Count Czernin, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, spoke at Vienna on
the same day as Count Hertling was speaking in Berlin. He adopted a most conciliatory tone, doubtless by pre- arrangement with his ally, and began by -declaring in regard to Russia that he still wanted peace without annexations or indem- nities. " I demand not a square metre nor a kreutzer from Russia." He desired, he said, nothing from Poland, whose people " must freely, and without being influenced in any way, settle their own destiny." Germany and Russia must and would arrange their differences in regard to the Baltic Provinces. President Wilson' peace offer, he said, was " an appreciable approach " to the Austrian standpoint. But Austria would defend Germany's possession of Belgium or Turkey's integrity as she would fight for her own lands. He would politely but categorically refuse advice as to Austria Hungary's internal administration, or, in plain words, would decline to free the South Slays.
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