Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/74

70 But chance has given us, out of these very days, a witness to Szögyeny's capacity for rendering an accurate report. On the 6th, the Count had a discussion with Bethmann-Hollweg. The latter reported it to Tschirschky and Szögyeny sent at the same time a report of the same interview to Berchtold. The following day Tschirschky had occasion to compare the two reports. He telegraphed about them to the Foreign Office on July 7th:

"“The reports of Count Szögyeny corresponded exactly with the contents of the regular telegram sent me by your Excellency on the 6th of the month.”"

It is not so easy, therefore, to put this inconvenient witness morally out of the way.

It is true that in these discussions Bethmann expressed himself far more cautiously than his Imperial master. But that was often the case.

One perhaps not irrelevant circumstance may be mentioned. Szögyeny reports that before breakfast William was very reserved. It was not till after breakfast that he opened the murder-chamber of his heart.

We are not informed as to how the Kaiser discussed affairs with his people after this consultation. But we may believe the White Book of June, however little confidence it deserves, when it says that there was then no intention of letting loose a European war. Only it passes in silence over the fact that Austria was then given a free hand in the war against Serbia, even at the peril of bringing with it a war with Russia.

In substance the German Government had already admitted this in the first White Book published at the beginning of the war. They then said: