Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 35. (1982)
WILSON, Keith: Isolating the Isolator. Cartwright, Grey and the seduction of Austria-Hungary 1908–1912
172 Keith Wilson to be to keep Germany isolated .. 14). He put the same idea before Sir Edward Grey, minuting in no uncertain terms on the diary kept by the War Minister, Haldane, of his visit to Berlin in September 1906, against von' Tschirschky’s claim that as the German army and navy were fixed in size she would be in a difficult position ‘if she stood alone’: ‘Nothing could be better from a British point of view, if it is considered important that the British people should realise that Wilhelm II who is a medieval despotic reactionary and the “War Lord” and also should stick in the nostrils of every pure Liberal is the one danger to European peace. Why should a Liberal government let him down easy?’15). It was, however, only after Tyrrell, a rather more subtle and less categorical type than Mallet, had succeeded the latter as Private Secretary to Sir Edward Grey, that this line was so systemically elaborated, with particular reference to Anglo-Austrian relations and the place of Austria-Hungary in the alliance systems, that it had to be considered on its merits, and a response formulated and maintained. In The Position of Austria-Hungary in International Politics Cartwright attempted to make a case that ‘force of habit’ had come to determine Austro- Hungarian foreign policy since the death of Count Andrássy in 1872, and that this force of habit could be changed, if only the will to do so could be created in Vienna and London. He saw no reason why the effaced position of Austria-Hungary in European politics should be accepted as an inevitable necessity, why she should necessarily lean upon Germany, or why she should not pursue a foreign policy of her own. That she currently exerted as little influence as she did upon the destinies of Central Europe he considered ‘not natural but artificial’. Encouraged by Britain’s recent and apparently successful settlement of long-standing differences with Russia, he believed a similar settlement of Austro-Russian differences in the Balkans might be engineered: ‘Great Britain seems at present the Power indicated through whom this rapprochement can be brought about, and it would be apathy on our part if we allowed the tradition to continue to exist that this can only be accomplished through Berlin’. Anticipating the accession to the throne of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Cartwright looked to him to restore the balance between Catholic and Protestant influence in Europe which had been so gravely disturbed in 1866 and 1870: ‘It might be possible to inspire the Archduke with the desire, when he comes to the throne, of playing the role of the great Catholic Sovereign of the world. The increase of Slav and Hungarian influences in the Austrian Empire and the decline of German influence, socially and politically, give an opening for sowing the seed which will lead to a revival of the ambitions of the House of Habsburg, and to a consciousness in the Emperor that the opportunity again lies open before him to exercise a dominating influence in Central European affairs.’ 14) PRO FO 800/170 (Bertie MSS): Mallet to Bertie 2 June 1904. ls) PRO FO 800/102 (Grey MSS): Minute by Mallet on Haldane Diary 2 September 1906.
