even, if necessary, a separate peace with a new foreign policy, administrative union, a nationality-policy based upon the autonomy of the nationalities, international protection for the rights of the minority, new electoral reform laws, preservation of internal order at any price, and equally energetic representation of our patriotic tendency as opposed to internationalism. I was convinced that such a coalition would be supported by the majority in Parliament, and I would have been inclined to have joined such a combination, as I was convinced that a constellation which placed me in the same Cabinet with Karoyli would have been advantageous in regard to foreign affairs. The result of this would, of course, have been that I would have had to break with my past.
Nevertheless, I was determined to do so. The political situation in which the country found itself made it the one duty of every patriot to save as much as could be saved, and having sacrificed all other considerations, to adopt the path that was demanded by the given circumstances in the interests of the country.
Unfortunately, the solution that I longed for was subject to many impediments. With reference to Karolyi, I believed at one time that he was inclined to unite himself with us. His party, however, did not display the slightest desire to do so. When it became certain that we had lost the war, and when we had to give way to Karolyi in certain questions, public opinion believed that he alone was able to conclude a satisfactory peace and that it was only he who enjoyed
