a spoke
after me and agreed with me that we must not yield to the German
demand for our evacuation of Lublin. As regards the future, the
Hungarian Prime Minister stated that he had always held the view that
we should cede to Germany our claim to Poland in exchange for economic
and financial compensation; but that, at the present time, he did not
feel so confident about it. The conditions then prevailing were
unbearable, chiefly owing to the variableness of German policy, and
he, Count Tisza, returned to his former, oft-repeated opinion that we
should strive as soon as possible to withdraw with honour out of the
affair; impose no conditions that would lead to further friction, but
the surrendering to Germany of our share in Poland in exchange for
economic compensation.

The Austrian Prime Minister, Count Clam, opposed this from the
Austrian point of view, which supported the union of all the Poles
under the Habsburg sceptre as being the one and only desirable
solution.

The feeling during the debate was that the door must be closed against
the Austro-Polish proposals, and that, in view of the impossibility of
an immediate definite solution, we must adhere firmly to the policy
that rendered possible the union of all the Poles under the Habsburg
rule.

After Germany's refusal of the proposal to accept Galicia as
compensation for Alsace-Lorraine, this programme was adhered to
through various phases and vicissitudes until the ever-increasing
German desire for frontier readjustment created a situation which made
the achievement of the Austro-Polish project very doubtful. Unless we
could secure a Poland which, thanks to the unanimity of the great
majority of all Poles, would willingly and cheerfully join the
Monarchy, the Austro-Polish solution would not have been a happy one,
as in that case we should only have increased the number of
discontented elements in the Monarchy, already very high, by adding
fresh ones to them. As it proved impossible to break the resistance
put up by General Ludendorff, the idea presented itself at a later
stage to strive for the annexation of Roumania instead of Poland. It
was a return to the original idea of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the
union of Roumania with Transylvania, closely linked to the Monarchy.
In that case we should have lost Galicia to Poland, but a certain
compensation would have been conceded to us in Roumania with her corn
and oil springs, and for the Monarchy, as for the