elf of my friendly relations with the Minister to ask him
confidentially to advise moderation in Russia in case Austria demanded
satisfaction from the Serbians, as it seemed likely she would.

The English press was quiet at first, and friendly to Austria, the
assassination being generally condemned. By degrees, however, more and
more voices made themselves heard, in the sense that, however necessary
it might be to take cognizance of the crime, any exploitation of it for
political ends was unjustifiable. Moderation was enjoined upon Austria.
When the ultimatum came out, all the papers, with the exception of the
Standard, were unanimous in condemning it. The whole world, outside of
Berlin and Vienna, realized that it meant war, and a world war too. The
English fleet, which happened to have been holding a naval review, was
not demobilized.

The British Government labored to make the Serbian reply conciliatory,
and "the Serbian answer was in keeping with the British efforts." Sir
Edward Grey then proposed his plan of mediation upon the two points
which Serbia had not wholly conceded. Prince Lichnowsky writes:

M. Cambon (for France), Marquis Imperiali (for Italy), and I were to
meet, with Sir Edward in the chair, and it would have been easy to work
out a formula for the debated points, which had to do with the
co-operation of imperial and royal officials in the inquiries to be
conducted at Belgrade. By the exercise of good will everything could
have been settled in one or two sittings, and the mere acceptance of the
British proposal would have relieved the strain and further improved our
relations with England. I seconded this plan with all my energies. In
vain. I was told (by Berlin) that it would be against the dignity of
Austria. Of course, all that was needed was one hint from Berlin to
Count Berchtold (the Austrian Foreign Minister); he would have satisfied
himself with a diplomatic triumph and rested on the Serbian answer. That
hint was never given. On the contrary, pressure was brought in favor of
war....

After our refusal Sir Edward asked us to come forward with our proposal.
We insisted on war. No other answer could I get (from Berlin) than that
it was a colossal condescension on the part of Austria not to
contemplate any acquisition of territory. Sir Edward justly pointed out
that one could reduce a country to vassalage without acquiring
territory; that Russia would see this, and regard it as a humiliation