Page - 682 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

682 The Writing on the Wall tro-Hungarian flag would disappear entirely from the Mediterranean.1551 Furthermore, if at least some of the German boats were to continue to do so, it would be easier to conceal the number of German submarines. On 10 September 1916, therefore, six Ger- man submarines were officially added to the list of the Imperial and Royal Navy with a pre-dated note. Three other submarines were excluded, however. The great German successes and the far lesser ones of the Imperial and Royal sub- marines naturally gave pause for thought, and played a role in the discussions sur- rounding the unrestricted submarine war. Perhaps it was also indeed not that simple to acknowledge the significance of unrestricted submarine warfare and to balance the number of successes against the political implications. Also, it was impossible to predict that the Germans would not keep to their promise of deploying over 40 submarines in the Mediterranean. However, as is frequently the case on such occasions, figures were suddenly being thrown about, and what was technically feasible was also presented as being possible to put into practice in everyday warfare. The politicians, who were loath to take a stance, suddenly withdrew from the debate, claiming that they were not spe- cialists in the field, and purported to be unable to make any statements. Ultimately, they came to accept the idea, or agreed to it out of complete conviction. With the extension of the unrestricted submarine war to the Mediterranean, it was, with the exception of a narrow shipping lane along the African coast for use by the neutral countries, to become a maritime exclusion area in which torpedo attacks were made indiscriminately. From 1 February 1917 onwards, the war would of necessity assume a different nature. Czernin refused to believe that this was the case, however. Since an American at- tempt at brokering peace between the major alliances had become obsolete, Emperor Karl turned to the Spanish Monarch, King Alfonso XIII, who was a distant relative. He was also happy to act as arbitrator. One difficulty was posed by the Spanish Prime Minister, Count Alvaro de Romañones. However, since he was known to be open to bribery, Czernin was prepared to buy him out if necessary. From now on, the formula that Austrian foreign policy was keen to put into effect under Czernin was consistently ‘no victor and no loser’.1552 The difference between this and the phrase being used si- multaneously by Wilson was that by this, Czernin meant that Europe could be brought back approximately to the state of affairs that had existed before the unleashing of the war, while Wilson desired a new peace order, taking as its basis the dissolution of inter- and intrastate traditions in Europe. The German government was anything but pleased with the new line taken by Aus- tria. In particular, it was suspicious of the continuation of diplomatic links between the Danube Monarchy and the USA, which had even intensified, since precisely at the time when diplomatic relations were broken off between Washington and Berlin, Austria sent an ambassador, Count Tarnowski, to the USA, thus ending a state of affairs that had lasted fourteen months, in which Austria-Hungary was only represented by