The message that Smuts conveyed to the Austrians was indicative of the British self-conception at the time. If Austria would abandon Germany, Smuts assured the Austrian envoy, London would ‘assist Austria’ in giving ‘the greatest freedom and autonomy to her subject nationalities . . .’. ‘If Austria could become a really liberal empire . . . she would become for central Europe very much what the British Empire had become for the rest of the world . . .’, a benevolent liberal guardian.80 It was a fantasy no doubt, but one that had taken on real force.
