would soon succumb under a still more systematic pressure.
The Poles, who were the third obstacle, were to be appeased—on one side by obtaining autonomy in Galicia, which would remain Austrian, but with a special constitution; and on the other side by the formation of a kingdom of Russian Poland, under the influence of Germany. In return they were definitely to renounce their claims to Polish territories in Prussia. It was a programme in complete opposition to the principle of the union of the whole Polish people. Since these lines were written for the first time in March 1916, all these plans for Poland have been realised.
The fourth obstacle was Italy.
She was Austria's traditional rival and claimed the irredentist provinces. She had her interests in the Balkans, which were in constant conflict with those of Austria-Hungary and Germany and directly opposed to the realisation of the Pan-German plan. She looked to Valona and claimed Trieste, which was jealously guarded by Austria and Germany, because it was by Trieste that Germany was preparing her outlet to the Adriatic, and it was at Trieste that an important branch of the famous German railway, Hamburg-Persian Gulf (Berlin-Baghdad), terminated.
Italy was therefore necessarily an enemy, perhaps the principal and most dangerous one, because
