Since I came into office I have striven only after one aim, namely, to
secure an honorable peace for the monarchy and to create a situation
which will secure to Austria-Hungary future free development, and,
moreover, to do everything possible to insure that this terrible war
shall be the last one for time out of mind. I have never spoken
differently. I do not intend to go begging for peace, or to obtain it by
entreaties or lamentations, but to enforce it by our moral right and
physical strength. Any other tactics, I consider, would contribute to
the prolongation of the war.
I must say, to my regret, that during the last few weeks and months much
has been spoken and done in Austria that prolongs the war. Those who are
prolonging the war are divided into various groups, according to their
motives and tactics. There are, first, those who continuously beg for
peace. They are despicable and foolish. To endeavor to conclude peace at
any price is despicable, for it is unmanly, and it is foolish because
it continuously feeds the already dying aggressive spirit of the enemy.
The desire for peace of the great masses is natural as well as
comprehensible, but the leaders of the people must consider that certain
utterances produce abroad just the opposite effect from what they
desire.
Firmly relying on our strength and the justice of our cause, I have
already concluded three moderate but honorable peace treaties. The rest
of our enemies also begin to understand that we have no other desire
than to secure the future of the monarchy and of our allies, and that we
intend to enforce this and can and will enforce it. I shall unswervingly
prosecute this course and join issue with any one who opposes me.
The second group of war prolongers are the annexationists. It is a
distortion of fact to assert that Germany has made conquests in the
east. Lenine's anarchy drove the border people into the arms of Germany.
Is Germany to refuse this involuntary choice of foreign border States?
The German Government has as little desire for oppressions as we, and I
am perfectly convinced that neither annexationists nor weaklings can
prevent forever a moderate and honorable peace. They delay it, but they
cannot prevent it.
The hopes of our enemies of final victory are not merely based on
military expectations and the blockade. They are based to a great extent
on our interior political conditions and on certain political leaders,
not forgetting the Czechs. Recently we were almost on the point of
entering into negotiations with the Western Powers, when the wind
suddenly veered round and, as we know with certainty, the Entente
decided it had better wait, as parliamentary and political events in our
country justified the hope that the monarchy would soon be defenseless.
[Count Czernin attacked the Czech leaders and Czech troops, who, he
declared, "criminally fight against their own country," and appealed to
the people to be united against this "high treason." The Government, he
said, was quite ready to proceed to the revision of the Constitution,
but this would not be helped by those who hoped through the victory of
the Entente to gain their ends. "If we expel this poison," he declared,
"a general honorable peace is nearer than the public imagines, but no
one has the right to remain aside in this last decisive struggle."]