s you desire to send
me, to express to the Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs the
hope of his majesty's Government that it may yet be possible to
avoid war, and to ask his excellency whether he cannot suggest a
way out even now."

Sir Francis Bertie, Ambassador at Paris, telegraphed to Grey that
France had accepted his proposal for the four-power mediation, and
sent the necessary instructions to her representatives at Belgrade,
Vienna, and St. Petersburg.

"Instructions have been sent to the French Ambassador at Berlin
to concert with his British colleague as to the advisability of
their speaking jointly to the German Government. Until it is
known that the Germans have spoken at Vienna with some success,
it would, in the opinion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, be
dangerous for the French, Russian, and British Ambassadors to do
so."

Sir Edward Goschen, Ambassador at Berlin, telegraphed to Grey:

"Secretary of State [Von Jagow] says that conference you suggest
would practically amount to a court of arbitration and could not,
in his opinion, be called together except at the request of
Austria and Russia. He could not therefore fall in with your
suggestion, desirous though he was to cooperate for the
maintenance of peace. I said I was sure that your idea had
nothing to do with arbitration, but meant that representatives of
the four nations not directly interested should discuss and
suggest means for avoiding a dangerous situation. He maintained,
however, that such a conference as you proposed was not
practicable. He added that news he had just received from St.
Petersburg showed that there was an intention on the part of M.
de Sazonof [Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs] to exchange
views with Count Berchtold [Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign
Affairs]. He thought that this method of procedure might lead to
a satisfactory result, and that it would be best, before doing
anything else, to await outcome of the exchange of views between
the Austrian and Russian Governments.

"In the course of a short conversation Secretary of State said
that as yet Austria was only partially mobilizing, but that if
Russia mobilized against Germany latter would have to follow
suit. I asked him what he meant by 'mobilizing against Germany.'
He said that if Ru