314 



DISCOVERY 



and the policy adopted in the one case will vitally 

 affect development in the other. 



The following works, dealing wholly or in part with Central 

 Australia, will be found useful and interesting : 



J. W. Gregory: The Dead Heart of Australia {1906). 

 Spencer: Narrative of the Horn Expedition (1896). 

 Spencer and Gillen : Across Australia (1912). 

 T. E. Day; "Explorations in Central Australia" [Bulletin 



of the Northern Territory, No, 20, 1916). 

 J. J. Waldron : Central Australia (19 16). 

 Griffith Taylor: Australian Meteorology (1920); also his 



article in Meredith Atkinson's Australia (1920). 

 The reader might also refer to the columns of The Tunes 

 (July II, 16, 17, 1922) for particulars of Mr. McCallum's 

 recent transcontinental journey ; the South Australian Register 

 (May 5, 1922) and The Times (November 3, 1922) for an account 

 of a recent report on the proposed transcontinental railway ; 

 and Professor Hudson-Beare's presidential address on " Aus- 

 tralian Railway Problems," at the British Association's recent 

 meeting at Hull. 



Revelations Concerning 

 the Triple Alliance 



By R. B. Mowat, M.A. 



Felhiv and Assistant Tutor of Corpus Chrisli College, Oxford 



Till the fall of the Habsburg Empire the Triple Alliance 

 was a mystery to the European public. Its contents 

 had never been officially published, and no definite 

 knowledge of it had leaked out from the diplomatists. 

 For years it kept the curiosity of historians on edge, 

 and the most ingenious attempts were made in France, 

 Russia, Italy, and elsewhere, both by professional 

 students and publicists, to reconstruct its terms from 

 information contained in contemporary history. But 

 all the essays and monographs came to very little 

 result : and meantime those statesmen and the official 

 world of the " Triplice " remained perfectly impassive ; 

 nothing was divulged, and none of the challenging 

 statements made by outsiders was contradicted. 

 Down to the outbreak of war nothing was known — 

 " an honourable testimony to the discretion of a 

 class against whom the reproach of indiscretion has 

 so often, and not unjustly, been made." 



Even during the European War very little know- 

 ledge of the Triple Alliance came to light. In May 

 1915, after the entry of Italy into the war against 

 the other two great members of the Triplice, the 

 Austrian Government published four articles (Nos. I, 

 III, IV, and VII). But nothing was said about the 

 other articles, nor was there anything to indicate 

 whether this was the only treaty forming the Triple 

 Alliance. When Rumania entered the war in 1916, 

 she surprised historians by stating in her manifesto 

 that she had been a member of the Triplice, which, 



however, she considered to have been dissolved when 

 Italy declared war upon Austria in 1915. 



When at the end of the war the revolution occurred 

 in Vienna and the Habsburg regime disappeared, 

 the Austrian State Archives were opened to that 

 eminent writer on diplomatic history, Professor 

 Pribram. The result of his researches was a work 

 entitled The Secret Treaties of Austria- Hungary, con- 

 taining both the texts and a history of the negotiations 

 which produced these texts. That part of Professor 

 Pribram's work which gives the texts of the various 

 treaties has been published, with a translation, by the 

 Harvard University Press. Thus through Professor 

 Pribram's work the veil has at last been lifted, and the 

 whole body of the Triplice exposed to view. 



From the account now before the public (an account 

 which has not attracted the attention which it deserved) 

 two facts stand out pre-eminent. One is, that the 

 Triple Alliance contained not one, but several treaties 

 at the same time. The second fact is, that it was 

 never a very stable nor a very potent alliance, but 

 that the really important diplomatic instrument was 

 the Dual Alliance of 1879 between Germany and 

 Austria, out of which the Triplice grew, but which 

 was never superseded by the Triplice. To show the 

 importance of the Dual Alliance it need only be said 

 that it was according to its terms (not those of the 

 Triplice) that Germany supported, and went to war 

 on the side of, Austria in the crisis of summer 1914. 



The text of the Dual Alliance has long been known. 

 The circumstances out of which it aros2 are also 

 known. Prussia, by the war of 1S66, had driven 

 Austria out of the Germanic system. Henceforth 

 Austria ceased to have influence in Germany ; at 

 the same time she had lost her Italian provinces ; 

 there was no other path of ambition left to her but to 

 exploit her Balkan claims. Nevertheless, although 

 impotent in Germany, Austria was still a powerful 

 military state, with an admirable strategical position 

 in Central Europe. Hence her friendship and alli- 

 ance, if they could be secured, were very important 

 to Prussia. On the other hand, Prussia's friendship 

 was important to Austria, always in danger of war 

 with Italy (over the Trentino) or with Russia (over 

 Galicia or over some Balkan question). 



Bismarck would have liked to be friends both with 

 Russia and Austria ; but if he had had to choose 

 between the two, he would have taken Austria, 

 because Austria was the only Power who would have 

 supported him in the war that he expected to come 

 any day with France. 



It so happened that by the year 1879 Russia was 

 on rather bad terms both with the German and the 

 Austrian Empires. Bismarck had been very dis- 

 pleased by the Russian Government's coolness (not 



