Njegovan continued Haus' strategy of preserving his major forces as a 'fleet in being'. However, he was unable to ease ethnic tensions on individual warships, where sailors were also influenced by radical agitators. Another pressing problem for which Njegovan could find no solution involved shortages of food, fuel and other vital supplies. In the face of such difficulties, in 1917 Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Kaiser Karl I of Austria proposed an unrealistic plan for an invasion of Venice using the whole fleet. Njegovan steadfastly opposed the proposal, which eventually was dropped.