Count Czernin, the Austrian Foreign Minister, speaking in Vienna on
Tuesday, said that President Wilson must know the impossibility of making a separate peace with Austria. Before the German offensive began, M. Clemenceau had inquired whether and on what basis Austria was prepared to negotiate. Count Czernin said that he had replied, in agreement with Berlin, that he was willing to negotiate, and that, as regards France, he saw no other obstacle to peace than France's desire for Alsace-Lorraine. M. Clemenceau rejoined that it was impossible to negotiate on the basis of the position before the war. M. Cle-menceau's comment on this story is blunt and incisive. "Count Czernin has lied." Count Czernin went on to say that Austrian troops were fighting side by side with the Germans, and would show "the Entente Powers that French and Italian 'aspirations to portions of our territories are Utopias that will be terribly avenged." Whatever happened, "we shall not sacrifice German interests any more than Germany will desert us." The few remaining British Austrophiles, who have done the Allied cause so much harm in Italy, will perhaps be undeceived by Count Czernin's candid and defiant speech. For our part, we regard the defeat of Austria as no less vital and necessary than the defeat of Germany.
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