Austrian and Hungarian propaganda, vigorous everywhere, could be organized without hindrance in America, since she long remained neutral. Just as the Magyars dominated the Slovaks, Ruthenes and other nationalities in Hungary, the Magyar colonies in America managed to influence, even during the war, the colonies of non-Magyar peoples in the United States. Many leaders of these non-Magyar colonies were under Magyar influence without knowing it. An effective Austrian and Magyar argument was that Austria-Hungary was a victim of Germany, by whom she had been compelled to make war against her will.
Memories of the revolution of 1848 and of the exile of Kossuth in Allied countries also stood the Magyars in good stead, while the Hapsburg Monarchy in general enjoyed the support of Roman Catholic propaganda. In America, as in France and Italy, the Catholics skilfully defended it as the greatest Catholic State. They worked behind a veil and through non-political agencies. Counter-propaganda had to be organized accordingly.
I have already referred to the policy of the Vatican at the beginning of the war; and though the Vatican cautiously modified its standpoint as the war went on, since it did not wish to be tied to the losing side, it supported Austria throughout. The relationship of the Vatican to Germany was less definite and uniform, notwithstanding the importance of the German Catholic minority and the superiority of German Catholic theology and ecclesiastical organization over those of Austria. The Catholic traditions of Austria were old, and the Austrian Catholic dynasty took precedence over the Protestant German dynasty. Gladly as the Vatican accepted the Emperor William’s compliments to it and to Catholicism, most Vatican politicians were opposed to Prusso-German hegemony and hoped that, in her own interest, Austria would be a strong bulwark against Germany. In any case, the Papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Gasparri, took this view and in 1918 deprecated the setting up of new States which, he thought, would be too weak to fend Germany off. He wished Poland alone to be liberated, albeit according to the Austrian plan. To some extent the Central Powers gained the goodwill of the Vatican by promising to support the restoration of a Papal State that should be independent of Italy; for, from the early days of the war, the Vatican had been unpleasantly conscious that its intercourse with Catholic States and organizations was not untrammelled. This question was aggravated
