Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/180

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OUR POLITICAL MISTAKES
173

in the following paragraph: "Aujourd'hui l'Entente n'est pas vaincue. Même l'Italie, à laquelle les Puissances Centrales viennent de porter quelques rudes coups, continue à résister héroïquement. La paix que l'on pourrait conclure en ce moment devrait compter avec ce fait. Celui qui désire la paix actuellement—et nous le désirons sincèrement—ne peut poser de conditions humiliantes pour aucune des parties belligérantes." … "Sur aucun point nos désirs n'excluent le respect des intérêts de chacun, nulle part nous ne voulons humilier aucun de nos adversaires, nulle part l'Autriche-Hongrie ne s'opposera à une politique de conciliation permanente."

Nevertheless, it was excessively difficult to realize the peace by agreement. The position of the Entente was comparable with our own. Our self-consciousness could be satisfied completely by our brilliant resistance, but for all that we were opposed to an enormous superiority of power. Many people in the nations of the Entente saw a humiliation in the fact that an absolute victory had not been achieved. On the other hand, we did not believe that the aggressive policy of one of the enemy powers was a constant danger for us and for mankind—a belief which the agitation "God punish England" failed to make general. The majority of the Entente believed honestly that without the subjugation of Germany the freedom and justice of the world would always be in danger, and that the greatness and security of their own country would become illusory. Whereas we were guided by the feeling that the time was against