that Lammasch or Redlich would be appointed to the Preparatory Commission for drawing up the new constitution. At another time there was a rumour as to the promising progress made by the preparations for dividing Bohemia into administrative areas, and the measures adopted later by the Austrian Government showed me that Vienna was determined to take some decisive step without awaiting further developments. I therefore realized that we had no time to lose, and I made a special point of this in my telegram to Masaryk. Not wishing to be taken unawares by the course of events, I urged our business forward. The political situation in the Habsburg Empire, as well as the state of things on the various battle-fronts, tended only to confirm me in these proceedings.
On the Western front Foch’s victorious advance, initiated by the offensive on July 18th, proved to be the beginning of the end of the Central Powers from a military point of view. Four consecutive German offensives in March, April, May–June, and July, on a larger scale than anything of the kind hitherto attempted in the war, indicated an extreme and final effort on the part of the Central Powers. These offensives used up enormous supplies of material, and entailed the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives, without producing any success. The exhaustion of supplies and food-stuffs had reached its culminating point, and a renewal of the raw materials which had thus been used up was out of the question. The losses sustained in this final exertion of strength could never be made good, and the military and economic resources of the Central Powers could now only continue to diminish until they were exhausted.
The Allies, on the other hand, had at this juncture just reached a far more favourable situation, especially through the collaboration of America. Their resources were increasing, while those of the Central Powers were on the decline. The last effort of the Central Powers, at a moment when they were still in the ascendancy, proved unsuccessful. The inference was clear that a military catastrophe on the part of the Central Powers was now only a question of time, and it would evidently not be long in coming.
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While the Central Powers were thus being overtaken by a complete military disaster, the internal situation of the Habs-
