Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/132

128 Surely this meant the most urgent pressure to strike with all speed.

In their statements concerning the origin of the war (White Book, June, 1919), Professors Hans Delbriick, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Max Weber, with Count Montgelas, give to this telegram a far more innocent interpretation. They say:

""The telegram of the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, Count Szogyeny, of July 25th, 1914, urging the prompt beginning of military operations in the event of a declaration of war, is in accordance with the view already discussed that a localized and therefore also a speedy settlement of this dispute is the best measure to avert the spread of the conflagration." (Page 39.)"

The telegram demands in plain terms immediate declaration of war, combined with military operations. The commentary of the four gentlemen transforms this unobtrusively into a demand for belligerent operations in the event of a declaration of war! And the demand that the world should be confronted with a fait accompli becomes a desire for "a speedy settlement of the dispute."

Such an interpretation of the telegram requires an incredible amount of goodwill, and outside Germany this will be hard to find. By this very free interpretation, Count Szögyeny' s telegram of July 25th was sought to be deprived of its inconvenient contents. But this expedient wholly fails to work in the case of another telegram of the same diplomat, dated July 27th.

Both telegrams came into the hands of the "Commission of the Allied and Associated Governments