no longer impressed France and England. In Paris it was reported, on the other hand, that Count Czernin had offered peace to Russia; and while I was in Russia I learned, in August 1917, that a Dutch correspondent had brought the Russian Foreign Minister, Tereshtchenko, a confidential message to the effect that Austria was prepared to make a separate peace. As far as my information goes, Tereshtchenko did not reject this overture. At that time, however, the Russian Government had neither the strength nor the courage to follow it up.
How chaotic were the Allied negotiations with the Emperor Charles may be judged by the following facts. In mid-December 1917, when Austria was negotiating with the Allies through Count Revertera, Count Mensdorff and Prince Sixtus, the French Government recognized our National Council as the Head of the Czechoslovak army established in France; and the decree authorizing the establishment of our army was promulgated on January 7, 1918, a day before the announcement of President Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” and two days after Lloyd George’s pro-Austrian speech. Nor should it be forgotten that, twelve months earlier, the Allies had, at the instance of the French Prime Minister, M. Briand, demanded our liberation in their reply to President Wilson.
On the other hand it was no surprise to me that Austria and the Emperor Charles should have behaved as they did. By 1917 Austria was already aware of her own weakness. Therefore she put forward her hollow anti-German proposals. As early as April 1917 Count Czernin drew up-at the command of the Emperor Charles after his meeting with the Emperor William at Homburg—the famous report for the Emperor William and the German High Command on the position of Austria. Of this report the Allies soon got wind and it naturally diminished the effect of the Austrian peace overtures. But after Clemenceau had dealt so vigorously with Czernin, Germany and the Emperor William let it be known that the Emperor Charles had gone to Canossa. Ludendorff—a somewhat untrustworthy authority as regards facts and their critical interpretation—asserts that the Austrian Emperor acted with the knowledge of Germany. Certainly, at the time when Prince Sixtus was negotiating, Bethmann-Hollweg, the German Chancellor, was not unwilling to cede at least a part of Alsace-Lorraine to France.
For us it was, indeed, important that Clemenceau should have dealt so sharply with Vienna at the beginning of 1918.
