The Copenhagen correspondent of the " Daily Mail" telegraphed the following message which was published on February 1.
From a most trustworthy and well-informed source in Berlin I have received the following statement regarding the negotiations between the German statesmen and Baron Burian, the new Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, who has recently visited the German Imperial Chancellor in Berlin and the German Emperor at the Army Headquarters in France.
Baron Burian, whose sole object is to save what can be saved of the Dual Monarchy, represented to the Germans that the situation in Austria is precarious, and that if the Russian advance on Budapest is not stopped the effect may very probably be the downfall of Austria, and more particularly the complete collapse of Hungary, which must later entail as its logical sequence also the downfall of Germany.
Therefore, Baron Burian urged, the Russians must at all costs be repulsed and Germany must send large reinforcements to Hungary to prevent a catastrophe. In any case, he said, it was doubtful if it would be possible for them to resist the Russians and the Servians, and perhaps also the Rumanians, and therefore it was necessary seriously to examine the question of peace.
'A definite defeat would mean a debacle for Austria-Hungary and would mean the partition of the Empire. His advice to Germany was to consider most seriously the possibilities of a tolerable peace. He would not conceal the fact that no doubt ® condition rine qua non of the Allies would be a partial dis armament of Europe, which would, of course, include Germany, because a peace that was nothing but a trace for a term of years could not be acceptable to the Allies, however ardently they might wish for peace.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.