TOWARDS A NEW CENTRAL EUROPE
about 8 million inhabitants each, and would be without any political, military, or economic value to Germany. A close alliance between united Poland and Bohemia would mean an economically and politically strong anti-German block of 40 million people. Incidentally it would provide Bohemia with a sea-port (Danzig). Germany would be barred from expansion in the Adriatic, in the Balkans and in the Near East by an Alliance between the two Adriatic nations, the Italians and Jugoslavs. The encirclement of Germany would be completed by the establishment of a united Roumania which would border both on the Czecho-Slovak and the Jugoslav State. Roumania and Jugoslavia would together number some 25 millions, while the Polish-Czecho-Slovak-Roumanian combination would mean a solid block of over 50 millions which would definitely prevent Germany’s expansion to the East and assure the nations of Russia a peaceful development No third solution is possible: either Germany will succeed in preserving the Habsburg Monarchy and creating the Pangerman Mittel-Europa, or the Slavs and Latins of Central Europe will, with the help of the Allies, obtain national unity and independence. The growing courage and co-operation on the part of the subject peoples of Austria and the approaching Allied victory lead us to believe that the latter alternative will triumph.V. Nosek
Annexation Debate in the Austrian Herrenhaus
In the Austrian House of Lords on 27 February Barons von Czedik and von Plener—on behalf of the Middle and Constitutional Parties—proposed a vote of confidence in Count Czernin for his achievements at Brest Litovsk and in the Ukraine, which called for “the energetic pursuit of an honourable and lasting peace in faithful and well-tried accord with the German Empire and our other Allies.” In the ensuing debate, which largely turned on the attitude of the Poles to the Ukraine treaty and to the Budget, von Czedik declared that “‘no annexations’ did not exclude frontier rectifications. Peace was unthinkable without Lovčen, Belgrade and direct frontier contact with Bulgaria.” After a speech from Ritter von Bilinski, which censured the Ukraine Treaty for its anti-Polish character, Dr. Pattai struck the prevailing Jingo note of the debate. “We are now,” he said, “long past the words ‘no annexations’; it would be sheer madness to say we will never take anything no matter how many years we fight nor how victorious we may be.” Professor Lammasch (interrupting): “What does one gain by annexations? A war of revanche!” Dr. Pattai: “The
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