For the following year, with Romania still neutral, Onciul supported schemes that would prevent her joining the war against Austria and the other Central Powers. Together with the Bessarabian Constantin Stere, he sought to obtain more collective rights for Romanians in Transleithania, and thus prevent Romania from having a "casus belli"; he believed that the best scenario was for Romania to fight alongside Austria, and receive Bessarabia as a reward, or even to be peacefully annexed by the empire. The latter proposal vexed Iorga, who replied that "Romania as a state is no Belgium, to exist [only] as a customs office", but the representation of a "healthy people, with its future ahead." Also then, Onciul mediated between the Romanians of Transylvania and the Prime Minister of Hungary, István Tisza, asking Tisza to curb Magyarization policies, reform the electoral law, and give semiofficial status to the Romanian language.