Take Ionescu

“ Intercourse with him is most agreeable, as his manners are, at any rate in appearance, altogether delightful. His intelligence is of the most rudimentary order, but cunning supplies its place sometimes, even to advantage. ”

“ They are the members of a clique which is recruited from among all the nations of the earth, who, from generation to generation, have served the Habsburgs, who live by the Imperial favour, and who form a kind of civil General Staff to that family, which itself is the only link which holds together all the different races of the Monarchy. These people speak German among themselves, but their mentality is not German. Whether they be of Czech, Polish, Italian, Croat or German origin, they are, in fact, neither Czechs, Poles, Italians, Croats nor Germans. ”

“ He, like his colleague without fortfolio, Dr. Baernreither (the well-known German—Bohemian Conservative leader) , is known to have enjoyed the confidence of the late Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and to have favoured a revision of the Dual System, and just concessions to the Southern Slavs and the Hungarian nationalities. At the same time another prominent supporter of the same policy, Count Ottokar Czernin, also a member of the high Bohemian aristocracy, has been appointed Joint Foreign Minister. ”

“ They are, indeed, the only Austrians in the world. Their essential characteristic is a lack of real intelligence. But, nevertheless, they are not as simple as they appear to be. They have the bureaucratic tradition and a certain cunning which takes the place of intelligence. ”