On July 24 Sir Edward Grey also had asked the German Ambassador to use his good influences at Vienna to secure an extension of time.  To this most reasonable request the answer and action of the German Government was disingenuous in the extreme.  They agreed to “pass on” the suggestion, but the German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs added that as the Austrian Prime Minister was away from Vienna there would be delay and difficulty in getting the time limit extended, and

“he admitted quite freely that the Austro-Hungarian Government wished to give the Servians a lesson and that they meant to take military action.  He also admitted that the Servian Government could not swallow certain of the Austro-Hungarian demands.”

He added that Germany did not want a general war and “he would do all in his power to prevent such a calamity.”

[English “White Paper,” Nos. 11 and 18.]

Immediately on the issuance of the ultimatum the Austrian Foreign Minister, Count Berchtold, had most inopportunely taken himself to Ischl, where he remained until after the expiration of the time limit.  Access to him proved difficult, and the Russian Charge at Vienna, having lodged a pacific protest with the Acting Foreign Minister in order to take no chances, telegraphed it to Berchtold at Ischl.  Nevertheless, Berchtold’s apparently designed absence from the capital was Germany’s excuse for its failure to get the time limit extended.

If Germany made any communication to Austria in the interests of peace the text has yet to be disclosed to the world.  A word from Berlin to Vienna would have given the additional time which, with sincerely pacific intentions, might have resulted in the preservation of peace.  Germany, so far as the record discloses, never spoke that word.

Contrast this attitude with that of Russia, whose Foreign Minister on the morning of July 25 offered

     “to stand aside and leave the question in the hands of
     England, France, Germany, and Italy.”

[English “White Paper,” No. 17.]

As Russia was the member of the Triple Entente most interested in the fate of Servia, what proposal could have been more conciliatory or magnanimous?

On July 25 Sir Edward Grey proposed that the four powers (including Germany) should unite

“in asking the Austrian and Russian Governments not to cross the frontier and to give time for the four powers, acting at Vienna and St. Petersburg, to try and arrange matters.  If Germany will adopt this view I feel strongly that France and ourselves should act upon it.  Italy would no doubt gladly co-operate.”

[English “White Paper,” Nos. 24 and 25.]

To this reasonable request the Imperial German Chancellor replied: 

     “First and last, we take the ground that this question must be
     localized by the abstention of all the powers from
     intervention in it,”