"his Excellency said that he did not wish to discuss the Servian note, but that Austria's standpoint, and in this he agreed, was that her quarrel with Servia was a purely Austrian concern, with which Russia had nothing to do."
[English "White Paper," No. 71.]
At this point the rules of the countries intervened in the dispute. The Kaiser, having returned from Norway, telegraphed the Czar, under date of July 28, that he was
"exerting all my influence to endeavor to make Austria-Hungary come to an open and satisfying understanding with Russia,"
and invoked the Czar's aid.
[German "White Paper," Annex 20.]
If the Kaiser were sincere, and he may have been, his attitude was not that of his Foreign Office. Upon the face of the record we have only his own assurance that he was doing everything to preserve peace, but the steps that he took or the communications he made to influence Austria are not found in the formal defense which the German Government has given to the world. The Kaiser can only convince the world of his innocence of the crime of his Potsdam camarilla by giving the world the text of any advice he gave the Austrian officials. He has produced his telegrams to the Czar. Where are those he presumably sent to Francis Joseph or Count Berchtold? Where are the instructions he gave his own Ambassadors or Foreign Minister?
It is significant that on the same day Sazonof telegraphed to Count Benckendorff:
"My conversations with the German Ambassador confirm my impression that Germany is rather favorable to the uncompromising attitude adopted by Austria,"
and he adds, and history will vindicate him in the conclusion, that