peace. Burian had received no favourable replies from the Allied camp, but Berlin, Sofia, and Constantinople had all expressed their approvalof the Austrian offer. Accordingly, Burian thought that he might as well continue discussions with the Allies at least in the newspapers and official communiqués, now that they had refused to parley with the Austro-Hungarian Government. The Viennese Press announced that Parliament would deal with Burian’s offer, and that the Austrian nations would show the Allies, who were unwilling for peace, that it was only the Central Powers who were striving to bring about a genuine peace among nations.
The discussion on the peace offer thus proceeded parallel with the continuing military defeat on the Western front and in the Balkans. The news on September 26th that the Bulgarians were asking for a separate armistice without their Allies, and that the Central European Quadruple Entente had ceased to exist, produced the alarming impression in Vienna that the moment of definite defeat was now at hand. The Government and all the authorities were aware that they would now have to adopt their final safety measures. In their opinion, although peace would be secured on severe terms involving territorial losses and the necessity to federalize the Empire in some form or other, they would, nevertheless, be able in the end to save the general framework of the Empire and the dynasty.
At the Ministerial Council on September 27th Burian, in the presence of Karl and General Arz, Chief of the General. Staff, stated that the defeats on the Piave, the reverses in Albania, together with the events on the Western front, had so shaken the nerves of the population throughout the Empire that the Bulgarian catastrophe must be regarded as the last straw. Moreover, danger was threatening from Rumania, the Jugoslavs would again become a menace to the Empire from the South, and Turkey was now cut off. Under these conditions it was again necessary to make a peace offer to the Allies by October 15th at the latest, and Hohenlohe had already received instructions to start negotiating with Berlin on the subject of the new offer. The new adjustment of the Empire was also a more urgent matter now than it had been before. The war could not be continued beyond the end of the year. This information was also conveyed to Berlin. General Arz confirmed this in his statement, with which the ministers expressed their agreement.
