Page:Secrets of Crewe House.djvu/58

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32
SECRETS OF CREWE HOUSE

upon their determination to secure democratic freedom for the races of Austria-Hungary on the principle of 'government by consent of the governed.' Expressions such as 'self-government,' or 'autonomous development' should be avoided, because they have a sinister meaning in Austria-Hungary and tend to discourage the friends of the Allies.

"(2) For the same reason, statements that the Allies do not wish to 'dismember Austria' should be avoided. The war cannot be won without so radical a transformation of Austria-Hungary as to remove its peoples from German control. The Hapsburgs may be driven to help in this transformation if Allied encouragement of the anti-German Hapsburg peoples is effective. By themselves the Hapsburgs cannot effect a transformation except in an increasingly pro-German sense.

"(3) For propaganda among the anti-German peoples the agencies already existing should be utilised. These agencies are chiefly the Bohemian (Czecho-Slovak) National Alliance, the Southern Slav Committee, and various Polish organisations.

"(4) The present tendency of the Italian Government to shelve the policy embodied in the London Convention of April 26, 1915,