Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/118

114 In a footnote after the statements in the text of his book Jagow casually remarks:

""Unless there had been indecision in Vienna as to the moment of delivery, the Ambassador must have been mistaken in this respect, for actually the Ultimatum was not delivered until 6 p.m.""

This is tantamount to saying that Jagow was deceived by Szögyeny as to the time of the delivery of the Ultimatum! He would certainly have protested against the delivery had he known that it would take place only at 6 p.m. and not in the morning.

But did he not know this? We have just seen (page 64) how eagerly Jagow endeavoured to find out at what hour of the evening of the 23rd Poincaré was leaving Petrograd. And on the evening of the 22nd the Secretary of State telegraphed to Vienna a statement about this departure, which resulted in the postponement of the delivery from 5 to 6 p.m. And now he wants to make us believe he knew nothing at all about it, and thought the Note to Serbia was being delivered in the morning!

On August 11th, 1917, State Secretary Zimmermann wrote to the Under-Secretary of State, von der Bussche:

",

"Objectively speaking, the statement of the Evening News was correct, inasmuch as we did receive the Serbian Ultimatum some twelve hours before delivery. On the other hand, I certainly do not recollect having blurted out this fact to an American diplomat. A démenti may, therefore, be made. Whether, however, this appears expedient,