If we had attempted to put Jugo-Slavia under Croatian leadership we would have made an impossible demand. If we had permitted that Jugo-Slavia was formed upon a Serbian basis, we would have sacrificed those Croatians who fought bravely on our side, and we would have added strength to Irridentism within our own borders. If we had held the Croatians and Serbians apart, we would have offended the imperialistic tendencies of both parties. Furthermore, I did not consider it to be in the interests of the Monarchy to increase the nationalities on a large scale. The majority of Hungarian opinion agreed with me on this point, and Tisza, Apponyi and Karolyi took a similar attitude to my own. For this reason alone it is absurd to look for the origin of the war in any Hungarian desire for conquest where only the necessity for defence made Hungary take any part in the outbreak of the war.
With regard to Germany, it would have been desirable to acquire a portion of Lithuania and Kurland. Apart from this, she would have been able to secure for herself enormous economic advantages in Russia, but any conquest further west was regarded by me as a fatal error. The conquest of French, Belgian or Italian territory bore within itself the seed for a war of revenge. In the West the only thing which could have been discussed would have been a very small strategic readjustment, together with mutual exchange of territory; this applied as much to Germany as to ourselves. The mistake made by Germany which led to the European
