Conversations were
initiated immediately after July 23, for the purpose of giving a new
lease of life to the treaty which had been violated and thereby annulled
by the act of Austria-Hungary.
This object could be attained only by the conclusion of new agreements.
The conversations were renewed, with additional propositions as the
basis, in December 1914. The Italian Ambassador at Vienna at that time
received instructions to inform Count Berchtold, the Austro-Hungarian
Minister for Foreign Affairs, that the Italian Government considered it
necessary to proceed without delay to an exchange of views and
consequently to concrete negotiations with the Austro-Hungarian
Government concerning the complex situation arising out of the conflict
which that Government had provoked.
Count Berchtold at first refused. He declared that the time had not
arrived for negotiations. Subsequently, upon our rejoinder, in which the
German Government united, Count Berchtold agreed to exchange views as
suggested. We promptly declared, as one of our fundamental objects, that
the compensation on which the agreement should be based should relate to
territories at the time under the dominion of Austria-Hungary.
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