as contained in the Papal note and their replies, they would not regard themselves as bound by the proposals in question. The Pope, on the other hand, was well aware that without concessions on the part of Italy, at least in the Trentino question, there was no prospect of any early peace negotiations. The Papal Nuncio at Vienna and Mgr. Pacelli therefore intervened afresh. They applied to the Emperor Karl and the Government at Berlin asking them to assure the Pope that in no case did Vienna intend to retain any of the Italian territory recently occupied. Although Czernin and Karl assented to this, they made it clear that since Vienna had scored a military victory over Italy, no concessions as regards the Trentino could be considered.
This was the final step taken by Benedict in the autumn as a sequel to his peace effort, in which the Vatican counted mainly upon the assistance of Vienna and the German Centre (Erzberger). The Vatican was discouraged by its lack of success in this undertaking, and that is why nothing more was heard from Benedict during the rest of the war.
I will here add a few remarks about the Papal policy during the war, as far as it affected our movement. There can be no doubt that this policy was entirely opposed to our aims and aspirations. As general secretary of the Czechoslovak National Council I was familiar with the political tendencies of the Vatican during the war, and I at once realized the underlying principle of Benedict’s peace note. The action of the National Council had to be arranged in accordance with this. We were not strong enough to undertake a struggle against the Vatican, and such a course would have done us harm among our own people, especially the Slovaks, as well as among the Catholics in the Allied countries. I therefore combatted the policy of the Vatican by showing what the Catholic Church meant to the Habsburg Empire, and how the Vatican was serving the political purposes of the Central Powers. In dealing with Benedict’s peace note our course of action was the same as that adopted against all attempts at a premature peace, which were in the interests of Vienna and Budapest.
As I have explained elsewhere, it was my purpose to win over Catholic circles, just as all others, to the Czechoslovak cause. At the time when the Papal note was issued I was arranging my second visit to Rome, and in connection with this I made the acquaintance of Mgr. Ceretti, one of the most
