Germanic Peace Terms
[From the Budapest Correspondent of The London Morning Post.]
To the Revue de Hongrie, the only French paper in Budapest, Count Andrássy contributes an article for July entitled "Les garanties d'une paix durable," and discusses the peace terms the Central Empires are to put forward in the event of final victory. He objects to the idea of annexation or anything more than "boundary corrections," and says:
Our war is a defensive war, which will achieve its aim when our enemies have been expelled from our territory and their ring has been broken. This aim could be best served by making peace with one or other of our enemies and winning him over to our cause. This would be of immense advantage to the future of civilization and ensure us against the horrors of a prolonged war. A separate peace would be the best chance for certain Powers to change their international policy. To my mind the issues of this war will greatly change the attitude of some hostile States toward us, and will bring about more intimate relations between them and ourselves, besides widening the foundations of the alliance between Hungary and her allies. And this is to be the rock upon which the European balance of power is to rest in the future. Our war is not a war of conquest, and the boundary changes of which some people speak are not the sine qua non of a good peace. Therefore I do not even wish to speak about certain territorial alterations, which, nevertheless, might be necessary.
Regarding the question of England and nationality, Count Andrássy says:
Victory no doubt affords us the right to demand the alteration of the map of Europe, yet, this not being our aim and not to our interest, we can be satisfied with certain compensations, as no doubt our enemies would not spare us if they were victorious. Lloyd George said that the States are to be shaped in the future according to nationalities, which means that the Monarchy is to be disrupted. An English scholar not long ago expressed the same view, and, in fact, in England this idea is being impressed upon the people. This policy is sounded in a country which dominates so many millions of alien nationalities. If England speaks in this way, though she is not in direct conflict with us, what can we expect from Russia or Italy? Everyone knows that Russia wants Galicia, the Bukovina, Màramaros; Serbia wants Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Slavonia, and the Banat; Italy they won to their side by promising her our territory; Transylvania is promised to the one who cares to take it; henceforth, if we wish to defend it, we shall have to prepare for a new attack from another quarter. Yet nothing would be more alien to our thoughts than that if victorious we should annex foreign territory, for we would have seriously to consider if such conquest would be to our advantage or not. The same policy ought to be applied in Germany. Though her enemies would not spare her either, she must be cautious not to go too far in her appetites, and should seek for monetary compensations. Most of all she has to be careful not to claim territory, which would mean everlasting unrest and a new irredentism. It would be a bad policy even to touch the Balkans, for such interference would sooner or later bring Russia back to the Balkans, and the peoples there, menaced in their independence by us, would turn to Russia. We would thus place nations used to independence under alien rule, and such an act would neither be a wise nor a paying policy.
As regards Italy, Count Andrássy has also a solution which is quite generous. He says:
We would not do well if we were influenced by just revenge and turned our eyes on Italian territory. To force territory from a country whose people are so patriotic would be a source of weakness on our part. In the worst case, only boundary corrections can be thought of, and no conquest. Italy must recompense us by money and not territory, for not the Italian people, but its Government, committed a breach of faith against us.