Now this common objective, this geographical, military and political crux of all the problems which the Allies have to solve, is represented by Austria-Hungary. On that subject the diplomacy of the Allies, thanks again to M. Briand and his colleagues, appears to have entered on the right path. The _Matin_ of 4th February, 1916, reported the reception by M. Briand of Professor Masaryk, one of the most highly esteemed leaders of Bohemia. In reference to this meeting the _Matin_ added the following significant words, which deserve to be borne in mind: “M. Briand encouraged M. Masaryk to persevere in his propaganda, and expressed to him his good wishes and his sympathy with the legitimate claims of the Czech-Slovak people.” But Bohemia is the corner-stone of that group of non-German peoples included in Austria-Hungary, whose independence is one of the conditions indispensable to the destruction of Prussian militarism. Therefore public opinion in the Allied countries should henceforth clearly understand the close relation which, as I have shown above, exists between the little understood question of Austria-Hungary and the end of the Pangerman nightmare. It will then have a fresh and extremely powerful reason for the conviction, that the complete victory, which the Pangerman plan renders indispensable for the Allies, cannot fail to be theirs, provided they set their heart on it and avoid further mistakes. II. In Austria-Hungary lies the crucial point of the European and even of the world-wide problem raised by the German aggression, because: 1. Austria-Hungary has entered into the struggle in very peculiar circumstances. This State is not an enemy of the Allies, except at the bidding of the Hapsburg dynasty, which, by yielding to the injunctions of Berlin, has betrayed its own peoples. In fact, Francis Joseph declared war without even daring to consult his parliament, for he knew very well that nearly three-fourths of his subjects, sympathizing with Russia, France, and England, and being definitely hostile to Germany, would have opposed, by the voice of their representatives, any sanguinary conflict destined to turn to the advantage of Germanism. 2. It is manifest that Germany cannot maintain a war against Europe except with the help of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers, whom she has dexterously contrived to enlist in her cause, and of whom the vast majority only fight because they are forced to do so by the brutal German Staff Officers who command them. 3. It is clear that after the peace, if Germany were to evacuate all the territories she now occupies in the East and the West, to restore Alsace-Lorraine to France, and yet to keep her hold, more or less disguised, on Austria-Hungary, Berlin would possess all the means for retaking, after a short delay, Alsace-Lorraine from France, since, as we saw in the foregoing chapter, the German hold on Austria-Hungary inevitably implies the accomplishment of the scheme “from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf.”