Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/274

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THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION
267

co-operation with the Social Democrats, and I requested Tisza to give the Labour Party a free hand and to retire into the background himself.

I attempted to convince him that, if we wanted to obviate the revolution, or to throttle it in its incipience, we would have to bring about the necessary reforms without delay, as we had to guard against an increase of bitter feeling, and that we ought not to exclude those elements which were striving for power, and whose programme we had to carry out partially, but that at the same time we must surround these elements by other forces so that we were able to repress the turbulent factors and to suppress anarchy. I pointed out that in Germany also there was a new Government with a new system.

Tisza was now prepared for anything. He wanted to step aside, and to ensure that the new Cabinet would obtain the majority. For the first time he declared that he would not oppose an extension of electoral reform. He was ready to act in this manner, not because of any danger of revolution, for he believed that such a danger did not exist and that it was not worth while speaking of it, but because he recognized that, in the present circumstances, it was impossible to continue the Government without us.

How soul-racking a struggle must this indomitable man have had to go through before he gave this declaration! At this time I was in constant touch with Tisza. He once surprised me in the presence of Wekerle (October 6) by the remark that he had been