The German Social Democrats never agreed that Alsace-Lorraine ought to be given up, and never have our Social Democrats voted for ceding Trieste, Bozen and Meran.

This would in any case have been the price of peace--and also the price of a separate peace--for, as I have already pointed out, at the conference in London, which dates back to 1915, binding obligations had been entered into for the partition of the Monarchy, while all that had been promised to Italy.
The fall of the Monarchy was quite inevitable, whether through the separation from Germany or through the vacillation in the Entente ranks--for the claims of the Italians, the Roumanians, the Serbians, and the Czechs had all been granted.

In any case the Monarchy would have fallen and German-Austria have arisen as she has done now; and I doubt whether the part played by that country during the proceedings would have recommended it to the special protection of the Entente.
It is a very great mistake, whether conscious or unconscious, to believe and to maintain that the population of German-Austria, and especially the present leaders of Social Democracy, are devoid of any strong national feeling.

I refer to the part played by the Austrian Social Democracy in the question of union.

It was the motive power in the union with Germany, and the papers repeated daily that no material advantages which the Entente could offer to Austria could alter the decision.