ght to nine
days had to elapse before the beginning of the war. Let us see whether
Sir Edward Grey used this time to preserve peace, according to his
own documents.

From this testimony it appears that even at the beginning of the last
and decisive part of the European crisis, which began on June 28, 1914,
with the assassination of the Austrian heir to the throne, Sir Edward
Grey refrained from considering a direct participation of his country in
the possible world war. At least, this must be the impression gained
from his remarks to the representatives of the two powers with whom
England is today at war. Thus, he said to the Austro-Hungarian
Ambassador, Count Mensdorff, on July 23:

The possible consequences of the present situation were terrible.
If as many as four great powers of Europe--let us say Austria,
France, Russia, and Germany--were engaged in war, it seemed to me
that it must involve the expenditure of so vast a sum of money and
such an interference with trade that a war would be accompanied or
followed by a complete collapse of European credit and
industry.--(British "White Paper" No. 3.)

Here Grey speaks only of four of the big powers at most that may go to
war, without even hinting at the fifth, namely, England. On July 24 he
had another conversation with the Austrian Ambassador, the theme of
which was the note--meanwhile presented to Servia. It caused
apprehensions on his part, but he declared again:

The merits of the dispute between Austria and Servia were not the
concern of his Majesty's Government....

I [Grey] ended by saying that doubtless we should enter into an
exchange of views with other powers, and that I must await their
views as to what could be done to mitigate the difficulties of the
situation.--(British "White Paper" No. 5.)

We are already striking the fateful peculiarity of Grey's policy to
hesitate where prompt action, or at least a clear and open conduct,
would have been his duty. This weakness of his nature has been used with
great art by French and Russian diplomacy. This is illustrated by the
conversation of July 24 between him and the French Ambassador, Cambon,
in London:

M. Cambon said that, if there was a chance of mediation by the four
powers he had no doubt that his Government would be glad to join
in it; but he pointed out that we could not say anything in St.
Petersburg till Russi