, and _vice versa_, as occasion demanded, while the Russians and
French were separated and had to fight on the outer lines; and--

Fourthly, every one knows that in modern warfare far less depends on
the number of men than on preparation, leadership and ammunition. And
that in these respects the Russians certainly, and at the outset also
the French, laboured under a "vast inferiority" is not open to
question.

_It cannot be admitted therefore that the fact of the Russian
mobilization made it a necessity for you to precipitate war_,
especially on the very day when Austria, who was in a far more exposed
position than you, declared herself ready at last, notwithstanding the
Russian mobilization, to enter into direct diplomatic discussion with
Russia.

If Germany had waited but three days after that declaration by her
ally, before delivering her ultimatum to Russia, either the war would
have been avoided altogether, or Russia would have had to face the
world as the aggressor, with all the forces of what Bismarck termed
"imponderabilia" against her. And it would be an insult to Germany's
efficiency to question that she could have found measures short of
rushing into war, to meet and offset for another few days the menace
of Russian mobilization--apart from the fact that there is some reason
to suspect that this Russian mobilization on the German frontier was
deliberately provoked by certain Machiavellian manoeuvres in Berlin.

On the 30th and 31st of July, respectively, Sir Edward Grey
telegraphed as follows to the English ambassador in Berlin for
transmission to the Imperial Chancellor:

"... You should speak to the Chancellor in the above sense,
and add most earnestly that one way of maintaining good
relations with England and Germany is that they should
continue to work together to preserve the peace of Europe. If
we succeed in this object, the mutual relations of Germany
and England will, I believe, be _ipso facto_ improved and
strengthened. For that object his Majesty's Government will
work in that way with all sincerity and good will....

"And I will say this: If the peace of Europe can be
preserved, and the present crisis safely passed, my _own
endeavour will be to promote some arrangement to which
Germany could be a party, by which she could be assured that
no aggressive or hostile policy would be pursued against her
or her allies by France, Russia and o