ace. The alliance was of defensive, not aggressive, character and
could not force an ally to follow any enterprise taken on the sole
account and without a notice, as such action taken by Austria against
Serbia. It was felt even then that Italy would eventually cast its lot
with the Entente Allies.

Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo; John Skelton Williams,
Comptroller of the Currency; Charles S. Hamblin and William P. G.
Harding, members of the Federal Reserve Board, went to New York early in
August, 1914, where they discussed relief measures with a group of
leading bankers at what was regarded as the most momentous conference of
the kind held in the country in recent years.

The New York Clearing House Committee, on August 2d, called a meeting of
the Clearing House Association, to arrange for the immediate issuance of
clearing house certificates. Among those at the conference were J. P.
Morgan and his partner, Henry P. Davison; Frank A. Vanderlip, president
of the National City Bank, and A. Barton Hepburn, chairman of the Chase
National Bank.

CHAPTER III

WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR

While it is true that the war was conceived in Berlin, it is none the
less true that it was born in the Balkans. It is necessary in order that
we may view with correct perspective the background of the World War,
that we gain some notion of the Balkan States and the complications
entering into their relations. These countries have been the adopted
children of the great European powers during generations of rulers.
Russia assumed guardianship of the nations having a preponderance of
Slavic blood; Roumania with its Latin consanguinities was close to
France and Italy; Bulgaria, Greece, and Balkan Turkey were debatable
regions wherein the diplomats of the rival nations secured temporary
victories by devious methods.

The Balkans have fierce hatreds and have been the site of sudden
historic wars. At the time of the declaration of the World War, the
Balkan nations were living under the provisions of the Treaty of
Bucharest, dated August 10, 1913. Greece, Roumania, Bulgaria, Serbia and
Montenegro were signers, and Turkey acquiesced in its provisions.

[Illustration: PROVISIONS OF THE TREATY OF BUCHAREST, 1913. (Map showing
the Adriatic on the West, the Black Sea on the East, Roumania on the
North and Crete on the South. Cross hatching show land allocations
among Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, Bulgaria and Roumania.)]

The a