Page - 898 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

898 The June Battle in Veneto higher level, was accordingly only a sideshow to the attempts at peace that were being made during 1917. As an affair, it belonged to 1918. The key facts and the content of the discussions and correspondence are sufficiently well-known.2146 At the end of January or in mid-February 1917 (here, the information already becomes muddled), the mother of Empress Zita, Maria Antonia von Bour- bon-Parma, met with one of her sons (or both), Prince Sixtus von Bourbon-Parma (and Prince Xavier) in Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Both were officers in the Belgian Army. The Archduchess spoke of her son-in-law’s desire for peace, of which Sixtus had already been informed by the boyhood friend of Emperor Karl, Count Tamás Erdödy. However, Sixtus felt that something substantial was needed in order to set a peace initiative in motion. He wrote a list for his mother : Alsace-Lorraine, Belgium, Serbia. The Emperor was to state his position on all three points. Strangely, Italy was left out. Had Sixtus forgotten about it ? With the agreement of Count Czernin, Karl then wrote a letter on 17 March in which he gave his response to all three points, as requested, in very general terms, and also made no mention of Italy. This was no way forward, as the French President Poincaré also told Prince Sixtus. In order to be able to create a more solid foundation, Sixtus and Xavier Bourbon-Parma travelled to Vienna. They met Emperor Karl and probably also Minister Czernin, who subsequently appeared to want to forget the incident. The next day, Sixtus was also handed a letter from Emperor Karl. (‘Mon chèr Sixte’, written in ink pencil throughout), which was probably written by Karl himself, but was without doubt signed by him. Czernin knew nothing of the letter. In this letter, which was presented as a personal communication, Sixtus was re- quested to assure the French President that Emperor Karl would ‘support the justified claims for restitution [by France] with regard to Alsace-Lorraine’. This was not entirely what Sixtus had been looking for, since the word ‘justified’ was open to a wide range of possible interpretations, but for the time being it had to suffice.2147 Belgium was to be reinstated and retain its African territories, Serbia was also to be preserved and possibly receive access to the sea. And again, there was no reference to Italy. This subject appears to have been addressed on another sheet of paper. At the end of March, Sixtus forwarded the letter to the French President, Poincaré. Shortly afterwards, on 19 April 1917, talks were held in St. Jean de Maurienne between the French Prime Minister Ribot, the British Prime Minister Lloyd George and the Italian Prime Minister Orlando and his Foreign Minister Sonnino.2148 Lloyd George and Poincaré knew of the Austrian venture, but did not reveal the correspondence of the Austrian Emperor to the Italians. Certainly, however, they were anxious to know whether Italy might lower the demands it had made regarding the price of peace agreed in the Treaty of London. Sonnino replied with a clear ‘no’. This would trigger a revolu- tion in Italy. Did Orlando and Sonnino really know nothing of the fact that the Chief of the Italian General Staff, Cadorna, had indicated to Austria-Hungary just over two