On July 29 Count Berchtold stated to the Duke of Avarna that he was
not inclined to enter into any engagement concerning the eventual
conduct of Austria in the case of a conflict with Serbia.

Where is, then, the treason, the iniquity, the surprise, if, after
nine months of vain efforts to reach an honorable understanding which
recognized in equitable measure our rights and our liberties, we
resumed liberty of action? The truth is that Austria and Germany
believed until the last days that they had to deal with an Italy weak,
blustering, but not acting, capable of trying blackmail, but not
enforcing by arms her good right, with an Italy which could be
paralyzed by spending a few millions, and which by dealings which she
could not avow was placing herself between the country and the
Government. [Very loud cheers.]

I will not deny the benefits of the alliance; benefits, however, not
one-sided, but accruing to all the contracting parties, and perhaps
not more to us than to the others. The continued suspicions and the
aggressive intentions of Austria against Italy are notorious and are
authentically proved. The Chief of the General Staff, Baron Conrad von
Hoetzendorf, always maintained that war against Italy was inevitable,
either on the question of the irredentist provinces or from jealousy,
that Italy intended to aggrandize herself as soon as she was prepared,
and meanwhile opposed everything that Austria wished to undertake in
the Balkans, and consequently it was necessary to humiliate her in
order that Austria might have her hands free, and he deplored that
Italy had not been attacked in 1907. Even the Austrian Minister of
Foreign Affairs recognized that in the military party the opinion was
prevalent that Italy must be suppressed by war because from the
Kingdom of Italy came the attractive force of the Italian provinces of
the empire, and consequently by a victory over the kingdom and its
political annihilation all hope for the irredentists would cease.

[Illustration: GENERAL KONRAD VON HOETZENDORF

On the Staff of the Archduke Eugene in the Campaign Against Italy]

[Illustration: THE ARCHDUKE EUGENE

Titular Commander in Chief of the Austrian Forces Operating Against
Italy]

We see now on the basis of documents how our allies aided us in the
Lybian undertaking. The operations brilliantly begun by the Duke of
the Abruzzi against the Turkish torpedo boats encountered at Preveza
were stopped by Austria in a su