it meant; to introduce
officials of our Government in Serbia would be equivalent to the
end of Serbian political independence. I answered that
cooperation of, e.g., police officials, in no way affected the
sovereignty of the state.

"He regretted the time limit, as in this way we should be
deprived of the possibility of quieting the first outbreak of
excitement and bringing pressure to bear upon Belgrade to give us
a satisfactory answer. It was always possible to send an
ultimatum if answer was not satisfactory.

"I developed our point of view at length. (Necessity of defense
against continued revolutionary undertakings which threaten the
territory of the [Dual] Monarchy, protection of our most vital
interests, complete failure of the conciliatory attitude which we
had hitherto often shown to Serbia, who had had more than three
weeks to set on foot of her own accord investigations as to
accomplices in outrage, etc.)

"The Secretary of State repeated his objections to the short time
limit, but recognized that what was said as to complicity in the
crime of Sarajevo, as well as many of our other requirements, was
justified.

"He would be quite ready to look on the affair as one which only
concerned Austria-Hungary and Serbia. He is, however, very
'apprehensive' that several great powers might be involved in a
war. Speaking of Russia, Germany, and France, he observed that
the terms of the Franco-Russian Alliance might be more or less to
the same effect as those of the Triple Alliance.

"I fully explained to him our point of view, and repeated with
emphasis that in this case we must stand firm so as to gain for
ourselves some sort of guaranties, as hitherto Serbian promises
have never been kept. I understood that in the first place he
considered the question only as it influences the position of
Europe. He must, however, in order to be fair to our point of
view, put himself in our situation.

"He would not go into any more detailed discussion on this
subject, said he must have time to study the note more carefully.
He was to see the German and the French Ambassadors, as he must
first of all exchange ideas with the powers who are allies of
Austria-Hungary and Russia respectively, but have themselves no
direct interest in Serbi