Republican farmer., 1918-05-31
FRANCIS JOSEPH KNEW THAT WAR
 WAS INEVITABLE

Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria 1914, that a European war was inev- itable and that only by this means could the Treaty of Bucharest be changed to solve the Balkan problem. This conversation occurred one month before the Archduke Francis Ferdi- nand was aSSaSSinated. It comes to light through the revelations of the American Ambassador at Constantine pie, MT. Henry M Morgenthau, to whom it was related by the Marquis Pallavicini, to whom the Emperor talked, MT. Morgenthau tells the story in the Worlds Work for June, just published. He says:
 '"The Austrian Ambassador, the Marquis Pallavicini, also practically admitted that the Central Powers had precipftated the war. On August IS, Francis Joseph's birthday, I made the usual ambassadorial visit of congratu- lation. Quite naturally the conversa- ton turned upon the Emperor, who had that day passed his 84th year. PUalIaVicini spoke about him with the utmost pride and veneration. He told me how keen-minded and clear headed the aged Emperor was; how he had the most complete understand ing of international fairs, and gave everything his personal supervision. To illustrate the Austrian Kaiser S grasp of public events, Pallavicini in- stanced the present war. The previous | may, PaIlavicini had had an audience | with Francis Joseph in Vienna. At that time Pallavicini told me, the Elm porer had said that a European war was unavoidable. The Central Pow CTS would not accept the Pretty ot 1 Bucharest as a settlement of the Balkan question, and only a general l war; the Emperor had told Palla- civini, could ever settle that problem | The treaty of Bucharest, I may recall
 was the settlement that ended the sec 1 ond Balkan war. This divided the European dominians of the Balkan l states, excepting Constantinople and a small piece of adjoining territory among the Balkan nations, chiefly Ser | bia and Greece. That treaty strength l ened Serbia greatly; so much did il increase Serbia's resources, indeed | that Austria feared that it had laiC l the beginning of a new European state that might grow sufficiently I strong to resist her own plans of az grandizement. Austria held a large Serbian population under her yoke 1T Bosnia and Herzegovina; these Ser.
 bians desired, above everything else annexation to their own country | Moreover, the Pan-German plans 1T
 the East necessitated the destruction
 of Serbia, the state which, so long al
 it stood intact, blocked the Germanit
 road to the East. It had been tht
 Austro-German expectation that th'
 Balkan war would destroy Serbia as
 nation-that Turkey would simply an
 nihilate King Peters forces. This wa
 precisely what the Germanic plan
 demanded, and for this reason Aus
 tria and Germany did nothing to pre-
 vent the Balkan wars. But the reSul
 was exactly the reverse: out of tn
 conflict arose a stronger Serbia thai
 ever, tsanding firm like a breakwate
 against the Germanic path. Most his |, torians agree that the Treaty of Blu
 charest made inevitable this war.
 have the Marquis Pa1lavicini's evi
 dence that this was likewise the opin ion of Francis Joseph himself Tn
 audience at which the Emperor mad this statement was held in May, nor than 8 month before the assassinatio, of the Archduke. Clearly, therefore the war would have come irrespectiv , of the calamity at Sarajevo. Ina
 merely served as the conveient pre-
 text for the war upon which the Cen
 tral Empires had already decided"