Page:Secrets of Crewe House.djvu/229

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INTER-ALLIED CO-OPERATION
167

tarism through Austria. Although German militarism was not completely invulnerable, and although the vulnerability of Germany was not so certain as that of Austria, Austria was the Achilles' heel of Germany. Two important conditions that had rendered possible such action against Austria, were that the necessity of disintegrating Austria had become generally realised throughout the world, and that Austria's responsibility for the war had been generally acknowledged not only by the Allies, but also by the enemy. Lichnowsky and Muehlon had acknowledged that the chief and immediate responsibility for the war rested with Austria. The question of guilt was certainly one of the chief questions with which propaganda had to deal; and it would be examined by the committees, because he believed that it might be possible to accelerate movements of opinion in Germany and in Austria if a confession of guilt as to the origin of the war were made widely known.

As to what had been done by Italian propaganda during the last few months, he had mentioned the offices at Rome and at Berne, to which he would refer in more detail in the committees. As to the work of the Padua Inter-Allied Commission, it was