Page - 868 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

were a Lady Paget or a Julius Meinl. On the following day, Meinl received a letter from Czernin that must have had the effect of a cold shower : ‘Your High Well Born’, it read, ‘Your verbal analyses, as I have already told you, have greatly interested me. I […] come to the conclusion, however, on closer reflection of your reports, that for tactical political considerations, it would not be prudent at the current moment, and in likelihood also in the near future, to continue to spin the threads that you have taken up. I thus have the honour of requesting you to refrain from travelling abroad until further notice […]. May Your High Well Born receive expression of my […].’2067 In contrast to Count Czernin, the American President was highly taken with Meinl’s recommendations. On 1 January 1918, Wilson passed on their contents to Secretary of State Lansing, saying that they corresponded almost entirely to his own views.2068 On 2 January 1918, the British Foreign Secretary, Balfour, gave a report to the American presidential advisor, House, on the discussions between Count Mensdorff and General Smuts, which had taken place on 18 and 19 December. One of the core passages in this report was that Mensdorff had thoroughly agreed to the suggestion of giving the na- tionalities of Austria-Hungary the opportunity ‘to autonomous development’, and that this also conformed to the intentions of the Austrian Emperor. Wilson adopted word for word the passage relating to the ‘opportunity to autonomous development’ into his publication, and only left it open as to whether this should occur inside or outside the Monarchy. The American President also refused to take specific demands into account, and in point 10, which related to the peoples of Austria-Hungary, therefore left out any reference to the Treaty of London of 1915 and the Italian demands for Dalmatia, as well as Czech and Slovak aims.2069 The State Department had been excluded from the formulation until the last mo- ment. Just one day before the points were announced, Wilson called in Secretary of State Lansing and gave him the list of his Fourteen Points to read. Lansing agreed, but noted in his diary : ‘Der Präsident hat nach einer Möglichkeit gesucht, die Doppel- monarchie intakt zu erhalten. Ich halte eine solche Vorgangsweise für nicht gescheit und denke, der Präsident sollte diesen Gedanken fallen lassen und die Errichtung neuer Staaten auf dem Territorium des Kaiserreichs ins Auge fassen und die Auftei- lung Österreich-Ungarns fordern. Das ist das einzig sichere Mittel, um die deutsche Vorherrschaft in Europa zu beenden.’2070 In Lansing’s view, Austria-Hungary was to become a lever against Germany, and the destruction of the Habsburg Empire, which precisely at that point had appeared to have become obsolete as a war aim, was to be sought in order to cripple the German Empire in the long term. On 8 January 1918, Wilson announced his Fourteen Points. This was his reply to the Bolsheviks. Almost immediately, their slogans were faced with a rival voice. For Austria-Hungary, however, the declaration by the American President was both a de- structive and a revolutionary force.