ROUMANIA 1 My appointment as ambassador to Bucharest in the autumn of 1913 came as a complete surprise to me, and was much against my wishes.

The initiative in the matter came from the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

I had never had any doubt that sooner or later the Archduke would take part in politics, but it took me by surprise that he should do so in the Emperor Francis Joseph's lifetime.
A great difference of opinion prevailed then in Vienna on the Roumanian question, a pro-Roumanian spirit fighting against an anti-Roumanian one.

The head of the former party was the Archduke Franz, and with him, though in less marked degree, was Berchtold.
Tisza was the leader on the other side, and carried with him almost the entire Hungarian Parliament.

The pro-Roumanians wished Roumania to be more closely linked to the Monarchy; the others, to replace that alliance by one with Bulgaria; but both were unanimous in seeking for a clear knowledge of how matters stood with the alliance, and whether we had a friend or a foe on the other side of the Carpathians.