Plans Great New Empire?

New York Times 100 years ago today, December 27, 1912:
Heir to Austrian Throne Said to be Arranging a Slav Confederacy.
    PARIS, Friday, Dec. 27.— According to the Vienna correspondent of The Journal, a friend, of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, is responsible for the disclosure of an ambitious plan which the Archduke has conceived and is now actively endeavoring to make effective. If the plan is successful, it is expected to have the effect of completely breaking up at one stroke the political forms and system of alliances of the Europe of to-day.
    In a word, the Archduke aims at the creation of a vast Slav empire of the south under the crown of the Hapsburgs. The Archduke has now in preparation a coup d'etat in Austria-Hungary to clear the way for the first part of his programme, which is the liberation of the discontented and ill-assorted peoples who form the monarchy. Having thus made a clean sweep of the existing political conditions, he will proceed with the work of building up, by restoring the ancient and historical kingdoms, and founding new principalities.
    The confederation, according to the same authority, is to include the autonomous kingdoms of Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland, each with its own personal ruler; Servia, with its frontiers extended by recent victories, and still further increased by the inclusion of Slavonia; Montenegro, enlarged by a part of Dalmatia, and part of Herzegovina, and the other Balkan States.
    Poland is said to have been quick to grasp the plan, and has signified unanimous adhesion. Bulgaria is favorably disposed, and active pourparlers are now going on between King Ferdinand and Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Servia, it is also said, is beginning to realize the advantages of the scheme.