LIZATION.

Statement in House of Commons by Prime Minister Asquith, Aug. 1.

We have just heard, not from St. Petersburg but from Germany, that
Russia has proclaimed a general mobilization of her army and fleet,
and in consequence of this martial law is to be proclaimed in Germany.

We understand this to mean that mobilization will follow in Germany if
the Russian mobilization is general and is proceeded with.

In these circumstances I should prefer not to answer any further
question until Monday.

* * * * *

THE GERMAN INVASION.

Editorial Article of The London Times, Aug. 3.

The die is cast. The great European struggle which the nations have so
long struggled to avert has begun. Germany declared war upon Russia on
Saturday evening, and yesterday her troops entered Luxemburg and crossed
the French frontier in Lorraine without any declaration at all. It is
idle to dwell upon events such as these. They speak for themselves in a
fashion which all can understand. They mean that Europe is to be the
scene of the most terrible war that she has witnessed since the fall of
the Roman Empire. The losses in human life and in the accumulated wealth
of generations which such a contest must involve are frightful to think
on. That it should have come about despite the zealous efforts of
diplomacy, and against the wishes of almost all the nations whom it is
destined to afflict, is a grim satire upon the professions of peace yet
fresh upon the lips of those who have plunged the Continent into its
miseries and its calamities. The blame must fall mainly upon Germany.
She could have stayed the plague had she chosen to speak in Vienna as
she speaks when she is in earnest. She has not chosen to do so. She has
preferred to make demands in St. Petersburg and in Paris which no
Government could entertain, and to defeat by irrevocable acts the last
efforts of this country and of others for mediation. She has lived up to
the worst principles of the Frederician tradition--the tradition which
disregards all obligations of right and wrong at the bidding of
immediate self-interest. She believes that her admirable military
organization has enabled her to steal a march upon her rivals. She has
been mobilizing in all but name, while their mobilization has been
retarded by the "conversations" she continued until her moment had come.
Then she flung the mask aside. While her Ambassador was still in Paris,