The disclosures regarding Austria's efforts to make a separate peace
with France, which are dealt with elsewhere in this issue of CURRENT
HISTORY MAGAZINE, took a more sensational turn April 11, 1918, when the
following official note was issued by the French Government:
_Once caught in the cogwheels of lying, there is no means of stopping.
Emperor Charles, under Berlin's eye, is taking on himself the lying
denials of Count Czernin, and thus compels the French Government to
supply the proof. Herewith is the text of an autograph letter
communicated on March 31, 1917, by Prince Sixtus de Bourbon, the Emperor
of Austria's brother-in-law, to President Poincaré, and communicated
immediately, with the Prince's consent, to the French Premier:_
MY DEAR SIXTUS: The end of the third year of this war, which has
brought so much mourning and grief into the world, approaches.
All the peoples of my empire are more closely united than ever
in the common determination to safeguard the integrity of the
monarchy at the cost even of the heaviest sacrifices.
Thanks to their union, with the generous co-operation of all
nationalities, my empire and monarchy have succeeded in
resisting the gravest assaults for nearly three years. Nobody
can question the military advantages secured by my troops,
particularly in the Balkans.
France, on her side, has shown force, resistance, and dashing
courage which are magnificent. We all unreservedly admire the
admirable bravery, which is traditional to her army, and the
spirit of sacrifice of the entire French people.
Therefore it is a special pleasure to me to note that, although
for the moment adversaries, no real divergence of views or
aspirations separates many of my empire from France, and that I
am justified in hoping that my keen sympathy for France, joined
to that which prevails in the whole monarchy, will forever avoid
a return of the state of war, for which no responsibility can
fall on me.
With this in mind, and to show in a definite manner the reality
of these feelings, I beg you to convey privately and
unofficially to President Poincaré that I will support by every
means, and by exerting all my personal influence with my allies,
France's just claims regarding Alsace-Lorraine.
Belgium should be entirely re-established in her sovereignty,
retaining entirely her African possessions without prejudice to
the compensations she should receive for the losses she has
undergone.
Serbia should be re-established in her sovereignty, and, as a
pledge of our good-will, we are ready to assure her equitable
natural access to the Adriatic, and also wide economic
concessions in Austria-Hungary. On her side, we will demand, as
primordial and essential conditions, that Serbia cease in the
future all relation with and suppress every association or group
whose political object aims at the disintegration of the
monarchy, particularly the Serbian political society, Narodni
Ochrana; that Serbia loyally and by every means in her power
prevent any kind of political agitation, either in Serbia or
beyond her frontiers, in the foregoing direction, and give
assurances thereof under the guarantee of the Entente Powers.
The events in Russia compel me to reserve my ideas with regard
to that country until a legal definite Government is established
there.
Having thus laid my ideas clearly before you, I would ask you in
turn, after consulting with these two powers, to lay before me
the opinion first of France and England, with a view thus to
preparing the ground for an understanding on the basis of which
official preliminary negotiations could be taken up and reach a
result satisfactory to all.
Hoping that thus we will soon be able together to put a limit to
the sufferings of so many millions of men and families now
plunged in sadness and anxiety, I beg to assure you of my
warmest and most brotherly affection.