In the second place, we were dependent upon Germany owing to the state of our food supply.
Again and again we were here also forced to beg for help from Germany, because the complete disorganisation of our own administration had brought us to the most desperate straits.

We were forced to this by the hunger blockade established, on the one hand, by Hungary, and on the other by the official authorities and their central depots.

I remember how, when I myself was in the midst of a violent conflict with the German delegates at Brest-Litovsk, I received orders from Vienna to bow the knee to Berlin and beg for food.

You can imagine, gentlemen, for yourselves how such a state of things must weaken a Minister's hands.

And, thirdly, our dependence was due to the state of our finances.