that an act of mediation could not take into consideration the Austro-Servian conflict, which was purely an Austro-Hungarian affair,
claimed that Germany had transmitted Sir Edward Grey’s further suggestion to Vienna, in which Austro-Hungary was urged
either to agree to accept the Servian answer as sufficient or to look upon it as a basis for further conversations;
but the Austro-Hungarian Government—playing the rôle of the wicked partner of the combination—“in full appreciation of our mediatory activity” (so says the German White Paper with sardonic humor), replied to this proposition that, coming after the opening of hostilities, “it was too late.”
Can it be fairly questioned that if Germany had done something more than merely “transmit” these wise and pacific suggestions, Austria would have complied with the suggestions of its powerful ally or that Austria would have suspended its military operations if Germany had given any intimation of such a wish?
On the following day, July 28th, the door was further closed on any possibility of compromise, when the Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs
said, quietly, but firmly, that no discussion could be accepted on the basis of the Servian note; that war would be declared to-day, and that the well-known pacific character of the Emperor, as well as, he might add, his own, might be accepted as a guarantee that the war was both just and inevitable; that this was a matter that must be settled directly between the two parties immediately concerned.
To this arrogant and unreasonable contention that Europe must accept the guarantee of the Austrian Foreign Minister as to the righteousness of Austria’s quarrel, the British Ambassador suggested “the larger aspect of the question,” namely, the peace of Europe, and to this “larger aspect,” which should have given any reasonable official some ground for pause, the Austrian Foreign Minister replied that he
had it also in mind, but thought that Russia ought not to oppose operations like those impending, which did not aim at territorial aggrandizement, and which could no longer be postponed.[35]
The private conversations between Russia and Austria having thus failed, Russia returned to the proposition of a European conference to preserve its peace. Its Ambassador in Vienna on July 28th had a further conference with Berchtold and again earnestly pleaded for peace on the basis of friendly relations not only between Austria and Servia but between Austria and Russia. The conversation in the light of present developments is so significant that it bears quotation in extenso: