Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 33. (1980)
LIANG, Hsi-Huey: International Cooperation of Political Police in Europe, 1815–1914. An Essay Based on Some Austrian Archival Sources
International Cooperation of Political Police 215 The chances, as Grey saw them, of saving the peace through an Austro-Ser- bian police agreement were remote. In fact, the Austrians themselves as the most interested party were probably aware that it was too late to replace Europe’s traditional system of competition for power with a system of interstate collaboration in matters of internal security. International cooperation had failed to preserve the peace in the Balkans in 1912, the Austrian ambassador to Constantinople, Pallavicini, had written to his minister on 6 July, 1914: „ ... und die Hauptursache hiervon scheint mir darin zu liegen, daß alle Cabinette von dem Princip ausgegangen sind, nicht selbständig vorzugehen, sondern nur nach präalablem Einvernehmen zu handeln“ 78). International action, Pallavicini warned, was always a cumbersome process lacking in homogeneity and sincerity. „Und so war denn alles, was von Europa nach mühseligen Verhandlungen beschlossen wurde, lediglich Flickwerk ohne Lebenskraft“79). The basis for a European-wide agreement that could create true international responsibility for each country’s survival did not exist according to a 12-page memorandum in the Austrian Foreign Ministry files: „Nur von der Verantwortlichkeit dem eigenen Volke gegenüber kann ernstlich die Rede sein - von einer Verantwortlichkeit gegenüber Europa aber schon darum gar nicht, weil es ein Europa nicht gibt“80). The above can be no more than a sketch of some historical issues which a multi-national study of European police in the modern period would touch upon. Not treated in this essay, but of equal importance in future investigations, is the question of the performance of European police forces in times of domestic revolution and - often simultaneously - during revisions of the political frontiers of states, in other words belligerent occupation and annexation. The documents in the Austrian Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv for the postwar period leave no doubt about the many interesting questions raised by the Austrian police’s activities following the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918. Should local Austrian officials — including police - in the interest of the welfare of local inhabitants have remained at their posts in South Tyrol despite the likelihood of Italian annexation81)? Should the Austrian police have rendered assistance to the new governments of the successor states to strengthen the peace settlement of Saint Germain, even though this peace was built on the Austrian defeat in the world war82)? 7S) Pallavicini to Berchtold, Constantinople, 6 July 1914: ibid. fol. 216r-217v. 79) Ibid. 80) Memoire des Herrn Berthold Molden über die Situation, 6 July 1914: HHStA PA I 811, fol. 381 r. 81) Deutschösterreichisches Staatsamt für Äußeres to Deutschösterreichisches Staatsamt für Justiz, Vienna, 13 May 1919: HHStA Neues Politisches Archiv 439, Liasse Deutschösterreich 26/1, fol. 2 v, 4r. 82) Johannes Schober, Polizeidirektion Wien, to Staatskanzler, Staatssekretär des
