Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/70

66 were his own personally, but it never declared positively that its own were different; nor could it do so for the simple reason that the views of the Councillor of Legation were exactly the same as those of his chief, the Minister Berchtold. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vienna has never indeed betrayed its own views in relation to Serbia. And even if the mere removal of Hoyos were equivalent to a calming declaration of Austria's purposes, this did not take place until later, until after July 5th, the day on which the Austrian Ambassador handed to the Kaiser the letter of Francis Joseph, and on which the decisive conclusions were come to.

Much has been conjectured about the counsels formed on that day, concerning which the imagination of the world has been all the more enkindled because so little is known about them. There is supposed to have been a Crown-Council in Potsdam in which the Archduke Frederick, Count Berchtold, and Conrad von Hötzendorff took part, and at which war on Serbia, or perhaps even the world-war, was decided on. The White Book of June, 1919, argues that this Council is a myth. As a proof of this, it cites Sir Horace Rumbold, English Ambassador in Berlin at the time of war, who held it improbable that such a Council of the Crown could have taken place. He comes to this opinion not on account of, but in spite of the protestations of the German Government.

"“So great is the usual tendency of the German Government to lying, that I am involuntarily tempted to believe whatever assertions they deny.”"

It is on this honourable testimony that the White Book of June, 1919, relies for proof of the innocence of the former German Government. The White Book