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186 in which we will be involved, while Russia remains free from blame. The result is a quite untenable situation for us as regards our own nation. We can therefore only urgently recommend Austria to accept Grey's proposal, which guarantees her position in every respect.

"Your Excellency will at once communicate most emphatically with Count Berchtold in this sense, and, if possible, also with Count Tisza."

Even with this telegram it is possible to be in doubt whether Bethmann-Hollweg was more concerned with maintaining peace or shifting the responsibility for the war on to Russia. But the pressure on Vienna was there, and it ought in the end to have worked for peace.

Austria, however, met this pressure with a resistance as stubborn as it was treacherous, for she did not hesitate to deceive her German ally, as she did the rest of the world, by giving way in appearance while in reality she did nothing serious.

In the Vienna Ministerial Council of July 3ist, Count Berchtold reported: ""His Majesty has approved the proposal that the Vienna Cabinet, while carefully avoiding the meritorious acceptance of the English proposal, should, however, show complaisance in the form of its reply, and in this way meet the desire of the German Chancellor, not to offend the (English) Government.""

The Count added:

"If the matter now ended with a gain of prestige only, it would, in the opinion of the President