Heinrich Clam-Martinic

“ The Government must above all resist every proposal to interfere with the sovereignty of allied powers or of the other state of the Monarchy”—a direct rebuff to the Czech demand for Czecho-Slovak unity, which can only be realised at the expense of Hungary. ”

“ The Austrian peoples must not “exhaust their forces in endless and hopeless struggles.” “The peculiar conditions of distribution under which races and racial fragments dwell in this inmost kernel of Europe, have necessarily led to the formation of our State, and history has in this war provided the proofs which justify its creation. ”

“ We have, perhaps, exhausted our forces too long already with national problems, and if we once succeed in bringing them to rest, we should then have to make up the leeway which the nationally-united States have gained. ”

“ The Austrian Premier’s Swan Song
[We print below a condensed report of the speech delivered by Count Clam-Martinić, ex-Premier of Austria, on the eve of his fall.]
After praising and asserting (for the benefit of foreign opinion) the Monarchy’s unimpaired power, he emphasised the indissoluble solidarity . . (Zusammengehörigkeit) of the Austrian people, and “the firm foundations of the Empire, which have survived the political confusions of recent years.” “Only a well-knit State organism can meet the demands of the time. Well-tried foundations must not be undermined. ”

“ Its idea is to strengthen and extend these institutions, with a view to safeguarding the State as a whole, and its functions, but, at the same time, to give the State the power and the freedom, while preserving its historical structure, to do fuller justice than hitherto to the wishes and needs of the peoples in the direction of natural and cultural development.”
Reduced to simple terms, the theme of this speech is that the federal solution is not the programme of the “new men” of Austria. So our Austrophils must try another tack. ”

“ That is a fact that cannot be ignored if we are to consider possible developments on a basis of Realpolitik, and that imposes upon the Austrian peoples a renunciation of the Summum of national activity. ”