Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/229

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222
DIPLOMACY AND THE WAR

I am Still of the opinion to-day that the victory of my policy alone would have been able to restore the popularity of the King, to establish the harmony between him and the nation, to strengthen the army, to introduce a healthy party change in the Government, and to lend such a solidity to the whole Government that it would have been strong enough to face the storms that were ahead of it.

The old friendship developed into a powerful antagonism, but I nevertheless valued immensely the personality of Tisza in the midst of the most strenuous political strife. The fact that I often opposed him, and led a ceaseless campaign against him, did not alter anything in the fact that I regarded him as a brave individual with great powers, as a thorough Hungarian, a patriot and a first-rate Parliamentary leader, who wielded the powerful might of an agitator. It gives me great satisfaction to reflect that we succeeded in healing our breach before his death.

His system and his fundamental ideas were from beginning to end those of his father. His individuality, however, was unlike that of his father in many respects. His father avoided difficulties; he sought them. His father was cautious; he was bold and daring. Passion and anger could never be discerned in the father, and he was never insulting, and never said anything but what he intended to say. The son, on the other hand, allowed himself to be carried away by the heat of the combat, and was insulting even when he did not mean to be so. Tisza the elder was