Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/143

Rh Now, as formerly, William rejected the best proposals for getting out of the strained situation. This is shown by his remarks on a report of July 28th from Chelins, the German Military Plenipotentiary in St. Petersburg, which William read on the 29th. It runs:

"For His Majesty: Prince Trubetzkoi, of the Tsar's suite, made the following statement to me to-day: 'Now that Serbia's reply has, been published, one must acknowledge her good-will [One might have expected that!—W.] to meet Austria's wishes fully and completely; otherwise Serbia would never have answered Austria's unprecedentedly sharp Note in so friendly and neighbourly a tone, but would have simply [word unintelligible]. The two points in dispute could not have been simply accepted by Serbia without danger of a revolution, and the desire to submit them to arbitration [Austria cannot enter upon that.—W.]. This is a thoroughly loyal position, and Austria would take on herself a heavy responsibility should she bring about a European war by not recognizing the attitude of Serbia. [That is what makes me anxious after reading the Serbian reply.—W.]

"When I replied that the responsibility would fall on Russia, who, after all, was outside the sphere of conflict [Right!—W.], Prince Trubetzkoi said: '... We cannot leave our brothers in the lurch. [Murderers of Kings and Princes!—W.] Austria might annihilate them [Doesn't want to.—W.], and we cannot allow that. ... We believe that the German Emperor will give his ally, Austria, sound advice not to strain the bow too far [These are vague phrases intended to shift the responsibility