erbia in not fulfilling
her promise of 1909 to live on neighborly terms with Austria-Hungary,
and said that, on the contrary, she had conducted an agitation to
disintegrate that country, which made it absolute for Austria to
protect herself. On this Sir Edward did not comment. He said that the
French Ambassador, M. Cambon, and the Russian, Count Benckendorff, and
others were agreed that those who had influence at St. Petersburg
should exert it on behalf of patience and moderation.

"I had replied that the amount of influence that could be used in
this sense would depend upon how reasonable were the Austrian
demands and how strong the justification that Austria might have
discovered for making her demands. The possible consequences of
the present situation were terrible. If as many as four great
powers of Europe--let us say, Austria, France, Russia, and
Germany--were engaged in war, it seemed to me that it must
involve the expenditure of so vast a sum of money, and such an
interference with trade, that a war would be accompanied or
followed by a complete collapse of European credit and industry.
In these days, in great industrial states, this would mean a
state of things worse than that of 1848, and, irrespective of who
were victors in the war, many things might be completely swept
away.

"Count Mensdorff did not demur to this statement of the possible
consequences of the present situation, but he said that all would
depend upon Russia.

"I made the remark that, in a time of difficulties such as this,
it was just as true to say that it required two to keep the peace
as it was to say ordinarily that it took two to make a quarrel. I
hoped very much that, if there were difficulties, Austria and
Russia would be able in the first instance to discuss them
directly with each other.

"Count Mensdorff said that he hoped this would be possible, but
he was under the impression that the attitude in Petrograd had
not been very favorable recently."

On the same day, July 23, 1914, before the copy of the note had been
presented to him, M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister for Foreign
Affairs at Paris, notified the French Ambassadors at London, Berlin,
St. Petersburg, and Rome, that it was reported by M. Dumaine, French
Ambassador at Vienna, that the intention of Austria-Hungary was to
proceed with the