COUNT CZERNIN
that, so far as I could see, he might count not merely upon three weeks, but upon far longer, even if it should eventually come to war between us." I also added that to speak of extermination was an exaggeration. "But with regard to all this," I said to him, "our positions are not the same. I, if Romania were suppressed, should lose everything. I should be a pariah wandering on the face of the earth. Whereas you, who claim to be a good German, would lose nothing by the disappearance of Austria. You might even gain by it, since Germany can never be suppressed."
It was thus that we parted. This was in the course of the afternoon. In the evening I heard from Nicu Filipescu that Czernin had spoken to him, on the same day, in exactly the same sense.
This last conversation with Count Czernin is the strangest that I have ever had with a diplomatist. If I had not heard it with my own ears it would seem to me not merely extraordinary, but absolutely incredible that the representative of Austria-Hungary should declare that if he were a Roumanian he would go to war with Austria, that being both the interest and duty of Roumania.
The Ethiopian Pivot
L'Ethiope et les covitises Allemandes.By Pierre Alype. (Parist: Berger-Levrault, 1917.)7 frs. 50.
In the first number of The New Europe Professor Masaryk aptly wrote: "In my opinion, the actual plan of Germany might be expressed even more fittingly by the watchward, 'Berlin—Cairo.'" The great Germanic Empire of the future must command, not only the valley of the Euphrates, but the valley of the Nile. The undisputed control of Asiatic Turkey must eventually lead to the acquisition of Egypt, for when Palestine and Arabia have been covered with a network of strategic railways, "Moltke" (as Paul Harms wrote in the Berliner Tageblatt, 10 October 1915) "will have conquered Mahan "—a world-continental Power will have been created which, from its size and compactness, can defy Sea-Power, and concentrate irresistible forces on the Suez Canal.
Some months ago the catchword "Mittel-Afrika" enjoyed once more a wide popularity in Germany. Originally revived as a counter-cry of the Hanseatic and Colonial groups whose interests cannot be exclusively identified with the "Mittel-Europa" plan, the campaign was merely another aspect of the demand for oversea colonies and a strong Navy to protect them. The unemployed Colonial Minister, Dr. Solf, was, however, prudent enough to point out that oversea colonies did not necessarily demand a predominant Navy. In other words. "Mittel-Airica"—the dream of a great German belt from Kamerun and Angola to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean—was both supplementary to and dependent on "Mittel-Europa." What the outbreak of the European War had prevented Germany from obtaining by peaceful persuasion from Britain—namely, the gradual absorption of Central Africa—must be
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