Ronald Montagu Burrows

“ Supposing that Hungary did not exist, and that Austria consisted only of Germans and Slavs, the Emperor might well have been content to purchase peace at the price of abandoning the alliance with Germany and giving a real and not a bogus home rule to the Slavs. Unfortunately Hungary not only exists, but is the dominating factor in the situation. ”

“ Even, however, if we could be content to accept the status quo, under which the twenty-four millions of Slavs and four millions of Rumanians and Italians of Austria-Hungary are enslaved to the twelve millions of Germans and ten millions of Magyars, there still remains the question as to whether the Dual Monarchy can extricate herself from the war, with the best will in the world, without the connivance of Germany. ”

“ The Magyars, the strong and virile ruling caste of Hungary, will fight to the death rather than forego their ascendency over their Slav and Rumanian subjects. The only separate peace that they would conclude would be on the basis of the status quo. The Federal Austria which some of our diplomatists dream of, in which Slav Bohemia, and Slav Croatia, Bosnia and Dalmatia, would be autonomous units of the same importance as German Austria and Magyar Hungary, would be intolerable to the Magyars and it is idle for us to dream that they would ever allow it. ”