Sunday

Having heard that I was leaving, Herr Karl Renner came in this afternoon for a few last words. Obviously, and how natural it was, he wished to draw me out, but of course I stood by my instructions. “I came with a message and I have delivered it. Of course I shall be pleased to carry to Paris any suggestions you may care to make. I am sure they will be considered sympathetically by Colonel House and I believe by others who fully appreciate your unfortunate position.” This pleased him and he said:

“We Austrian Germans are having a Very difficult decision forced upon us. Our first thought, as we emerged from the ruins of the Empire, was to set about the building of a new country which should be a federation of free states. But if the other nationalities that were comprised in the old Austrian Monarchy do not co-operate economically and should threaten our undoubted right to self-determination, and it looks that way today, the conclusion is forced upon us that it might be wiser to join up with the German realm as an autonomous state, and that is what Botho Wedel promises us. Allize, the French Minister, wants us to combine with a Bavaria emancipated from Prussian control. And that might be a way out, too, but of course the objective of Allize is the security of France—naturally—and what we are striving for is freedom and social development along democratic lines for our own people. Would we find that in Bavaria? I doubt it. And what are we to say to the Sudeten Germans? Some of them want to join with us and are very greatly afraid of the Czechs. Having been on top in the Bohemian Hills for so long, it would be unpleasant for them to play the role of the underdog. But would it be right to invite several million poverty-stricken people into our own Findel-Anstalt (home for foundlings)?

“Whatever the decision as to our future may be, whether it is one of free choice or as a result of coercion, it bristles with difficulties, and this I hope you will endeavor to make plain. Few of our people are enthusiastic about union with North Germany. We have learned to know those people both in war and peace. Such a union would block our former channels of commerce and overwhelm our struggling industries. We would be confronted by new and untried commercial conditions. How would it work out? Of course no one knows.

“But, on the other hand, union would give us compensating political and social advantages. At least, so it seems; we would be safeguarded from national and racial conflicts and so be able to concentrate on the tasks that await all Germans, for as the war years have demonstrated, both here and in the north, our people are but little versed in the art of self-government. We want to live and we want to learn. Thank God, America is saving us from starvation but that may prove a poor boon indeed, unless we are given an opportunity to redeem our senseless past.”

I begged poor Renner to be of good courage. I offered him my deepest sympathy! I could do no more, although I was well aware of how little was the value of sympathy in the actual situation. His unfortunate people are facing dark days!