Passing on:  “To discuss the justice of Austria’s grievances against Servia would take us ... into the realm of disputed facts.”  This seems a delectable bit of humor.  We respectfully submit that Mr. Beck’s other assertions might also be considered as “in the realm of disputed facts.”  Mr. Beck admits that Austria had a just grievance against Servia, though he questions her method of redress.  Though we conceive that in the unfortunate European tangle Austria relied on German support in the event of international conflict, we submit that reliance on Russian support was a bigger factor in encouraging little Servia to defy her big neighbor than the remoter help that Germany would furnish Austria in the event of the conflict spreading.

Austria, in the exercise of her right to engage in a punitive expedition against Servia, guaranteed that she would do nothing to generalize the conflict by her assurances to Russia and to the world that there would be no annexation of Servian territory or annihilation of the Servian Kingdom.  Whether these assurances were genuine or not is impossible of determination.  We have no right to constitute ourselves arbiters of their sincerity.

No European Solidarity.

Mr. Beck speaks of “the solidarity of European civilization and the fact that by policy and diplomatic intercourse ... a United European State exists, even though its organization be as yet inchoate.”  This solidarity is conspicuous only by its utter non-existence.  Whatever may have been achieved by policy and diplomatic intercourse has been marred and rendered useless by the lines of demarkation of the spheres of influence of the great powers of Europe and by the racial and temperamental incongruities of Europe’s population.

We read:  “Servia had forty-eight hours to answer; ... the other European nations had barely a day to consider what could be done to preserve the peace of Europe.  Why should an Austro-Servian war compromise the peace of Europe?” Was it not because of the tangled web of international diplomacy, the Triple Entente as well as the Triple Alliance?

Referring to a German warning in regard to Austria’s demands on Servia, “the German Foreign Office anticipates that Servia ’will refuse to comply with these demands’—­why, if they were justified?” We grieve at the shattered ideal of Mr. Beck, who, in the face of the international calamity which has befallen the world, still can believe that all justifiable demands are complied with.

Again, quoting German “White Paper,” Annex 1B, Germany desired “that the dispute be localized, since any intervention of another power, on account of the various alliance obligations, would bring consequences impossible to measure.”  The explanation of this statement is not—­an aggressor threatens his adversary, but, rather, a prudent man begs opposing factions to keep cool.