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Updated: June 3, 2025
As a step toward immediate peace the speech of the Fourteen Points failed. What might have been the result had von Hertling, Chancellor of Germany, and Czernin, in Austria, possessed full powers, it is difficult to say. But the military masters of Germany could not resist the temptation which the surrender of Russia brought before their eyes.
Cossack rebellions under Kaledin and Kornilov broke out on the Don and under Dutoff in the Urals; and Scherbachev collected a mixed anti-Bolshevik force on the borders of the Ukraine. But peace negotiations began between the Germans and Bolsheviks at Brest-Litovsk on the 22nd. The plausible German Foreign Secretary, Von Kühlmann, presided, and Austria was represented by Count Czernin.
On February 12 thus, after the conclusion of the Brest peace the President, in his speech to Congress, said: Count Czernin appears to have a clear understanding of the peace foundations and does not obscure their sense.
All that Count Czernin could do was to obtain a guarantee that Roumania, in case of cession of the Dobrudsha, should at least be granted a sure way to the harbour of Kustendje. In the main the Dobrudsha question was decided at Buftea. George's branch was to be ceded.
As regards the negotiations with Russia, we declare that Count Czernin does not represent the nations of Austria and has no right to speak in our name; he is merely the plenipotentiary of the dynasty. The old Austria, based on police, bureaucracy, militarism and racial tyranny, cannot survive this war. We also want peace, but it must be a just peace.
The Austrian minister, Count Czernin, replied for the Central Powers, accepting more of the Russian program than had been expected, but rejecting the principle of a free plebiscite for national groups not hitherto independent, and conditioning the whole on the acceptance by the Allies of the offer of general peace. The conference called on the Allies for an answer by January 4.
In Austria-Hungary there are two noble Vermeers; one in the private gallery of Count Czernin, the portrait of the painter, the other in the Museum of Budapest, the portrait of a woman, the latter as solidly modelled as any Hals I ever viewed. It is a masterpiece. In it he grazes perfection. The United States is, considering the brevity of the list, well off in Vermeers. At Boston Mrs.
Count Czernin held that the Germans overlooked the possibility of lowering the consumption in England, taking into consideration the fact that since the war consumption in the countries of the Central Powers had been reduced by half. Further, Count Czernin referred to the very vague and by no means convincing data of the German naval authorities.
He has studied John Sargent to advantage and knows how to handle his medium, knows values, an unknown art in Germany and Austria except to a few painters. The glory of Vienna art is in her museums and in the private collections of Prince Liechtenstein and Count Czernin.
This decision again led to bad feeling in Bulgaria, but was unavoidable, as further demands here would probably have upset the preliminary peace again. The proceedings had reached this stage when Count Czernin resigned his office. =Wilson's Fourteen Points=
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