GERMAN ULTIMATUM TO RUSSIA

By Friday, July 31, Germany was ready for the fray and a final ultimatum to St. Petersburg was launched.  On the same day Russia declared war against Austria.  By six o’clock on Saturday evening, August 1, war between Germany and Russia began, when Germany dismissed the Russian Ambassador, and by Sunday morning Germany was invading France.  The next day, August 3, the German Ambassador left Paris and the French Ambassador at Berlin was ordered to demand his passports.

At this point Great Britain passed from the position of general peacemaker to that of a principal.  In the House of Commons on Monday, August 3, Sir Edward Grey stated that the question whether Austria or Russia should dominate the Southern Slav races was no concern of England, nor was she bound by any secret alliance to France.  She was absolutely free to choose her course with regard to the crisis which had overtaken her.  But there were two cardinal points in the situation which had arisen which ultimately concerned Great Britain.  The first essential feature of British diplomacy, said Sir Edward, was that France should not be brought into such a condition in Europe that she became a species of vassal state to Germany.  On the morning of July 31, therefore, he had informed the German Ambassador that if the efforts to maintain peace failed and France became involved Great Britain would be drawn into the conflict.

In his speech of August 3 the British foreign minister also stated that he had given France on the previous day the written assurance that if the German fleet came into the English Channel or through the North Sea to assail her, the British fleet would protect her to the uttermost.

TO PROTECT BELGIAN AUTONOMY

On the same afternoon, in the same place, Sir Edward Grey reiterated the other dominant principle of British foreign policy—­that England can never look with indifference on the seizure by a great continental power of any portion of Belgium and Holland.  More than a hundred years ago it was declared by Napoleon, who was a master of political geography, that Antwerp was “a pistol leveled at the head of London.”

When on July 31 the British foreign minister inquired by telegraph both at Paris and Berlin whether the two governments would engage to respect the neutrality of Belgium, France replied with an assurance that she was resolved to do so unless compelled to act otherwise by reason of the violation of Belgium’s neutrality at the hands of another power.  The German secretary of state, Herr von Jagow, replied that he could give no such assurance until he had consulted the Emperor and Chancellor, and doubted whether he could give any answer without revealing the German plan of campaign.  He furthermore alleged the commission of hostile acts by Belgium.

Developments quickly followed.  The German government proposed that Belgium should grant its armies free passage through Belgian territory.  The proposal was accompanied by an intimation that Belgium would be crushed out of existence if it refused to comply.  In fact, it was an ultimatum presented at 7 o’clock on Sunday evening, August 2, to expire within twelve hours.