But that is over, as far as the peace of Europe is concerned.  We are now face to face with a situation and all the consequences which it may yet have to unfold.  We believe we shall have the support of the House at large in proceeding to whatever the consequences may be and whatever measures may be forced upon us by the development of facts or action taken by others.  I believe the country, so quickly has the situation been forced upon it, has not had time to realize the issue.  It perhaps is still thinking of the quarrel between Austria and Servia, and not the complications of this matter which have grown out of the quarrel between Austria and Servia.  Russia and Germany we know are at war.  We do not yet know officially that Austria, the ally whom Germany is to support, is yet at war with Russia.  We know that a good deal has been happening on the French frontier.  We do not know that the German Ambassador has left Paris.  The situation has developed so rapidly that technically, as regards the condition of the war, it is most difficult to describe what has actually happened.  I wanted to bring out the underlying issues which would affect our own conduct, and our own policy, and to put them clearly.  I have put the vital facts before the House, and if, as seems not improbable, we are forced, and rapidly forced, to take our stand upon those issues, then I believe, when the country realizes what is at stake, what the real issues are, the magnitude of the impending dangers in the west of Europe, which I have endeavoured to describe to the House, we shall be supported throughout, not only by the House of Commons, but by the determination, the resolution, the courage, and the endurance of the whole country.

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

AUGUST 6, 1914

INFAMOUS PROPOSALS

In asking the House to agree to the resolution which Mr. Speaker has just read from the Chair, I do not propose, because I do not think it is in any way necessary, to traverse the ground again which was covered by my right hon. friend the Foreign Secretary two or three nights ago.  He stated—­and I do not think any of the statements he made are capable of answer and certainly have not yet been answered—­the grounds upon which with the utmost reluctance and with infinite regret His Majesty’s Government have been compelled to put this country in a state of war with what, for many years and indeed generations past, has been a friendly Power.  But, Sir, the papers which have since been presented to Parliament, and which are now in the hands of hon. members, will, I think, show how strenuous, how unremitting, how persistent, even when the last glimmer of hope seemed to have faded away, were the efforts of my right hon. friend to secure for Europe an honourable and a lasting peace.  Every one knows in the great crisis which occurred last year in the east of Europe, it was largely,