thus lost for us permanently. The prophecies of Bethmann-Hollweg had come true word for word.
I noted the decision of the Government in Parliament, but I remarked, in my speech of February 26, 1917, "that the use of the U-boat war was only right if this weapon was so effective that the intervention of new enemies would be less disadvantageous than the greatness of the advantage brought to us by the use of this weapon. Whether this will be so or not, we cannot tell; for this we (the Opposition) cannot accept any responsibility. The Military Command alone is responsible." I did not wish to shake the faith of the nation by subsequent and fruitless doubts, and I did not want to spread any unrest. In a similar situation I would act in the same way. If I, as a responsible member of the party which supported this decision, had given my approval, it would be quite another question. In any case, I would only have done so if the calculations of the War Office had convinced me of the correctness of this step. On no account would I have done so under pressure of Germany, as Czernin did, who prophesied the fatal consequences of this decision with uncommon clarity and certainty, and accepted responsibility for it none the less. In this war, in which everything was at stake for Austria and Hungary, the victorious conclusion of which became more doubtful every day, it was not permissible to commit new errors knowingly for the sake of anybody or as the result of any pressure. One should rather have severed the relations between Germany and
