[Footnote 8:  Muenchen-Augsburger Abendzeitung, July 27th.]

“Hence it all depends upon who attacks; the interpretation of ‘attack,’ however, is debatable both in politics and international law.  Again and again it has been asserted that that Power which declares war is not the attacker, but the one which makes a continuance of peaceful relations impossible.”

Innumerable notices of Russia’s alleged mobilization appeared and, probably with a view to encouraging Germans to stand fast, ghastly pictures of the weakness and unpreparedness of the Russian army, in a word Russian rottenness and corruption.  Persistent rumours of revolutions in Russia were current.

A Vienna telegram published in Berlin[9] informed the German public that:  “News received from Warsaw deny the rumours that a revolution has broken out in Russian-Poland, but it is true that yesterday the entire citadel in Warsaw was blown up.  Official Russian reports endeavour to prove that the explosion was caused by lightning.  The extent of the damage is not yet known, but in any case it amounts to hundreds of thousands of roubles.  It is also not certain whether any or how many lives were lost.”

[Footnote 9:  Vossische Zeitung, July 29th.]

A few days later the German official organ Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and the semi-official Koelnische Zeitung published the following report of the explosion.  “According to the statement of the Governor of Warsaw it was caused by revolutionaries.  No proof of this was forthcoming, therefore it was ascribed to lightning, and as nobody believed this explanation—­there was not a cloud on the sky at the time—­the guilt remained finally with the revolutionaries.

“Now it has been proved, not to the satisfaction of the Russian authorities of course, that Russian officers of high rank blew the magazine up, because they would have to supply the troops with ammunition after the mobilization—­and the ammunition was not there.  The money for the same had found its way into the officers’ pockets.”

On July 30th the Vossische Zeitung announced:  “To-day even more alarming news has been in the air than in the last few days.  The Lokal Anzeiger stated during the afternoon that an order for the mobilization of the army and navy had been signed by the Kaiser.  On making inquiries in official quarters, we were informed that the ‘news’ is false.  At three o’clock Wolff’s Bureau issued an official dementi:  ’We have received an official statement to the effect that the news published in an extra edition of the Berliner Lokal Anzeiger that the Kaiser had ordered the general mobilization is untrue.’  Great excitement was caused by the Lokal Anzeiger’s announcement, and the public visibly disquieted.”