l 21, 1915. It
declared that these additional concessions failed to "repair the
chief inconveniences of the present situation, either from the
linguistic and ethnological or the military point of view." Austria,
he pointed out, seemed determined to maintain positions on the
frontier that were a perpetual threat to Italy. There were three
more conversations between Baron Burian and the Italian Ambassador
at Vienna before negotiations were broken off, and on April 29, 1915,
the Italian Ambassador telegraphed to Rome that Austria virtually
negatived all the Italian demands, especially those contained in the
first five articles. The real break, which made war inevitable,
came on May 3 when Baron Sonnino sent to Vienna a formal denunciation
of the Italo-Austrian alliance.

It must be remembered that behind the text of these formal proposals
and counterproposals lay a belief in the minds of many Italians that
Austria made even the slight concessions she granted unwillingly
and under pressure from Germany, and that if the war resulted
successfully for the Central Powers, Austria would immediately begin
to scheme for a restoration of her old frontiers.

Since it is an axiom of diplomatic bargaining that each side asks
more than it expects to receive, there is no doubt that Italy would
have been willing to modify her demands if her statesmen and people
had been sure that the concessions obtained from Austria under
these circumstances would not have been disturbed in the event of
a Teutonic victory.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR, VOLUME V
(OF 12)***

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