Editing Tegetthoff-class battleship (section)

=== Secrecy ===
[[File:The construction of SMS Szent Istvan.webm|thumb|300px|Film about the construction of ''Szent István'' at the Ganz-Danubius shipyard in Fiume in 1912|alt=A large battleship undergoing construction in a shipyard. The ship's hull is launched with a crowd of people watching.|left]]

Montecuccoli's plans for the battleships gained approval from Emperor Franz Joseph&nbsp;I in January 1909, and by April plans for the ships' design, construction, and financing in the face of the ongoing budget crisis in Budapest were already being laid out.{{sfn|Sondhaus|1994|p=183}} Upon learning that Austria-Hungary was planning or currently building a class of dreadnoughts, the [[British Admiralty]] considered the project "as a concealed addition to the German fleet" and interpreted the ships as Austria-Hungary's way of repaying Germany for her diplomatic support during the former's [[Bosnian Annexation Crisis|annexation of Bosnia]] in 1908.{{sfn|Bridge|2002|p=330}} During the spring and summer of 1909, the United Kingdom was [[Anglo-German naval arms race#British reaction|locked in a heated naval arms race]] with Germany which led the Royal Navy to look upon the Austro-Hungarian ships as a ploy by German Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz to outpace British naval construction, rather than the latest development in Austria-Hungary's own naval arms race with Italy. The Admiralty's concerns regarding the true purpose of the ships were so great that a British spy was dispatched to Berlin when Montecuccoli sent the officer to obtain recommendations from Tirpitz regarding the design and layout of the ''Tegetthoff''-class ships.{{sfn|Koudelka|1987|pp=116–118}}

These concerns continued to grow and in April 1909 British Ambassador [[Fairfax Leighton Cartwright]] asked Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister [[Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal]] about the rumored battleships. Aehrenthal denied the construction of the ''Tegetthoff'' class, but admitted that plans to construct a class of dreadnoughts were being considered. In an attempt to assure Cartwright that Austria-Hungary was not constructing any ships for the German Navy, Aehrenthal justified any naval expansion as being necessary to secure Austria-Hungary's strategic interests in the Mediterranean. At the time, the potential of Austria-Hungary constructing four dreadnought battleships was widely regarded among the British press, public, and politicians as a provocation on the part of Germany.{{sfn|Vego|1996|pp=57–58}} Neither the Admiralty's suspicions, nor those of some politicians, managed to convince the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]] that the German government was attempting to use the ''Tegetthoff'' class to escalate Germany and Britain's already contentious naval arms race. When [[Winston Churchill]] was appointed [[First Lord of the Admiralty]] in 1911, he rejected any potential Austro-German collusion regarding the battleships.{{sfn|Halpern|1971|p=41}}

For a full year, the Austro-Hungarian Navy attempted to keep the project a [[Classified information|state secret]]. This did not prevent rumors about their construction of a series of dreadnought battleships from circulating across Europe. The French Naval [[Attaché]] in Vienna complained to Paris in 1910 of extensive secrecy within the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which manifested itself in several ways. Among these were a ban on photography at Pola, future home port of the ''Tegetthoff'' class, and near-constant observation by the Austro-Hungarian police.{{sfn|Halpern|1971|p=160}} Roughly a year after the project began, the ''Arbeiter-Zeitung'', the Austrian Social Democratic Party newspaper, reported the details of the battleships to the general public.{{sfn|Vego|1996|pp=61–62}} The [[Christian Social Party (Austria)|Christian Social Party]], supportive of the construction of the ships and operating on the advice of the navy, published in its own newspaper, ''Reichspost'', that the secret dreadnought project and related financial agreements were true. The ''Reichspost'' lobbied in support of the project, citing Austria-Hungary's national security concerns with an Italian dreadnought already under construction. When the story broke Archduke Ferdinand also worked to build public support for the battleships, and the small but growing Austrian Navy League did the same.{{sfn|Sondhaus|1994|p=194}}{{sfn|Halpern|1971|pp=156, 160}}