COUNT GUSTAV SIEGMUND

See also:

• COUNT GUSTAV SIEGMUND KALNOKY (1832–1898)

KALNOKY (1832–1898)  , Austro-Hungarian statesman, was born at Lettowitz, in Moravia, on the 29th of December 1832, of an old Transylvanian family which had held countly rank in Hungary from the 17th century . After spending some years in a hussar regiment, in 1854 he entered the diplomatic service without giving up his connexion with the army, in which he reached the rank of general in 1879 . He was for the ten years 186o to 1870 secretary of embassy at London, and then, after serving at Rome and Copenhagen, was in 188o appointed ambassador at St Petersburg . His success in Russia procured for him, on the death of Baron v . Haymerle in 1881, the appointment of minister of foreign affairs for Austria-Hungary, a post which he held for fourteen years . Essentially a diplomatist, he took little or no part in the vexed internal affairs of the Dual Monarchy, and he came little before the public except at the annual statement on foreign affairs before the Delegations . His management of the affairs of his department was, however, very successful; he confirmed and maintained the alliance with Germany, which had been formed by his predecessors, and co-operated with Bismarck in the arrangements by which Italy joined the affiance . Kaln6ky's special influence was seen in the improvement of Austrian relations with Russia, following on the meeting of the three emperors in September 1884 at Skiernevice, at which he was present . His Russophile policy caused some adverse criticism in Hungary . His friendliness for Russia did not, however, prevent him from strengthening the position of Austria as against Russia in the Balkan Peninsula by the establishment of a closer political and commercial understanding with Servia and Rumania . In 1885 he interfered after the battle of Slivnitza to arrest the advance of the Bulgarians on Belgrade, but he lost influence in Servia after the abdication of King Milan . Though he kept aloof from the Clerical party, Kaln6ky was a strong Catholic; and his sympathy for the difficulties of the Church caused adverse comment in Italy, when, in 1891, he stated in a speech before the Delegations that the question of the position of the pope was still unsettled .

He subsequently explained that by this he did not refer to the

Roman question, which was permanently settled, but to the possibility of the pope leaving Rome . The jealousy felt in Hungary against the Ultramontanes led to his fall . In 1895 a case of clerical interference in the internal affairs of Hungary by the nuncio Agliardi aroused a strong protest in the Hungarian parliament, and consequent differences between Banffy, the Hungarian minister, and the minister for foreign affairs led to Kaln6ky's resignation . He died on the 13th of February 1898 at PrShcitz in Moravia .