HOW GERMANY INTERVENED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15748, 24 October 1914, Page 6

HOW GERMANY INTERVENED.

The world has never doubted the responsibility of Germany for the great war. In spite of the efforts of German officialdom, by halftruths and bold falsehoods, to poison opinion in neutral countries against Britain, the world was able to allocate responsibility, and knows that Britain only drew the sword when peace with honour became impossible, while Germany conducted her diplomacy with about the samo regard for international law and equity as has since characterised her military campaign. Necessarily, however, in delicate negotiations affecting the issues of peace and war, : much takes place which cannot immediately be made public. Not till a month after the outbreak of war was the curtain lifted on the conversations of the diplomats at | Vienna, and the fuller knowledge thus afforded the public of the course of negotiations confirms the duplicity and recklessness of Germany. Sir Maurice do Bunsen, lately British Ambassador at Vienna, reviews the efforts of the British Government to maintain peace, and asserts that on August 1 Russia and Austria had almost arrived at an agreement, Austria consenting to submit to mediation the points in the Note to Servia which seemed incompatible with the maintenance of Servian independence. Russia accepted this proposal on condition that Austria would refrain from the actual invasion of Servia. The Russian Ambassador was working hard for peace, and between him and tho Austrian Foreign Minister the most conciliatory conversations were taking place. Sir Maurice do Bunsen says :—" Certainly it was too much for Russia to expect that Austria would hold back her armies, but this matter could probably have been settled by negotiation, and the Russian Ambassador repeatedly told me he was prepared to accept any reasonable compromise. Unfortunately, these conversations at St. Petersburg and Vienna were cut short by the transfer of the dispute to the. more dangerous ground of a direct conflict between Germany and Russia. Germany intervened on July 31 by means of her double ultimatums to St. Petersburg and Paris. The ultimatums were of a j kind to which only one answer is possible, and Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, and on France on August 3. A few days' delay; might in all probability have

saved Europe from one of the greatest calamities in history." The unimpeachable evidence of the British Ambassador, therefore, is that the war was precipitated by Germany's double ultimatums, and the world knows that these ultimatums, and the subsequent violation of Belgian neutrality, were inspired by the conviction of the Kaiser and his war-lords that the time was opportune for an attempt to subjugate Europe.