Austria-Hungary into a League of States; and the manifesto issued by the Emperor Charles on October 16, 1918, was intended as an appeal to our people, to the Southern Slavs and, at the same time, to President Wilson. Thoroughly informed by Professor Herron, President Wilson stood fast, and I checkmated the manifesto by declaring our independence on October 18. Next day, Wilson’s answer to Austria struck Vienna like lightning. Dr. Redlich, the former Austrian Minister, relates that when it reached Vienna on October 19, it caused a panic at Court and in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. It was, as he says, the death sentence of the Hapsburg dynasty. Dr. Lammasch was then sent for. He worked out his plan to turn Austria into a Confederation or League of States. The Emperor sanctioned it on October 20. For Austria it was radical, and calculated to appeal to Wilson. All the Hapsburg peoples were to take part in the Peace Conference where territorial questions would be decided, even the question whether the new States should be united in a Confederation or not.
But the Magyars raised obstacles. The Hungarian Prime Minister, Dr. Wekerle, rejected Lammasch’s plan, clung to the Emperor’s manifesto, demanded a personal union between Hungary and Austria and promised the Croats merely a revision of the Hungaro-Croatian settlement of 1868. Though people in Vienna were furious, the Magyars would not give way. Viennese policy sought to gain the support of the Czechs and especially that of the Southern Slavs, albeit with the intention of playing the Croats off against us. This time, however, the old tactics of “divide et impera” failed to work.
Towards the end of October, when the Austro-Hungarian army on the Italian front went to pieces before its final defeat, the position of Austria became desperate. On October 26 the Emperor Charles telegraphed to the Emperor William his “unalterable decision to conclude a separate peace within 24 hours and to ask for an immediate armistice.” This was done; and, during the night from October 27 to October 28, Count Andrássy, who had been appointed Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, accepted President Wilson’s “death sentence.” Deadly fear prevailed in Vienna, above all, fear of Bolshevism. The Russian precedent and the collapse of the army struck the Court, the Government and the Army Command with paralysis. This is clear from the confessions of the Austrian Commanders, and it explains the conduct of Vienna after Wilson’s answer and the defeat in Italy.
As recently as October 14 the Austrian authorities had
