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to save thereby tottering Austria. This is entirely in harmony with the policy of terror through which Vienna hoped to save the internal situation.[1]
The responsibility of Germany and Austria for the war is so much greater, because Germany in the very year 1914, before the war broke out, reached a very favourably agreement with England, France and the other Powers as to controversial questions in Asia and Africa.[2]
- ↑ It is worth mentioning that in the various diplomatic blue books of Vienna and Berlin not a word is published about the negotiations of the two Allies from the Sarajevo murders to the Serbian ultimatum. But we see from official statements that both emperors looked from a purely personal standpoint upon the act committed on Austrian territory by an Austrian subject: Austria talked of a punitive expedition to Serbia, and William at the beginning of the war in his frequent speeches plays the rôle of an avenging Justice.
- ↑ Rohrbach (Das Grössere Deutschland, August 15th, 1915) says: “Now that everything has changed, we can openly say that the Treaties with England concerning the frontiers of our overseas spheres in Asia and Africa had already been concluded and signed, and that nothing remained but to make them public. We were frankly astonished at the concessions made to us in Africa by England’s policy.” In Turkey, he adds, Germany was given concessions in the matter of the Bagdad railway, of Mesopotamian petroleum wells and Tigris navigation beyond all expectations (“ueberraschend”): and altogether, England was quite willing to recognise Germany as her equal both in Africa and in Asia.
