s forestalled it and so the decision was never arrived at.
Thus Russia destroyed the last hope of peace; the Chancellor falsely led
his hearers to believe that it was a certain hope and that the European
peace would have been saved.

It is useless to choose one's words in writing of German diplomacy. This
is a base lie. Austria arrived at her decision previous to sending her
ultimatum to Serbia. This momentous decision was, that Russia had no
right to intervene in the quarrel, which means, in other words, that
Russia had absolutely no right to speak or use her influence in a crisis
affecting the destiny of the Slavonic peoples, neither had Russia any
right to move in a crisis which would disturb the balance of power in
the Balkans and in Europe. It was merely these rights which Russia
throughout the crisis endeavoured to establish; if they had been
recognized there would have been no war.

In order to prove what the Austro-German standpoint was, and that from
first to last never changed, reference must be made to the Austrian Red
Book.[27] On page 24: Sir Edward Grey was informed by Count Mensdorf on
July 24th, "and I (Mensdorf) repeated to him (Grey) many times, that we
should stick to that view."

[Footnote 27: Oesterreichisch-ungarisches Rotbuch. Vienna, 1915.]

Page 25. Count Czecsen in Paris informed French Minister: "It is a
question which can only be settled between Serbia and ourselves," on
July 24th.

On the same day the Austrian Ambassador emphasized the same point in an
interview with the Russian Foreign Minister--pp. 27-8.

During the evening Monsieur Sasonow had interviews with both the German
and Austrian Ambassadors. The latter telegraphed to Vienna: "My German
colleague at once pointed out to M. Sasonow that Austria would not
accept any interference in her differences with Serbia and that Germany
would also not permit it."--p. 29.

That gives the situation in its simplest form, and without making
further quotations, it will suffice to cite the dates on which it was
re-emphasized:

July 25th in St. Petersburg, p. 89
" 27th " " " p. 101
" 28th " Berlin by Germany, p. 116
" " " London by Austria, p. 123
" 29th " St. Petersburg, " p. 128
" 30th " Berlin, " p. 130
" 30th " St. Petersburg, " p. 131
" 31st " Vienna, " p. 133
August 1st " St. Petersburg, " p. 136

Moreover, no less a personage than the Kaiser's