Page - 988 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

988 The War becomes History make the running of our enemies, but not suited to creating a new order. […] Then you continue by saying that an understanding with Hungary is to be achieved by two equal and national peoples. Are you living in a world of dreams[ ?] […] You are counting your chickens before they are hatched ! Perhaps we will perish, but be assured that before we do so, we will have the power to squash the men in the interior who lend themselves to making the running of our enemies […].’ At this point, one of the Bosnian representa- tives said ‘hajdemo’ (= we’re going). Tisza remained behind on his own.2424 During the aforementioned session of the Joint Council of Ministers, however, the Hungarians continued to regard the southern Slav problem as a predominantly Aus- trian one and, therefore, not a Hungarian affair. It was above all a question of the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina, argued the Hungarian Prime Sándor Wekerle. Both of these provinces were to decide themselves to which of the two halves of the Empire they wanted to belong ; it was no longer necessary to engage in a debate over it. With that, Wekerle had evidently said everything that needed saying. There did not appear to be anything to be said about Croatia, and likewise Transylvania and other matters. Apart from that, it was clearly more important for the Hungarian Prime Minister to assure Hungary that, in spite of the Bulgarian catastrophe, the preservation of the king- dom was guaranteed. Wekerle’s Austrian counterpart, Hussarek, merely stated that he would shortly develop his programme regarding this matter before the Austrian House of Representatives. He then did so and spoke on 1 October of ‘national autonomy’, which, in his view, was not a right to self-determination but was to offer autonomous starting points for the reconstruction of the Austrian territories.2425 National autonomy was to be understood as equality and self-determination in na- tional and cultural affairs within an area of settlement. With this, Hussarek did not exceed the proposals and measures of his predecessor, Seidler.2426 Another session of the Joint Council of Ministers on 2 October also failed to achieve any concrete results. The only matter that was discussed was that the planned constitutional declaration of the Emperor on the southern Slav question was to be sent in the form of a handwritten letter to both prime ministers. Once again, only a partial aspect had been addressed, and again no agreement was reached. The  – as was now clear  – final attempt to find a common solution to the constitutional question for the entire Monarchy had failed. Characteristic was the diction of the Slovenian Reichsrat (Imperial Assembly) deputy Anton Korošec : ‘We will put our own house in order, we will solve our own affairs.’ His fellow countryman Ivo Benkovič conjured up the image of the ‘black and yellow cage of nations’, which they wanted to leave in favour of ‘golden freedom’.2427 On 6 October, the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was constituted in Zagreb (Agram) as the supreme representative organ of the southern Slavs in the Dual Monarchy, after a national council for the Slovenian areas of settlements and for Istria had been con- stituted six weeks earlier in Ljubljana (Laibach).2428 In this way, there were parallels,