DELIBERATE WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 60, 8 September 1914, Page 2

DELIBERATE WAR

SCHEMED BY GERMANY AUSTRIA'S PART NOMINAL A DRAMA OF WOLF AND LAMB. Various cable messages and summaries of articles from the most trustworthy reviews and journals have plainly indicated that Germany deliberately hastened the European war. Papers of 31st July from London leave no room for doubt that the ultimatum to Servia was one to provoke war with Russia, unless the Tsar and his advisers were content to witness a collapse of Servian Sovereignty — a complete humiliation of a Slav State — at the imperious bidding of Austria. Ostensibly war *ras declared by Austria against Servia because the Slav country's reply to a dictatorial Note was alleged to bo "inadequate." The i falseness of this excuse is revealed in a summary of the Note and the reply : (1) That the Servian Government give a formal assurance that it condemns faerb propaganda against the Monarchy. — Accepted. (2) That a declaration expressing this condemnation bo published on the front page of the Servian Official Journal of Sunday next. — Accepted. (3) That the declaration shall also express regret that Servian officers and officialis participated in the anti-Austrian propaganda. — Accepted. (4) That the Servian Government promises to proceed with the utmost rigour against all who may be guilty of such machinations. — Accepted. (5) That this declaration be simultaneously communicated by the King of Servia to his Army as an order of the day, and be published in the Official Bulletin of the army. — Accepted. (6) That all Servian publications which incite to hatred and contempt of AustriaHungary be suppreaaed. — Accepted. (7) That a, society styled the N^arodna Obrana (National Onion) be dissolved and its means of propaganda confiscated/ — Accepted. (8) That teachors and methods of education in Servia which tend to foment feeling against Austria-Hungary be eliminated. — Accepted. , (9) That all officers and officials guilty of propaganda against Austria-Hungary be dismissed from the service, the AusLro-Huiigarian Government reserving itself the right to communicate to Servia the names and doings of such officers and officials.— Accepted, subject to proof. (10) That representatives of AustriaHungary shall assist Servia in suppressing in Servia the movement directed against the territorial integrity of the Dual Monarchy and take part in the J judicial proceedings on Servian territory ■ against persons accessory to the Serajevo crime.— Rejected conditionally. (11) That Servia furnish the AustroHungarian Government with explanations in regard to the utterances of high Servian officials in Servia and abroad who ventured to speak ill of the AustroHungarian Government after the Serajevo crime.— Accepted conditionally. The situation was neatly put by a Parisian cartoonist, with a picture of an Austrian soldier throttling and punching a Servian. Below came the words : The Servian: "But I have given way at all points." The Austrian: "Yes, I'll teach you to give way ! " DESIGNS AGAINST RUSSIA. "Austria-Hungaiy, if she had chosen, might have obtained full satisfaction from Servia for any grievances that she alleged without disturbing the peace of the Powers," remarked the Westminster Gazette of Ist August. " Eussia is not favourably disposed to the murdering of Archdukes or to Anarchist conspirators preparing bombs for authorised Govorhmentß. She was not at all likely to have intervened if Austria-Hungary had contented herself with demanding satisfaction for any proved outrage or conspiracy against her dynasty. But Aus-tria-Hungary, as it appeared last Saturday morning (25th July), had couched her remonstrauce to Servia in terms which no State could accept without impairing its soveieignty, and which were not likely to be accepted unless Russia was willing to abdicate her role as protector of the Slav peoples. We are told that the full consequences of despatching this Note had been considered by Austria, and that her ally, Germany, was pledged to act with her in whatever might follow. If so, we must suppose that both Powers intended to use the Servian question as a means of bringing to an issue the whole of the questions which have disturbed the relations of the Slav and Teuton peoples in recent years. In the light of this interpretation many recent events, including the friction , between Germany and Russia, would get a new meaning. If AustriaHungary had been disturbed about the course of events in Servia or in the Balkans, Germany has for the past two years been looking on with apprehension at the enormous increase of the Russian population, and the sudden revival of Russian energy on the western frontier. Increasingly it seemed to Germans that if the speeding-up of Russian mobilisation proceeded much further the whole strategic position would, be altered in Europe, and to the disadvantage of Germany. "WAR WAS INEVITABLE." " More and more often the ominous word has beea heard ifi~German military circles that war was inevitable, and had better come quickly before Russia grew too strong," the Gazette continues. "With Germany in this mood, and Aus-tria-Hungary smarting under the diplomatic reverses which she supposed herself to have suffered in the Balkan warsj there were from the beginning all the elements of a, dangerous sitiiation, and v*jPi.- the Servian Note was issued, and ite terms discovered, it became at once upposgible to dismiss the quarrel as a Jowety local incident between a big Cow*-* apd a little State. This is the ita.terial with , which diplomats have had w> deal in thes;> last anxious days, and it -was evident M>ai t,beir difficulties must be very great, since from the beginning the situation was influenced by General Staffs, whose idea was less to make peace than to rnanooovrd for strong positions in war." HUGE MOBILISATION. • Before Austria, was involved with Russia the mobilisation of Germany and Austria was progressing rapidly on a, scale for a great war. On 31st July a London paper stated, on good evidence, that very strong Austrian forces were being sent not to the lower Danube, but to tue Gaiician frontier — the border of Russia. "The tremendous force being called up may be partly measured by the fact of the Landsturm — and even older veterans — being summoned," said one reviewer. "Even in the Franco-German War the Landsturm was .nob called on. It is an arm reserved for the very last resort. There Ikm beea no call on the Landsturm, either in Austria or Prussia, since the war of 1866."