918, which was attended by the Executive Committees of the British-Italian League, the Anglo-Hellenic Society, and the Anglo-Rumanian Society. The following resolutions were unanimously passed:
1. This conference learns with gratification of the present understanding between representative Italians and the Jugo-Slavs, convinced as it is that it is in the vital interest of both races that they should unite on the basis, as far as practicable, of the principle of self-determination and in a spirit of mutual toleration and friendliness as allies against German and Austro-Magyar military domination.