sceptre of the same ruler, Silesia would not be completely surrounded and endangered. They wondered whether a kingdom with twenty million Poles would not press the dynasty of Habsburg into Slav tendencies, and whether Polish influence would not make the alliance with Germany impossible. In such circumstances it was very difficult to gain the consent of Berlin, especially as long as we did not know precisely what we wanted ourselves, and did not know how we were to include this new freed country into the Habsburg Monarchy. The difficulty was increased, moreover, by the fact that we did not see clearly ourselves, nor did Germany, how the German-Austro-Hungarian relation was to be developed. In consequence of the uncertainty of our attitude, it was also impossible that a strong public opinion in our favour could be formed in Poland.
When I visited the German Chancellor in the summer of the year 1916 for the second time, he also considered the idea impracticable which a few months earlier he had approved in conversation with me. Germany now wanted to make out of the Warsaw Government a proper State under a German prince. This idea, however, was wrong and did not come to be realized. Finally we made out of the annexed provinces an independent country.
The new Polish State was given neither body nor soul. Poland was made independent on paper, but in point of fact she remained divided between the two neighbouring powers without any independence. The
