d. At 11.0 p.m. on the 4th of August, Great
Britain declared war on Germany, and the World War had begun.

The events of the twelve days from the 23rd of July to the 4th of
August, when they shall be set forth in detail, will furnish volumes of
history. Those who study them minutely are in some danger of failing to
see the wood for the trees. The attitude of the nations was made clear
enough during these days. When Austria issued her ultimatum, many people
in England thought of it as a portent of renewed distant trouble in the
Balkans, to be quickly begun and soon ended. It was not so regarded in
Germany. The people of Germany, though they were not in the confidence
of their Government, were sufficiently familiar with its mode of
operation to recognize the challenge to Serbia for what it was,
Germany's chosen occasion for her great war. The citizens not only of
Berlin, but of the Rhineland, and of little northern towns on the Kiel
canal, went mad with joy; there was shouting and song and public
festivity. Meantime in England, as the truth dawned, there were hushed
voices and an intense solemnity. The day had come, and no one doubted
the severity of the ordeal. Yet neither did any one, except an unhappy
few who had been nursed in folly and illusion, doubt the necessity of
taking up the challenge. The country was united. Not only was the safety
and existence of the British Commonwealth involved, but the great
principle of civilization, difficult to name, but perhaps best called by
the appealing name of decency, which bids man remember that he is frail
and that it behoves him to be considerate and pitiful and sincere, had
been flouted by the arrogant military rulers of Germany. Great Britain
had a navy; her army and her air force, for the purposes of a great
European war, were yet to make. The motive that was to supply her with
millions of volunteers was not only patriotism, though patriotism was
strong, but a sense that her cause, in this war, was the cause of
humanity. There are many who will gladly fight to raise their country
and people in power and prosperity above other countries and other
peoples. There are many also among English-speaking peoples who are
unwilling to fight for any such end. But they are fighters, and they
will fight to protect the weak and to assert the right. They are a
reserve worth enlisting in any army; it was by their help that the
opponents of Germany attained to a conquering strength. The sys