tion. There was a beginning of fraternization between the Serbian and the Bulgarian intelligentsia. To-day an alliance between the Bulgars and the Southern Slavs is again spoken of. There is, indeed, no reason to perpetuate the bitter antagonisms between the two peoples, all the less because the Croats and Slovenes, who are now included in Yugoslavia, had no part in them and should be able to exert a moderating influence upon Serbs and Bulgars alike. A federation between the Southern Slavs and the Bulgars would comprise some 17,000,000 souls whose numbers might be doubled in a few decades. The Southern Slavs—may the name be an omen!—will certainly reflect upon the problem of Constantinople and its solution; and the possibility of pursuing a big policy might help to check the foolish dissensions between Serbs and Croats. In saying this I do not forget the Greeks’ relationship to Constantinople, on the one hand, and to the Serbs and Bulgars, on the other; nor do I overlook Italian aspirations in the Balkans and in Asia Minor, or the fact that Constantinople still interests the Great Powers, albeit now in minor degree.
So complicated are the circumstances of our position in the heart of Europe that we are bound to keep our eyes about us and really to take account of the whole world. Therefore I repeat what I said long before the war-that our policy must be a world policy. When Bismarck declared that whoever was master of Bohemia would be master of Europe, he understood, from his imperialist and pan-German standpoint, the position of our nation and our State in the very centre of the Continent. We do not need to be the masters of Europe. It is enough that we should be our own masters. Yet we may learn from Bismarck’s discernment how important the East is for us, precisely by reason of the Prussian-German “Urge towards the East,” and that we should therefore desire the new order in the Balkans to be based on the national facts of ethnography and on the history of civilization there. In both respects the Balkan Slavs may hold a decisive position.
For the same reason we have yet another weighty interest in common with the new Austria. In its reduced dimensions, the Austrian Republic or—to give it its German name—Osterreich has regained its original meaning as “Ost-Reich" or “Eastern Realm.” It will, I presume, maintain its independence alongside of Germany but without joining Germany, as is desirable both politically and from the standpoint of Austrian culture. I agree with the Austrian politicians and men of learning who insist upon the special character of Austrian
