e.

"The friendly feelings of the powers toward her have been so
often reaffirmed that Belgium confidently expects that her
territory will remain free from any attack, should hostilities
break out upon her frontiers.

"All necessary steps to insure respect of Belgian neutrality have
nevertheless been taken by the Government. The Belgian army has
been mobilized and is taking up such strategic positions as have
been chosen to secure the defense of the country and the respect
of its neutrality. The forts of Antwerp and on the Meuse have
been put in a state of defense....

"These measures are intended solely to enable Belgium to fulfill
her international obligations; and it is obvious that they
neither have been nor can have been undertaken with any intention
of taking part in an armed struggle between the powers or from
any feeling of distrust of any of those powers."

On the following day this notification was also sent to the Belgian
Ministers at Rome, The Hague, and Luxemburg.

SATURDAY, JULY 25, 1914

_Austria-Hungary._ Count Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian Minister for
Foreign Affairs, telegraphed from Lembach to his Under-Secretary,
Baron von Macchio, that Russia through Prince Koudacheff, its Charge
d'Affaires at Vienna, was pressing for an extension of the time
limit in the note to Serbia, and that he should tell the prince this
would not be granted, but that, even after the severance of
diplomatic relations, Serbia could have peace by complying
unconditionally with Austria-Hungary's demands--in which case,
however, she must pay the cost of Austro-Hungarian military
measures.

Later, Count Berchtold telegraphed to Count Szapary,
Austro-Hungarian Ambassador at St. Petersburg, that Prince
Koudacheff had based his request on the powers being taken by
surprise in the demands on Serbia, and therefore that Russia should
have time to consider the evidence in the case as presented in
Austria-Hungary's _dossier_. These grounds, said Count Berchtold,
rested on a mistaken hypothesis.

"Our note to the powers was in no way intended to invite them to
make known their own views on the subject, but merely bore the
character of a statement for information, the communication of
which we regarded as a duty laid on us by international
courtesy.... We regarded our action as concerning us and Serbia
alone."

Baron Giesl