CHAPTER X
THE CONSPIRACY OF POTSDAM
On July 4th, the Austrian Councillor of Legation, Count Hoyos, came to Berlin in order to present to William the personal letter from the Emperor Francis Joseph to which we have already referred. Dangerous ideas are not always set down fully on paper. The letter had gone so far as to speak of a “diminution” of Serbia. Count Hoyos verbally explained this expression as meaning that Serbia was to be divided up amongst her neighbours. Hoyos, who was in the confidence of Berchtold, expounded these plans to the Imperial Chancellor and to the Under Secretary Zimmermann. They saw in this no occasion for exerting a restraining influence on the Austrians.
The White Book of June, 1919, which we have mentioned above and which in reality deserves to be called a whitewashing book, remarks indeed:
“The Viennese Ministry for Foreign Affairs later on thought it important to put on record that they did not share the purely personal views of Count Hoyos in regard to the acquisition of Serbian territory or still more the partition of Serbia.”
This piece of information is not quite accurate. The
Ministry did indeed declare that Count Hoyos' views
