Page - 600 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

600 The Nameless that Hungary still demonstrated some unity and the conflicts that were still very much in evidence were generally not pursued externally. During the current demands of the war, Hungarian politicians did not lose sight of the long-term aims of the Magyars, and the discussion revolved above all around the question of the timing and the extent of further steps towards independence. The fact that in the process little willingness existed to demonstrate understanding for the Austrian half of the Empire is not surprising. It was then always Tisza who also came to the defence of the Austrian half of the Empire, who defended Conrad in the Hungarian Reichstag (Imperial Diet) against the claim that he was a centralist, and who rejected the accusations that the Alpine soldiers were only loitering about in the hinterland and guarding bridges, the Czechs were only de- serters and the Hungarian soldiers were systematically prejudiced and maltreated by the German officers.1379 Thus, on 15 September 1916, Prince Ludwig Windisch-Graetz had held an inflammatory speech in the House of Representatives of the Hungarian Reichstag against the Army High Command and accused it of grave mistakes in the military-organisational and the operational areas.1380 Tisza hit back. He also opposed the demands of the opposition in the Hungarian Reichstag that the defence of Tran- sylvania be trusted exclusively to Hungarian soldiers. However, the Hungarian Prime Minister had not been able to prevent the fact that his own ‘Party of Work’ had split in summer 1916 and that the radicals had formed their own party under Count Mihály Károlyi. This new party was no longer concerned with measured and gradual changes. It wanted to confine the commonality of the two halves of the Empire to a simple personal union, carry out radical social reform and curb German influence.1381 Tisza also interfered indirectly in the affairs of the Austrian half of the Empire, and indeed not only for instance by virtue of his example and his involvement in the Joint Council of Ministers. He supported Count Stürgkh, wherever he could, and he was above all content to see the parliament in Austria deactivated.1382 An Austrian Prime Minister who was not forced to defer to the wishes of the Czechs, Poles, Ruthenians, Slovenes, Italians and Germans, and plead their demands to the Hungarian half of the Empire was doubtlessly preferable to him than a functioning Reichsrat (Imperial Assembly). In Conrad’s eyes, but also those of many Austro-Hungarian and German political circles, however, Stürgkh’s government in Cisleithania had failed and long since fallen into ruin. Conrad was one of the first and keenest critics of the government. On the other hand, Stürgkh maintained precisely the absolutist system that army circles had in mind, and opposed an end to the dictatorship. Gradually, however, the parallelo- gram of forces shifted so strongly that the criticism of the government and above all of its Prime Minister developed into a common line for most people. It was as though Stürgkh were alone to blame for the war situation and for the fact that the ‘point of no return’ had been reached.