The rock of Germanic obstinacy was seated in Vienna, whether Germany was the prime mover in erecting it remains to be proved.  Germany knew full well that European peace would be shattered on that rock, yet there is no fragment of evidence to show that she tried to remove it; but there is overwhelming proof that she encouraged Austria to stand by it, thus causing a European conflagration.

And as if the above were insufficient to prove that the German Imperial Chancellor was guilty of conscious falsification, Austria put one more nail in the coffin of European peace on September 24th, 1914, when it issued an official communication to the Press, reiterating that Austria had never dreamed of departing from the attitude which she first took up.[28]

[Footnote 28:  “Die Schuld am Weltkriege” ("The Guilt for the World War"), by an Austrian.  Vienna, 1915, p. 59.]

Germany’s aim was to employ the Serajewo crime as a lever to put Russia, as a vital force, out of the domain of European politics.  In spite of denials, there is reason to believe that Austria was inclined to listen to reason, but Germany forestalled and prevented this by despatching an ultimatum to Russia and then declaring war.

A few other points in Bethmann-Hollweg’s speech deserve brief notice.  He quotes Germany’s threats, but not one word from the peaceful overtures which were so often mentioned.  He fails to cite any single point which Austria had yielded at Germany’s advice.  Further, no proof of Germany’s vaunted “mediatory action” is discoverable either in the speech or the diplomatic documents published by the Central Powers.

In regard to his justification of the violation of Belgian neutrality, the civilized world has already passed judgment, and in this place it only remains to point out that the four hundred members of the Reichstag cheered the Chancellor’s announcement.  This alone is a sufficiently severe comment on the conceptions of right and justice which direct the proceedings of Germany’s highest legislative body.

It evidently did not occur to the Reichstag or Germany’s Imperial Chancellor that, if necessity knows no law which respects a neutrality guaranteed by Germany, then at a later date necessity would also recognize no law which protected Belgian territory after Germany had conquered it.  A lamb in the jaws of a lion is in a truly dangerous position, and although the outlook may be black, it is still wiser for the lamb to try and avoid the lion’s jaws.

Bethmann-Hollweg saw the mote of Greater-Serbianism in Serbia’s eye, but he was peculiarly anxious not to perceive the beam of Pan-Germanism which has blinded Germany’s vision for a generation, and is the one and only cause for the rapid increase in European armaments.