Page - 900 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

900 The June Battle in Veneto gard, Czernin had promoted not only the relocation of Austro-Hungarian troops to the western front, but also support for the German offensive by a renewed attack by Imperial and Royal troops in Italy, so that the Allies would be unable to easily remove their forces there in order to send them to France. Czernin did still more. He initiated a newspaper campaign against the Meinl Group and, above all, against Lammasch, in order to discredit this group, which was a source of trouble to him and to Berlin in equal measure. Finally, he threatened the Emperor with his resignation if Karl were to decide to pursue his peace contacts, while not making use of his minister.2151 Karl had indeed tried again to begin talks with the Americans, and had turned to Heinrich Lammasch for the purpose. Lammasch did what was requested of him and established the required contact. Indeed, President Wilson also reacted by making a conciliatory interpretation of his Fourteen Points, and of Point Ten in particular. Wil- son was all the happier to do this, since he had been forced to acknowledge that, aside from Austria-Hungary, none of the belligerents had reacted particularly positively to his declaration of 8 January 1918. And so, the American President arranged for Aus- tria-Hungary to also be granted extensive financial aid from the USA if a separate peace were to be concluded.2152 However, since he had not been informed of the back- ground, Czernin could not agree with the American statements that were published. After quickly noticing that Lammasch was behind this development, he disavowed the international law expert to the Emperor. Karl was unwilling to admit his own role, and in an unseemly way had Lammasch dropped. Finally, on 2 April, Czernin gave a speech before the Viennese municipal coun- cil, which not only served to sketch out the foreign policy situation, but was at the same time Czernin’s reckoning with his opponents. He castigated the Hungarian and German proponents of a naked peace with victory as well as the pacifists in the style of Lammasch, the Czechs and those guilty of high treason.2153 Then, however, he ad- dressed the western powers : ‘Some time before the start of the western offensive, Mon- sieur Clemenceau asked me whether I would be willing to negotiate and, if so, on what basis. I immediately replied, following agreement from Berlin, that I would be prepared to do so, and that I could see no obstacle to peace with regard to France other than the desire of the French for Alsace-Lorraine. Paris replied that on this basis, no negotiations were possible. Hereupon, no further option was available.’ The minister had presented the Emperor with the speech, and it had been approved. Hardly had the speech become known when the French Prime Minister responded. It was not France who had made enquiries with regard to negotiations, but Austria-Hungary. Czernin now thought that Clemenceau was referring to the discussions between Counts Ar- mand and Revertera. Clemenceau again replied that two months previously, an attempt at initiating talks had been made by a far higher-ranking individual than Revertera, and that he had evidence to prove it. Now, Czernin thought that by this, he meant the type-