Page - 854 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

854 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk a personal and economic union. Serbia could be enlarged by adding Bosnia, Herzego- vina and Dalmatia, and then added to this new federation as the fourth state. In order to at least partially fulfil the Italian demands, Italy should be given Trentino. However, Smuts also did not forget Bulgaria. This was to be enlarged by the Dobruja region in Romania and Macedonia in Serbia. This should then be sufficient, together with the Entente powers, to stand up to the German Empire. However, he was also willing to make concessions to the Germans. For the cession of Alsace (without Strasbourg) and a part of Lorraine, and the clearance of north-western France and Belgium, he was willing to allow Finland, Courland and Lithuania to come under German influence. In addition, France was to relinquish the French Congo to Germany as compensation for Alsace-Lorraine. Foreign Secretary Balfour reacted promptly and contradicted him in no uncertain terms. Smuts should and could express an opinion on the issues relating to Austria-Hungary, but not on the future structure of the German Empire. And so, the talks were in fact again doomed to failure from the start, since Austria-Hungary was unwilling to engage in negotiations that aimed only at concluding a separate peace and would have resulted in the not inconceivable possibility of a war against the German Empire. As a result, only a hearing was possible, but not negotiations. Even so, Smuts had raised an issue that had already been of concern to Austria-Hun- gary for some time, and which  – regardless of the talks in Bern  – was of significance precisely with regard to the negotiations with Russia, namely the position of a future Polish state. Prior to the Brest negotiations, it was after all not only the peace policy of the Central Powers that was again to be subjected to scrutiny and amendment ; the same also applies to the war aims, and it was here that Foreign Minister Czernin in particular found himself in difficulties with his often repeated willingness to conclude a peace without annexation. Once again, the Polish issue surfaced. However, develop- ments had already been set in motion before the October Revolution. Poland Again Since it had become evident in Austria with the reconvention of parliament, and even more clearly so since the beginning of the autumn session in 1917, that the Poles in the Monarchy were now far from being unconditional supporters of the Austrian gov- ernment, as had been assumed was the case even until May 1917, the Polish question gained a new and different character. The Poles in Galicia, like the other Slavs, issued a rebuff to the Monarchy and, suddenly, everything was thrown into doubt that had pre- viously been agreed about the Kingdom of Poland in the Two Emperors’ Proclamation. At that time, it had been assumed that a Polish kingdom would fall within the German sphere of power, but that Galicia would remain Austrian. Now, however, the Poles