This intimate relation between us and Germany would also have been necessary because we should have played this blessed rôle of negotiator during the war. In the actual position in which we found ourselves we were not able to do anything useful in this direction. Our petty jealousy and apprehension undermined the trust of Germany, and other nations placed less and less faith in us because of our unbounded obedience. We were considered to be more dependent than we were in reality. The Czar Nicholas said once that when he spoke about Russia he also meant to imply Austria, because Austria was dependent upon Russia's decision. It is true that Germany did not say the same, but in point of fact this was the actual situation. We had ceased to be independent factors, and our will was not taken into account because nobody seriously believed in our emancipation from Germany, and finally Germany did not place any more trust in us. How could we then have assisted in ameliorating the Anglo-German and the Franco-German tension? An agreement with regard to the future, and disarming German mistrust, should have been our first step, and this relation, based upon trust, once it had been secured, should have been exploited self-consciously and openly in the interests of European understanding.
I also recognized clearly that in case of a common victory Germany would press Central Europe upon us in any form which pleased her. For this reason, would it not have been wiser to have made an agreement with Germany while Germany still needed us and before she
