Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/275

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268
DIPLOMACY AND THE WAR

deceived in his judgment of Burian. Burian, he said, had made mistakes which had destroyed Tisza's confidence in him. He, Tisza, was prepared to do everything that was in his power to bring about Burian's downfall. "There are only two people who can be his successor," said he. "You or myself. To-day I am out of the question, therefore one can only talk of you. I will do everything I can in the interests of your nomination."

On the following day we sat, together with Prince Windischgraetz, in the same carriage and drove to Vienna to be received in audience. I brought about a discussion of the necessity of electoral reform. Tisza held his head in both hands and said in a desperate voice: "What an unhappy country this is!" He wanted to put me, his opponent, into power, and I spoiled this patriotic effort of his by the dangerous idea which he thought would ruin Hungary and which he could not support in any circumstances. I argued with him in vain that it was now impossible to avoid this reform, which had to come about, and that he, Tisza, also, must be happy if he could succeed in satisfying the nationalities, with a general electoral reform, in defiance of Wilson, and so on.

Tisza would not give way. He attempted to prove that Europe would realize that we could not continue and that nobody could demand suicide from us.

This happened on October 7; and when, three weeks later, Tisza abandoned the idea of defending his strongest convictions, this was obviously a sign of